Landscape Gardening Tips - Lawn Surface

¶ As the surface of the ground is less easily affected by artificial means than any other material that comes under the care of the landscape gardener, it is always the best policy to select the best natural surface obtainable, with an eye to the improvements that may be made upon it by a few strokes of art.

¶ The making of artificial constructions is a very expensive and difficult enterprise, and except done in strict harmony with nature, only demonstrates the inability of man to produce happy results, when in antagonism to a power so superior. The formation of artificial hills in the midst of a natural plain or level prairie fails so much of pleasing as to appear ridiculous to a sensitive perception, because the littleness of the artificial production is rendered painfully apparent by contrast. A perfectly level surface is, of all descriptions of ground, the most difficult to deal with artistically. The most that can be done with it, at a moderate rate of expense, is to diversify it by planting trees and creating some gentle undulations artificially, which, delicately performed, may appear natural. With a building of great magnitude, a level lawn may be in excellent keeping, being, under such circumstances, expressive of grandeur heightened almost to the sublime.

¶ Aside from this, in contrast with the asperities of a mountainous country, the level expansive plain becomes a source of pleasurable contemplation unaffected by art, which is lasting as the mountains themselves. But the greater part of the surface of the United States is sufficiently diversified to render the location of residences easily susceptible of such improvements as good taste and the local character of the grounds may dictate.

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