File:American homes and gardens (1909) (17532187164).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar61909newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Sections showing details of construction to m a 1 n t a i n. Care has been exercised in p 1 a n t i ng the beds so that color contrasts are not jarring and so that the flowering time of the beds is well distributed over the garden. Tall plants are placed in the outside beds away from the sun- dial. The tennis court is a turf court, which, although not so good for tennis as a skin court, is better in appearance. As shown on the plan and in the illustration, the pergola is built on the arc of a circle whose
Text Appearing After Image:
Looking across the garden to the tennis court and pergola to fit the court. For a background at the the pergola a hedge of Siberian arborvitas has been planted. A screen of sunflowers shown in the illustra- tion forms this background tem- porarily, while the evergreens are small. The formal garden is symmetri- cal about the two broad paths that run at right angles to each other and center at the sun- dial. A few beds, whose sides are made by arcs of circles, carry out the idea of the de- sign centering on the sun-dial. The ground has a slight slope of about one foot to the long dimension of the garden, which has proved advantage- ous for storm water drainage. All paths are in grass. The four feet by eight feet beds are considered, after two years' experience, to be superior to the smaller ones. Keeping the edges of the beds straight in line is made easy by stretching a string across all edges on the same line. The edge of beds on arcs of circles have not been hard rear Pla radius is one hundred and five feet. At the center it is enlarged by two extra columns, forming a bay, which gives a space for chairs and tea table. The columns are built of No. 2 Colonial dark red brick on gravel concrete footings. This brick ordinarily retails for eight dollars per thousand. The joints are made of white mortar and are gouged out. This style of joint and color of mortar in con- trast with the dark brick gives a series of distinct lines to the column. The column is fin- ished off with a concrete cap molded in an oiled frame form made for the purpose. All the overhead work is No. 2 yellow pine, rough finish, stained a dark brown. The floor is made of the same brick as the columns. The total cost of the pergola was under three hundred dollars. In reviewing the work after the lapse of several years, the principal mistakes appear to be the placing of a column instead of an open space at the center of the pergola and in making the of garden, tennis court and pergola size of some of the beds too small.

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