Designing and Planning
FOR the most attractive and beneficial use of your grounds, you will want to include in your plans most of the features outlined in this chapter. Such essentials as a good lawn, thriving shade trees and paths and walks are usually taken for granted, yet often they are the most difficult to acquire, and may absorb a major part of your initial effort and budget. On the other hand, such a project as an outdoor living room, with its cooking and entertaining facilities, may have been overlooked in the past because it sounded too difficult to achieve. And yet such seemingly difficult features can add tremendously to your enjoyment and may, depending on what type you choose, be obtained with relatively little effort and cost!
Draw a plan of your property in fairly large scale, about 1/4 inch to the foot. Now make a list of the things the family wants, such as a barbecue, tool house, drying yard, rock garden, fences,playhouse, badminton court, better lounging facilities. Unless you are fortunate and have spacious grounds, you probably won't be able to work everything into your program—but with Planning, you can do things gradually. You can plan your garden so that it never looks bare and yet is always roomy enough for the additions you intend to make in the future. And some projects will serve more than one function. For example, if you need a driveway and have young children, a blacktop that can be used for hopscotch and bicycle riding will serve a double purpose, and easily justify its cost. Or a fence that cuts off an unpleasant view can also act as a windbreak and a handsome background for a lounging area.
A retaining wall can double as a rock garden when planted with hardy dwarf shrubs and other rock-garden species.Generally, most grounds are divided in three ways: the public area, the area that can be seen from the street; the service area, which includes garage and parking facilities, delivery facilities, clothes-drying equipment, outside storage space and garbage disposal; and the private area, located in the rear of the house. Here is your back yard, available for games and lounging; a terrace or outdoor dining area; the children's playground and a garden with flowers, fruits, vegetables, walks and, perhaps,a pool.
In each division there are things to strive for—and to avoid. In your front, or public area, for example, plan for a minimum of care. Select flowers and shrubs that will help you present an attractive face to the passerby at all times without any undue fussing on your part, so that when you can't manage to give as much time as you would like to your grounds, the front of your house will still be presentable. In your service area, plan for off-street parking; for deliveries that can be made without intrusion on the privacy of your lawn or terrace; for a drying yard that won't be seen from the street. For your private area, use the largest part of your plot; take advantage of existing trees and the shade afforded by your house and garage for lounging spots. Have seats in pleasant corners and screen off the children's play areas from the rest of the garden
Needless to say, landscaping can be a never-ending adventure, a pastime that is as gratifying as it is beautifying, for the creation and care of flowers and trees, vines and shrubs, lawns and fences, brings luxury to the home, happiness to the family, and pleasure to all who behold the beauty of a "well-dressed" house.
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Preparing the soil for flower beds or borders requires greater care than planting a lawn. For one thing, digging must be deeper. It is not too much to dig the bed 2 feet deep, although 1 1/2 feet is suitable. It is, of course, possible to grow flowers in a shallower bed than this, but the deeper . . .
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