Practical Garden Making - With Chapters on Paths and Path Making and Treillage

By George Dillistone

This book will prove of great interest to the practical gardener. Contents Include: The Plan and the Site; Clearing the Site and Setting Out; Carrying Out the Work; Paths and Path Making; Hedges; Treillage, Rustic Work and Pergolas. This book contains classic material dating back to the 1900s and before. The content has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473382824

Book preview

II—PRACTICAL GARDEN MAKING

BY GEORGE DILLISTONE, F.I.L.A.

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CHAPTER I

The Plan and the Site

From every point of view—the successful composition of the elements one with the other, cohesion in the complete scheme, economy in operations and expenditure, organization of the progress of the work—it is essential to have a preconceived programme. No wise gardener, be he amateur or professional, will commence operations without a clear and concise understanding of the ultimate achievement aimed at. This remark applies equally whether the undertaking is a few square yards or many acres in extent. The best programme for garden development is a plan with every possible incident clearly shown, correct as to scale and with all variations of levels indicated. There are so many things such a plan will tell us at a glance that might take hours to realize without it. There is much information that can be gained in a convenient way and readily appreciated which could never be grasped without it.

There are, I know, people who say that the site is the most satisfactory plan, and in a sense this is correct, but the mere preparation of a drawing of that site calls attention to many incidents and details that would otherwise be overlooked until it was too late. In garden design the conception of the scheme has to be made on the site; the actual plan is merely a record of impressions formed there, and acts as a test of possibilities, clarifies the vision, separates and at the same time unites the incidents, assists in the appreciation of difficulties and offers a method of thinking out how they may be overcome, and, in short, prevents the attempt to fit squares into circles.

All this and a hundred other useful operations the preparation of the plan can do for you. The first essential for this purpose is an accurate survey of the site under consideration and the plotting of a plan to scale, in which every existing feature that is to remain will be shown, and every variation of boundary lines, levels, physical condition of the ground, direction of prevailing winds and even distant views clearly indicated. With this as a basis, it is easy to appreciate how much of one’s desires are realizable within the area, and what will be the best division of space for the various features it is proposed to incorporate.

Apart from the question of this convenience, there are numerous other advantages, not the least being the economy of work and expenditure that can be effected by taking advantage of the information such a plan presents in a concise form. As an example of this, suppose there is an area to be devoted to playing ground, tennis, croquet, or some other operation that requires a level site; a glance at the levels indicated within the limits available will show exactly at what point the least amount of soil moving will be required, what space will be occupied by banks surrounding such level area, and whether any advantage can be gained by moving the position a little in any direction. The saving effected in this one instance might well prove sufficient to meet the cost of employing an expert to survey and plan the whole garden. The average amateur knows well enough what is wanted and is capable of broadly visualizing the results of carrying out his wishes, but generally lacks the technical appreciation of the potentialities that incidents of the site present.

The avoidance of fussy incident in the foreground helps the impression of spaciousness, which is assisted by the changes of level. This garden makes the most of a splendid outlook

The preparation of plans and garden design generally are subjects not within my province to discuss. For the purpose of the practical application of the plan to the site, it will be sufficient to assume that such a plan has been prepared. There are, however, incidents and lines of development that will occur in every plan, small or large, and these it is worth while commenting upon. In every general and comprehensive garden scheme, the house it serves, its style, position, points of outlook, ingress and egress, position of principal rooms, and to some extent even the very nature of the material of which it is built, will exercise a potent influence.

The good garden is merely the extension of the home out of doors. The good plan will provide for views from the principal windows, facile connexion of the house with its various parts, the treatment of outlook as foreground and middle distance, and link up these intermediate incidents with the distant landscape. This will be achieved by creating lines radiating from the house outwards, the beginning of which may be at the door giving access to the terrace, or the window of an important room, the ultimate end in the distant landscape. To a very great extent in practice it is along such lines the various garden incidents will fall. The greatest value of conceiving a garden development in this way, lies in the fact that it prevents the intrusion of any objectionable object between the point of view and the picture beyond. Subject to this reservation, the next object the plan should achieve is in the division of the total area into its component parts. Thus it will allot spaces for pleasure and utility gardens, playing grounds, gardens for special subjects, lawn areas, screens from wind or to obtain seclusion. These areas will be allotted commensurately with the total area available and relatively to the importance each individual portion is to bear to the whole. Thus the rose garden may be small and rock garden large, or vice versa, according to the peculiar desires of the owner, but each should be in the place that the site suggests as most suitable for it, and each portion considered in its relation to all others. So much for the plan and what it can do—now for the site.

It is easier to conceive an attractive development on a site in which the levels vary somewhat than on a level or almost level situation. For general gardening operations it is also more expensive. There are so