Manual of Gardening Part 6

The first consideration is to grade the land. Grading is very expensive, especially if performed at a season when the soil is heavy with water.

Every effort should be made, therefore, to reduce the grading to a minimum and still secure a pleasing contour. A good time to grade, if one has the time, is in the fall before the heavy rains come, and then allow the surface to settle until spring, when the finish may be made.

All filling will settle in time unless thoroughly tamped as it proceeds.

The smaller the area the more pains must be taken with the grading; but in any plat that is one hundred feet or more square, very considerable undulations may be left in the surface with excellent effect. In lawns of this size, or even half this size, it is rarely advisable to have them perfectly flat and level. They should slope gradually away from the house; and when the lawn is seventy-five feet or more in width, it may be slightly crowning with good effect. A lawn should never be hollow,--that is, lower in the center than at the borders,--and broad lawns that are perfectly flat and level often appear to be hollow. A slope of one foot in twenty or thirty is none too much for a pleasant grade in lawns of some extent.

In small places, the grading may be done by the eye, unless there are very particular conditions to meet. In large or difficult areas, it is well to have the place contoured by instruments. This is particularly desirable if the grading is to be done on contract. A basal or datum line is established, above or below which all surfaces are to be shaped at measured distances. Even in small yards, such a datum line is desirable for the best kind of work.

_The terrace._

In places in which the natural slope is very perceptible, there is a tendency to terrace the lawn for the purpose of making the various parts or sections of it more or less level and plane. In nearly all cases, however, a terrace in a main lawn is objectionable. It cuts the lawn into two or more portions, and thereby makes it look smaller and spoils the effect of the picture. A terrace always obtrudes a hard and rigid line, and fastens the attention upon itself rather than upon the landscape. Terraces are also expensive to make and to keep in order; and a shabby terrace is always distracting.

When formal effects are desired, their success depends, however, very largely on the rigidity of the lines and the care with which they are maintained. If a terrace is necessary, it should be in the form of a retaining wall next the street, or else it should lie next the building, giving as broad and continuous a lawn as possible. It should be remembered, however, that a terrace next a building should not be a part of the landscape, but a part of the architecture; that is, it should serve as a base to the building. It will at once be seen, therefore, that terraces are most in place against those buildings that have strong horizontal lines, and they are little suitable against buildings with very broken lines and mixed or gothic features. In order to join the terrace to the building, it is usually advisable to place some architectural feature upon its crown, as a bal.u.s.trade, and to ascend it by means of architectural steps. The terrace elevation, therefore, becomes a part of the base of the building, and the top of it is an esplanade.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 59. A terrace in the distance; in the foreground an ideal "running out" of the bank.]

A simple and gradually sloping bank can nearly always be made to take the place of a terrace. For example, let the operator make a terrace, with sharp angles above and below, in the fall of the year; in the spring, he will find (if he has not sodded it heavily) that nature has taken the matter in hand and the upper angle of the terrace has been washed away and deposited in the lower angle, and the result is the beginning of a good series of curves. Figure 59 shows an ideal slope, with its double curve, comprising a convex curve on the top of the bank, and a concave curve at the lower part. This is a slope that would ordinarily be terraced, but in its present condition it is a part of the landscape picture. It may be mown as readily as any other part of the lawn, and it takes care of itself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 60. Treatment of a sloping lawn.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 61. Treatment of a very steep bank.]

The diagrams in Fig. 60 indicate poor and good treatment of a lawn. The terraces are not needed in this case; or if they are, they should never be made as at 1. The same dip could be taken up in a single curved bank, as at 3, but the better way, in general, is to give the treatment shown in 2. Figure 61 shows how a very high terrace, 4, can be supplaced by a sloping bank 5. Figure 62 shows a terrace that falls away too suddenly from the house.

_The bounding lines._

In grading to the borders of the place, it is not always necessary, nor even desirable, that a continuous contour should be maintained, especially if the border is higher or lower than the lawn. A somewhat irregular line of grade will appear to be most natural, and lend itself best to effective planting. This is specially true in the grade to watercourses, which, as a rule, should be more or less devious or winding; and the adjacent land should, therefore, present various heights and contours. It is not always necessary, however, to make distinct banks along water-courses, particularly if the place is small and the natural lay of the land is more or less plane or flat. A very slight depression, as shown in Fig. 63, may answer all the purposes of a water grade in such places.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 62. A terrace or slope that falls too suddenly away from a building. There should be a level place or esplanade next the building, if possible.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 63. Shaping the land down to a water-course.]

If it is desirable that the lawn be as large and s.p.a.cious as possible, then the boundary of it should be removed. Take away the fences, curbing, and other right lines. In rural places, a sunken fence may sometimes be placed athwart the lawn at its farther edge for the purpose of keeping cattle off the place, and thereby bring in the adjacent landscape. Figure 64 suggests how this may be done. The depression near the foot of the lawn, which is really a ditch and scarcely visible from the upper part of the place because of the slight elevation on its inner rim, answers all the purposes of a fence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 64. A sunken fence athwart a foreground.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 65. Protecting a tree in filled land.]

Nearly all trees are injured if the dirt is filled about the base to the depth of a foot or more. The natural base of the plant should be exposed so far as possible, not only for protection of the tree, but because the base of a tree trunk is one of its most distinctive features. Oaks, maples, and in fact most trees will lose their bark near the crown if the dirt is piled against them; and this is especially true if the water tends to settle about the trunks. Figure 65 shows how this difficulty may be obviated. A well is stoned up, allowing a s.p.a.ce of a foot or two on all sides, and tile drains are laid about the base of the well, as shown in the diagram at the right. A grating to cover a well is also shown. It is often possible to make a sloping bank just above the tree, and to allow the ground to fall away from the roots on the lower side, so that there is no well or hole; but this is practicable only when the land below, the tree is considerably lower than that above it.

If much of the surface is to be removed, the good top earth should be saved, and placed back on the area, in which to sow the gra.s.s seed and to make the plantings. This top soil may be piled at one side out of the way while the grading is proceeding.

_Walks and drives._

So far as the picture in the landscape is concerned, walks and drives are blemishes. Since they are necessary, however, they must form a part of the landscape design. They should be as few as possible, not only because they interfere with the artistic composition, but also because they are expensive to make and to maintain.

Most places have too many, rather than too few, walks and drives. Small city areas rarely need a driveway entrance, not even to the back door.

The back yard in Fig. 39 ill.u.s.trates this point. The distance from the house to the street on the back is about ninety feet, yet there is no driveway in the place. The coal and provisions are carried in; and, although the deliverymen may complain at first, they very soon accept the inevitable. It is not worth the while to maintain a drive in such a place for the convenience of truckmen and grocers. Neither is it often necessary to have a drive in the front yard if the house is within seventy-five or one hundred feet of the street. When a drive is necessary, it should enter, if possible, at the side of the residence, and not make a circle in the front lawn. This remark may not apply to areas of a half acre or more.

The drives and walks should be direct. They should go where they appear to go, and should be practically the shortest distances between the points to be reached. Figure 66 ill.u.s.trates some of the problems connected with walks to the front door. A common type of walk is _a,_ and it is a nuisance. The time that one loses in going around the cameo-set in the center would be sufficient, if conserved, to lengthen a man's life by several months or a year. Such a device has no merit in art or convenience. Walk _b_ is better, but still is not ideal, inasmuch as it makes too much of a right-angled curve, and the pedestrian desires to cut across the corner. Such a walk, also, usually extends too far beyond the corner of the house to make it appear to be direct. It has the merit, however, of leaving the center of the lawn practically untouched. The curve in walk _d_ is ordinarily unnecessary unless the ground is rolling. In small places, like this, it is better to have a straight walk directly from the sidewalk to the house. In fact, this is true in nearly all cases in which the lawn is not more than forty to seventy-five feet deep. Plan _c_ is also inexcusable. A straight walk would answer every purpose better. Any walk that pa.s.ses the house, and returns to it, _e,_ is inexcusable unless it is necessary to make a very steep ascent. If most of the traveling is in one direction from the house, a walk like _f_ may be the most direct and efficient. It is known as a direct curve, and is a compound of a concave and a convex curve.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 66. Forms of front walks.]

It is essential that any service walk or drive, however long, should be continuous in direction and design from end to end. Figure 67 ill.u.s.trates a long drive that contradicts this principle.

It is a series of meaningless curves. The reason for these curves is the fact that the drive was extended from time to time as new houses were added to the villa. The reader will easily perceive how all the kinks might be taken out of this drive and one direct and bold curve be subst.i.tuted.

The question of drainage, curbing, and gutters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 67. A patched-up drive, showing meaningless crooks.]

Thorough drainage, natural or artificial, is essential to hard and permanent walks and drives. This point is too often neglected. On the draining and grading of residence streets a well-known landscape gardener, O.C. Simonds, writes as follows in "Park and Cemetery ":

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 68. Treatment of walk and drive in a suburban region. There are no curbs.]

"The surface drainage is something that interests us whenever it rains or when the snow melts. It has been customary to locate catch-basins for receiving the surface water at street intersections. This arrangement causes most of the surface water from both streets to run past the crossings, making it necessary to depress the pavement, so that one must step down and up in going from one side of a street to the other, or else a pa.s.sageway for the water must be made through the crossing. It may be said that a step down to the pavement and up again to the sidewalk at the street intersections is of no consequence, but it is really more elegant and satisfactory to have the walk practically continuous (Fig. 68). With the catch-basin at the corner, the stoppage of the inlet, or a great fall of rain, sometimes covers the crossing with water, so one must either wade or go out of his way. With catch-basins placed in the center of the blocks, or, if the blocks are long, at some distance from the crossing, the intersections can be kept relatively high and dry. Roadways are generally made crowning in the center so that water runs to the sides, but frequently the fall lengthwise of the roadway is less than it should be. City engineers are usually inclined to make the grade along the length of a street as nearly level as possible. Authorities who have given the subject of roads considerable study recommend a fall lengthwise of not less than one foot in one hundred and twenty-five, nor more than six feet in one hundred. Such grades are not always feasible, but a certain amount of variation in level can usually be made in a residence street which will make it much more pleasing in appearance, and have certain practical advantages in keeping the street dry. The water is usually confined to the edge of the pavement by curbing, which may rise anywhere from four to fourteen inches above the surface. This causes all the water falling on the roadway to seek the catch-basin and be wasted, excepting for its use in flus.h.i.+ng the sewer. If the curbing, which is really unnecessary in most cases, were omitted, much of the surface water would soak into the ground between the sidewalk and the pavement, doing much good to trees, shrubs, and gra.s.s. The roots of the trees naturally extend as far, or farther, than their branches, and for their good the ground under the pavement and sidewalk should be supplied with a certain amount of moisture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VI. A tree that gives character to a place.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 69. A common form of edge for walk or drive.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 70. A better form.]

"The arrangement made for the removal of surface water from the street must also take care of the surplus water from adjacent lots, so there is a practical advantage in having the level of the street lower than that of the ground adjoining. The appearance of houses and home grounds is also much better when they are higher than the street, and for this reason it is usually desirable to keep the latter as low as possible and give the underground pipes sufficient covering to protect them from frost. Where the ground is high and the sewers very deep, the grades should, of course, be determined with reference to surface conditions only. It sometimes happens that this general arrangement of the grades of home grounds, which is desirable on most accounts, causes water from melting snow to flow over the sidewalk in the winter time, where it may freeze and be dangerous to pedestrians. A slight depression of the lot away from the sidewalk and then an ascent toward the house would usually remedy this difficulty, and also make the house appear higher.

Sometimes, however, a pipe should be placed underneath the sidewalk to allow water to reach the street from inside of the lot line. The aim in surface drainage should always be to keep the traveled portions of the street in the most perfect condition for use. The quick removal of surplus water from sidewalks, crossings, and roadways will help insure this result."

These remarks concerning the curbings and hard edges of city streets may also be applied to walks and drives in small grounds. Figure 69, for example, shows the common method of treating the edge of a walk, by making a sharp and sheer elevation. This edge needs constant tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, else it becomes unshapely; and this tr.i.m.m.i.n.g tends to widen the walk.

For general purposes, a border, like that shown in Fig. 70, is better.

The sod rolls over until it meets the walk, and the lawn-mower is able to keep it in condition. If it becomes more or less rough and irregular, it is pounded down.

If it is thought necessary to trim the edges of walks and drives, then one of the various kinds of sod-cutters that are sold by dealers may be used for the purpose, or an old hoe may have its shank straightened and the corners of the blade rounded off, as shown in Fig. 71, and this will answer all purposes of the common sod-cutter; or, a sharp, straight-edged spade may sometimes be used. The loose overhanging gra.s.s on these edges is ordinarily cut by large shears made for the purpose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 71. Sod cutter.]

Walks and drives should be laid in such direction that they will tend to drain themselves; but if it is necessary to have gutters, these should be deep and sharp at the bottom, for the water then draws together and tends to keep the gutter clean. A shallow and rounded brick or cobble gutter does not clean itself; it is very likely to fill with weeds, and vehicles often drive in it. The best gutters and curbs are now made of cement. Figure 72 shows a catch basin at the left of a walk or drive, and the tile laid underneath for the purpose of carrying away the surface water.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 72. Draining the gutter and the drive.]

The materials.

The best materials for the main walks are cement and stone flagging. In many soils, however, there is enough binding material in the land to make a good walk without the addition of any other material. Gravel, cinders, ashes, and the like, are nearly always inadvisable, for they are liable to be loose in dry weather and sticky in wet weather. In the laying of cement it is important that the walk be well drained by a layer of a foot or two of broken stone or brickbats, unless the walk is on loose and leachy land or in a frostless country.

In back yards it is often best not to have any well-defined walk. A ramble across the sod may be as good. For a back walk, over which delivery men are to travel, one of the very best means is to sink a foot-wide plank into the earth on a level with the surface of the sod; and it is not necessary that the walk be perfectly straight. These walks do not interfere with the work of the lawn-mower, and they take care of themselves. When the plank rots, at the expiration of five to ten years, the plank is taken up and another one dropped in its place. This ordinarily makes the best kind of a walk alongside a rear border. (Plate XI.) In gardens, nothing is better for a walk than tanbark.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 73. Planting alongside a walk.]

The sides of walks and drives may often be planted with shrubbery. It is not necessary that they always have prim and definite borders. Figure 73 ill.u.s.trates a bank of foliage which breaks up the hard line of a walk, and serves also as a border for the growing of flowers and interesting specimens. This walk is also characterized by the absence of high and hard borders. Figure 68 ill.u.s.trates this fact, and also shows how the parking between the walk and the street may be effectively planted.

_Making the borders._