Fig. 90. A modest and direct driveway.
Make as few walks and drives as possible. They are always unsightly and expensive. Let them lead to their destination by the most direct curves. Do not make them crooked; for crooked walks and drives are expensive. Gentle curves are more retired and modest than awkward and laborious ones. [Fig. 90] shows a good, easy curve. If possible, place the walk or drive at the side, rather than in the center: avoid cutting up the lawn.
Most of the planting should be in masses. Plants present a bolder front when standing together. A group is one thing; scattered shrubs are many things, and they divert and distract the attention. By massing, one secures endless combinations of light and shade, of color, and of form. Against the mass-planting, flowers show off best; they have a background, as a picture has when it hangs on a wall. One canna or geranium standing just in front of heavy foliage makes more show than do a dozen plants when standing in the middle of the lawn; it is more easily cared for, and it does not spoil the lawn. A flower bed in the middle of the sward spoils a lawn, as a spot soils the table-cloth. Flowers at the side, or joined to the other planting, are a part of the picture; in the middle of the lawn they are only a spot of color and mean nothing except that the grower did not know where to put them.
Fig. 91. A good house; but the home is only half built.
Take these suggestions to heart. Consider which you like the better, [Fig. 91] or [92]. Consider, also, how [Fig. 92] would look if plants were scattered all over the yard.
Fig. 92. A house and a home.
Plants are difficult to grow in little holes in the sod. The grass takes the moisture. They are always in the way. The yard in [Fig. 92] can be mown with a field mower. The bushes take care of themselves. If one dies, it matters little: others fill the gaps. If pigweeds come up amongst them, little or no harm is done. They add to the variety of foliage effect. One does not feel that he must stop his cultivating or sheep-shearing to dig them out. In the fall, the leaves blow off the open lawn and are held in the bushes; there they make an ideal mulch, and they need not be removed in the spring. In front of this shrubbery a space two or three feet wide may be left for flowers. Here sow and plant with a free hand. Have sufficient poppies and hollyhocks and pinks and lilies and petunias to supply every member of the family and every neighbor. Against the background they glow like coals or lie as soft as the snow.