Woodland and fragrant GardensIN AMERICA, where woodlands have always been too common an occurrence to cause comment, people have neglected to develop their landscape possibilities as often as they might. Where woods happen to exist on a place they are usually left just as they are, and the potentialities inherent in them for greater scenic beauty in fragrant gardens are seldom realized. Is not something of great value being missed by this continued indifference? Perhaps one reason why most home owners have not made more of their opportunities along these lines is that they do not know just what to do, and so hesitate to tamper with natural conditions for fear they may destroy them entirely. Even if this is the case, the woods are there and it is up to you to understand and interpret them in terms of landscape gardening. Many suburban developments are set in lovely wooded places, and even the owner of a modest site has an opportunity to make his home more attractive by proper attention to its woodland surroundings. The small fragrant garden can, by careful thought, be made a place of sylvan charm. In dealing with woodland as a part of the landscape picture you usually have one of two conditions to work with. You may have a situation where a part of the property, an acre or more, is entirely wooded; or you may have, in the case of the small sylvan development, a situation where the house is located in a grove or coppice which occupies most, or all, of the plot. We will discuss the former condition first. It can be laid down as a pretty general principle that the woodland you contemplate developing is in bad condition. This seems to be true in all parts of the country where the character of the community has changed from that of a rural or farming population to that of estates, suburban residences, or summer homes. Whenever the intensive
use of the land has been abandoned, the
fragrant garden has also fallen into decay. Now what
is the best method of developing it to make it
a thing of use and beauty? The first step, of
course, is to protect the woods from its enemies.
Among these, blundering human beings, fire,
and insects are the worst. back
to garden planning |
|||
|
