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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1915)
5 Planning for the Home Garden 1T0ME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION BY W. G. HCMMELL, University of California. THK nature of our borne sur roundings plays a vastly greater part In our daily welfare than most of us realize or appreciate. The immediate home surroundings are unconsciously considered as part and parcel of the home, and the nature and character of the people living there will often be Judged by what la seen outside of the house. This beautifying of the home sur roundings is also worth considering from the standpoint of keeping up the interest of the boys and girls in the home. Neat and attractive home surroundings of which a boy or girl may be justly proud will be a pow erful factor in the developmtnt of a contented and, happy life. The ques tion, why the boy leaves the farm, might often be answered by pointing to the slovenly and untidy home sur roundings'. From the mere standpoint of dol lars and cents the home surround ings become important. Nothing will add more to the value of tho entire property than neat, well-planted aud well-cared-for home grounds. Every one would rather live in a home of this kind and in a community of such homes. One of the first requisites in beau tifying home surroundings is neat ness. Rubbish should be removed; balf-deud and dying shrubs and trees should be pruned or removed en tirely. Fences and outbuildings should be straightened up, repaired and painted; gates hung and swung properly. In other words, a pre vailing appearance of "a place for everything and everything in its place" should be established and maintained. It will take a lot of planting to hide a lack of this es sential feature. Another factor to be constantly kept in mind is the extent of the grounds. In the city and suburban place this is largely determined by factors beyond our control, but in the country the question must be de termined for every home. Not Too Large. It is to be remembered that some time is necessary properly to care for grounds and with this in mind the busy farmer should not make the home grounds so large that thoy can not be properly cared for. On the other hand, the grounds should not be so small as to be out of all pro portion to their surroundings. The wide spaces and distances in the Country should be maintained to reasonable extent in the home grounds. A certain sense of propor tion, together with good judgment, should solve this problem. The farmhouse should be com parativeiy remote irom tue road, so that the noise and dust of passing traffic will be avoided, and a de sired privacy secured. This distance should be at least three times the height of the house and usually more. The width of the grounds will de pend much upon the character of the house. Usually the space in front Of the liudse should be nearly, if not quite, as wide as it is deep. In the building of new houses these re quirements may be met, and the es tablished homes not so ideally lo cated may be greatly Improved by a little well-directed tbpught and la bor, "Natural" Stylo. The "natural" style of landscape gardening is unquestionably the fa vorite one in this country. Any other would be entirely out of place under ordinary country aud suburban conditions, especially where the cost of construction and maintenance muBt be considered. This means . that the necessary walks, drives, fences, etc., should be laid out in as natural a way as their usefulness will permit. The planting should then be grouped in masses along the borders and in the angles in such a way as to give a natural appearance to the grounds as a whole. As a matter of fact, when a house Is built, a walk or drive laid out, or a fence built, naturalness is lost to a certain extent, but by thoughtful planning, artificiality of construction may be greatly lessened and to this extent naturalness be maintained. Natural lines are always curved lines. Straight lines are unnatural. Nevertheless, home grounds exist for some utilitarian purpose and many unnatural features must be intro duced and in many cases the natural ness of the curved lines must be abandoned for the usefulness of the straight. Walks and drives shoutd lead somewhere and should be gently eurved when possible, but there should always be some real or ap parent reason for the curves. Lawns. Open lawns are always the founda tion oi any natural landscape scene, large or small. The lawn should comprise three-fourths or more of all the available space and always the interior or central portions. The planting of trees and shrubs should in a general way be confined to the boundaries. The buildings, walks, drives and all necessary features more or less artificial in their nature should If possible be to one side of the grounds. Fences. Fences are necessary evils. The Straight line effects should be broken up and the fence itself planted out as quickly as possible. No orna mental fence, however expensive, ever added anything to the beauty of a natural landscape. Hedges of hardy plants, both clipped and nat ural, are always good and may be made to cover and hide the real bar riers behind, where such is neces sary to protect from intrusion either by man or livestock. A strong and well-built iron or wire fence or one made of stone or brick can also be made effective If immediately covered with some of the hardy climbing plants. In any case, the straight line effect of the fence should be broken by groups and clumps of shrubbery along its course. It should be remembered that In the country at least it is not always necessary to make the fence straight. Trees. Under country conditions trees de serve especial consideration and should be freely used not only in the immediate home surroundings, but also in the outlylng'portions of the farm. A farmyard without some large trees is very unsatisfactory, Trees should nearly always be grouped together because they grow that way in nature. At any rate, they never grow in rows. Single specimens will give splendid results in some exceptional cases where shade Is especially desired. Trees should never be planted so densely and so close tu the house as to pre vent a tree circulation of the air and the ingress of sunlight to practically all portions of the house for short periods during the day. Shrubs. Shrubs will form the principal part of most landscape planting. They are seldom used too much and are very frequently neglected. These plants are necessary to the develop ment of the natural effects so much desired. Nature always fills in the borders with shrubs and low-growing trees. A judicious arrangement of shrub bery will do more to obliterate un pleasant and unnatural features than any amount of other material or other work., They may be used in comparative profusion and variety because they require so much less room than trees. A building with its rectangular lines rising 'abruptly out of the lawn gives a distinct note of unnatural ness, better remedied by a liberal use of shrubs than any other way Shrubs irregularly grouped along the walls and at the angles will bring iu close harmony the building and grounds. In securing these results the climb ers, clinging to the walls or twining about tlfe pillars of the porches, be coming almost a part of the house, become most effective aids to the shrubs. In this connection it should be said that the hardy climbers will frequently be of great usefulness in the outlying borders as well as upon the house. Flowers. Flowers of some kind are desired by every one and a great variety can be effectively used in any plantiug. Too many and too varied colors should be avoided, however, as the effects will be "loud" and "gaudy." A beautiful gown Is rarely ever made more beautiful by the addition ot many colored bows and ribbons. The annual flowering plants are rarely useful or desirable in the or dinary front yard. In kite first place, they rarely receive the care necessary for the best results, and nenrry ai wavs become incongruous in the general scheme. If especially desired, they should be confined to tne sines or borders. Such plants are usually grown for the blossoms rather thau for any thing they contribute to the general effect, and this end is generally bet ter served If they are confined to the kitchen garden or some area by them- r MOTOR OSS The Ideal Family Car Mr. and Mrs. W. H. DaugliUey in their new Buick No. 37. Mr. Daughtrey is president of the Portland Union Stockyards. Howard Auto Co. MEL G. JOHNSON, Manager Phones: Main 4355, A 2550 14th and Davis Sts. 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