Charles Thonger

“ A degree of wildness is quite in keeping with certain parts of the garden, though an ill-kept, weed-grown path is never permissible. The walks which traverse the wild garden, orchard and woodland, will destroy much of the charm of these sylvan retreats [33] if they betray signs of too constant attention—their surface smooth, the grass edges rigorously trimmed, and evidences of the line, shears and roller everywhere apparent. A prim pathway would be a sad eyesore on the ragged face of the hillside, the mountain track equally ridiculous winding among shaven lawns and glowing flower-beds. ”

“ Imagine the wantonness of cutting down a beautiful tree, because our plan says that a path ought to run where it now stands; or what possible excuse can there be for ruining a stretch of fine turf with beds cut in the form of circles, lozenges and triangles. The moral of all this is plain. Each garden must be treated, as regards its laying out, simply and solely on its own merits and possibilities. It matters not whether we are dealing with a humble quarter acre attached to the modern villa, or have in hand the broad surroundings of the country mansion. ”

“ The majority of evergreens are greedy feeders, and their hungry roots travel in all directions, impoverishing the soil in the beds and borders, which, owing to lack of space, have to be formed in their near vicinity. The prejudice which exists against deciduous trees is in reality quite unfounded, as anyone must realise who has taken the trouble to examine the structural beauty of trees which shed their leaves. The exquisite tints of autumn, the gradual revealing of hidden beauties in bark and stem as the summer mantle is discarded, are sights we look for in vain in evergreens. ”

“ A foolish prejudice has of recent years been raised against the kitchen-garden, and the designer is often asked to hide it away in some remote corner of the plan. It must be carefully screened away from the gaze of visitors, as though there were something to be ashamed of in being the possessor of a piece of ground, where the best of fruits may be grown, and gathered in the freshest condition. Personally I would rather wander in such plebeian quarters than in many of the tricked-out landscape gardens which excite such wonderment and admiration. ”

“ HARDY CLIMBERS It would be impossible to over-estimate the value of the various climbing plants to the designer; without them our gardens would lose half their beauty and charm. This much we owe to them, that without their graceful presence many beautiful garden houses, outbuildings and walls, would be intolerable eyesores. But for our climbing roses, clematis, honeysuckle, and fragrant jasmine, there would be no possibility of shady pergolas, flower-clad archways, and welcome arbour. ”

“ This class of garden maker is by no means extinct to-day, and with paper, drawing appliances, and a few books of plans for guidance, is able to turn out sketches which, to the uninitiated, seem to suggest unlimited acquaintance with the subject. But transfer these designs to the ground, lay out the paths and beds as he suggests, plant trees and raise mounds, dig watercourses and build rockeries to satisfy his caprice, and what do we find? Our garden is a wretched affair, a thoughtless jumble of half-matured ideas, a desecration of common-sense and good taste. ”

“ From each of these all suggestion of design is absent; a mightier hand than ours has planted their groves, watered their fertile valleys, and strewn the meadows and hedgerows with flowers. To these favoured spots of earth, those at any rate which are left us, the garden designer must cast his eye, as he sets out to learn the rudiments of his craft. ”

“ As a recent garden artist has declared, the lawn is the heart of the British garden. It is the centre of the social life which, in our too brief summer, is enacted out [35] of doors; it is the setting for the host of beautiful flowers and shrubs which come to gladden our hearts as the warm sun dispels the snows and mists of winter. That style of design must be accounted best which spares no pains to give a fair spreading lawn to every garden, no matter what its size. ”

“ The old grass land orchard, filled with picturesque standard trees, is capable of being made a wild garden of true beauty. In early spring we may have troops of golden daffodils and silvery narcissi, making vistas of colour among the lines of grey trunks. Ropes of purple and white clematis may festoon the trees, and some of the semi-wild roses, with their rich foliage and single flowers will fill the hedges and ramble over the banks. ”

“ Above all the reflected beauty of flower and branch, of cloud and summer sky, are never failing sources of attraction, bringing home to the most jaded mind some of the fairest and most subtle charms of the great world of Nature. ”

“ Undue complexity is as a rule totally out of place in the garden, for the reason that it bewilders the visitor as to the aims and intentions of the designer. Such gardens give one the impression that they were designed piecemeal, each time with no thought for what had been attempted before. Simplicity does not necessarily mean formality, it is rather the expression of a set of ideas in a straightforward, common-sense manner. We cannot have simplicity when we fill our gardens with patchwork flower beds, destroying the beautiful surface of a lawn to make them ”

“ The most important work has yet to come. The filling in of the colours, the harmonising of the various shades, and the final touches which proclaim the good or bad workman, are points over which the novice is likely to stumble. A faulty, ill-balanced plan will to a certain extent ruin the appearance of our garden for all time; but Nature is kind, and the flowers which spring luxuriantly from the earth will by degrees help to hide many crudities. ”

“ Of course no one can determine the exact effect which time will produce, and it is well we cannot, for perhaps the greatest charm of garden design is its delightful elusiveness, the uncertainty which exists as to the manner in which flower and tree will disport itself. But unless we attempt to see further than the mere outlines of the plan, we are trusting to chance to secure for us the results we most desire. Especially are we liable to err in the matter of colour effect, a consideration which is outside the scope of the black and white plan. ”

“ In the wild gardens of Nature we find that climbers choose for their support living trees and shrubs, and who will gainsay the charm of the hedgerow wreathed in honeysuckle, or of the beauty of the wild rose which has scrambled by chance amid the branches of some forest tree. How seldom we afford the cultivated climbers this form of support. On the stronger growing trees we may have the snowy clematis montana, flinging its blossom-clad trails from branch to branch ”

“ If people must have topiary gardens, such as exist at Levens and Elvaston, by all means let them; but, at the same time, they should not fail to realise that these are gardens of deformity, mere curiosities in no way connected with the teachings of Nature. Yew hedges are the great delight of the “office designer,” whose thought is less for the true beauty of the living plant than for the elegant completeness of his deftly-drawn plan. ”

“ We all know with what eagerness the Bank-holiday crowd approaches counterfeit ruins, trees which squirt water from their branches, or figures of men and animals cut out of living box and yew, but such follies are beneath the consideration of the true garden lover. ”

“ Their merit consists in the fact that they form an admirable shelter, certainly the best obtainable after walls and fences, and a certain old-world air of picturesque dignity which they impart. Despite this, their use is constantly overdone; they are planted to distraction, dividing the garden into chess-board squares and alleys leading nowhere; they render the soil sour and cold, exclude sunlight, and sooner or later wear an appearance of gloomy desolation, especially in the cheerless days of winter and late autumn. ”

“ FORMAL AND LANDSCAPE PLANTING A certain sense of responsibility attaches to those who plant timber, quite out of proportion to that incurred in the pursuit of the minor and more transitory forms of garden arrangement and design. The builder oak, the vine-prop elm and sailing pine, which to-day are so small that we can carry them unaided, will develop into mighty trees, silent witnesses of the times and doings of generations yet unborn. ”

“ Individuals must necessarily have their peculiarities, and it is right they should: we recognise the same qualities, perhaps some trick of light and shade, in a score of totally different subjects painted by a great artist. But there is no excuse for the designer who, having laid out one garden to his satisfaction, immediately proceeds to imitate his previous effort in a dozen different places. Because a terrace happens to look well in a hillside garden, there is no reason for supposing that its inclusion is desirable in one situated on the level. ”

“ If more room is needed, a few bold masses of herbaceous plants near the edge of the lawn will probably give the best results. There is no defence for the barbarous practice of dotting the grass with flower-beds, cut in a variety of ill-considered shapes, neither should clumps of shrubs be placed so that they destroy all sense of perspective. The softly undulating meadow lands of the English landscape, with their rich fringe of native woodland, will teach the designer much of the beauty and value of the garden lawn ”

“ HARDY HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS As the glowing colours to a beautiful picture, so are the flowers to our gardens. In many books written on garden design, we find no mention whatever of the best kinds of plants, wherewith to fill the beds and borders when they are made. Surely this is a mistake, for our object in making a garden is to provide a home for flowers and trees. ”

“ There is all the difference between the garden perched high on the bleak hillside, where cutting winds play havoc with its contents, and that situated midway down an easy slope, above the line of mist and fog. Providing that the aspect is sunny, and the soil well-drained, such a situation is far warmer and healthier than the apparently more sheltered site lower down. The designer, too, will find his work easier in the former case than in the latter. Privacy is seldom attainable in low-lying gardens; they are generally overlooked, either by neighbours or by pedestrians on the public highway. ”

“ A fair width is advisable, but care must be taken that the house itself is not dwarfed by an undue expanse of terracing. If different levels are attempted, steps should be employed to give access from one to the other; a sloping path is quite out of place in a terrace scheme. I do not care for the practice of working in different coloured materials to form a mosaic; there should be sufficient variety, both of colour and form, in the living contents of the garden, without having to face the necessity for embellishments in stone and brick. ”

“ It is rare, indeed, to find two persons, each about to build a residence and lay out a garden, whose ideas as to the most desirable site for the purpose are in any way concurrent. One prefers an elevated situation from which a good view of the surrounding country may be obtained; the other dislikes the labour of climbing, and must perforce live in the valley. The proximity of other buildings, giving a sense of companionship and security, is essential to some; others, again, seek no better society than that of the woods and silent heath. ”

“ Unrelieved stretches of turf become monotonous unless afforded the foil of suitable foliage; broad masses of bright hued flowers demand the sober relief of grey stonework or silvery leaved trees and plants. A certain spot is often dull and unsatisfying, simply because it lacks this element of colour; a group of flowering shrubs with bright hued blossoms or even a stone vase filled with climbers may dispel all idea of monotony. In the securing of suitable contrasts, work may be raised above the merely mediocre, to a level of high artistic merit. ”

“ The designer’s first thought when he approaches a site on which there is a stream or pond, must be to choose between two alternatives: either the water shall be left much as it is, and the garden planned in harmony with its unadorned simplicity, or the grounds be designed first, and the stream entirely altered in consequence. Needless to say, the latter step is by far the more expensive.
The “landscape gardener” who has pronounced leanings towards architecture, will treat our streamlet with scant courtesy. ”

“ KITCHEN-GARDEN AND ORCHARD Hitherto we have mainly considered that part of garden design which has for its object the production of pleasant scenes, of pictures formed by gay flowers, and beauteous carpets and backgrounds of greenery. But utilitarian ends have yet to be served, and fruits and vegetables must be grown to supply our needs. There need be nothing dull or prosaic about the kitchen-garden and orchard, distinct though they be from that which is purely ornamental. ”

“ All things considered, a light, free-working loam, resting on a substratum of a gravelly nature, is probably best adapted to secure greatest comfort to the occupier, and health and prolificacy to all forms of vegetable life. Drainage cannot be entirely depended upon to remedy soils of a cold, heavy nature, and to all whose intention it is to devote their energies largely to the delights of garden making, my advice is to shun clay lands by every means in their power. ”

“ The garden paths should most certainly follow the varied levels of the ground, and nothing can be worse than to attempt to fill up the hollows and shave off the gentle elevations in order to produce a dead level. This is the very way to engender the monotony, which we are trying to dispel. A wild mountain path, or the track through some woodland glade, never lacks variety, simply because the feet that made it followed the line of easiest gradient. ”

“ The tall spire of a poplar will give variety and point to a plantation composed almost entirely of trees with rounded heads; a graceful birch with its feathery outline would break the level of a smooth belt of shrubs. Colour too is all important, a judicious mixture of evergreen and deciduous trees is generally preferable to a plantation composed entirely of one class. There is no need to make the boundary plantation straight on the inner side, whatever may be required on the outer, and the formation of well marked swells and bays will lend an air of charm and indefiniteness. ”

“ The orchard is the glory of many of our old country gardens, providing scenes of beauty which not even the choicest artificial planning and arrangement can compass. The orchard beautiful is perfectly distinct from the orchard utilitarian, though owing to neglect and the consequent assertion of Nature’s ways, the former often takes the place of the latter. Shelter is perhaps the most important consideration where fruit-trees are concerned, and as in the orchard this will not be attained by walls, thick belts of evergreen and deciduous trees should be planted on the more exposed sides. ”