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If a landscape is a picture, it must have a
canvas. This canvas is
the lawn. Upon the lawn, the artist paints with tree and
bush and
flower as the painter does upon his canvas with brush and
pigments.
The opportunity for artistic composition and
design is nowhere so
great as in the landscape garden, because no other art has
such a
limitless field for the expression of its emotions.
The making of a good and spacious lawn,
then, is the very first
practical consideration in a landscape. The lawn provided,
the
gardener conceives what is the dominant and central feature
in
the place, and then throws the entire premises into
subordination
to this feature. In home grounds this central feature is the
house.
To scatter trees and bushes over the area
defeats the fundamental
purpose of the place,--the purpose to make every part of the
grounds lead up to the home and to accentuate its
home likeness.
It is desirable to have a definite plan on paper for the
location of
the leading features of the place. These features are the
residence,
the out buildings, the walks and drives, the service areas,
the border planting, flower-garden, and vegetable-garden. It
should not be expected that the map plan can be followed in
every detail, but it will serve as a general guide.
To begin, you will need to draw a base
plan
to scale. For most
properties a scale of 1/8"=1' is workable; for small
properties or a
particular area of a larger development 1/4"=1' may be
better.
Graph paper with lines indicating a particular scale may
also be
helpful.
You should include all the major features of
your property on your
drawing such as existing walks, terraces, outbuildings,
trees,
shrubs, drives, property lines, easements, utilities, etc.
After you have prepared the base plan you can place tracing
paper or tissue paper over the original plan to sketch
possible
ideas and solutions to your landscape needs and problems.
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