File:American homes and gardens (1910) (17532662474).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar71910newy (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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June, 1910 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS
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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS' GARDEN COMPE- TITION FOR 1910 DURING the past twenty years, in traveling through- out the country, the Editor has had an opportunity to observe the rapid progress which has been made in the embellishment of the home grounds and the garden about the house. Twenty years ago the average house owner who had a small place in the suburbs or in the country, and had but a limited amount of money to spend upon it, would be planning how to build a bay-window on the parlor, or how to add a porch to the front or side of the dwelling, as the case might be. As a rule, the money was spent in this direc- tion without any material addition to the artistic value of the house, the alteration frequently being a detriment. To-day the bias toward the house has changed, for the housewife with a workman to assist can be found during the warm days of early spring, building flower beds and plant- ing trees here and shrubs there, as the fancy may dictate, thereby not only creating a picture frame for the house, but adding a value to it that cannot be possibly obtained for anything like the amount of money invested in any other way. It may be fair to say that the progress which has been made in the beautifying of the home grounds in the past two decades is largely due to the force and amount of criti- cism that has been brought to bear by magazines of the class of American Homes and Gx'^rdens, and which literature has been the means of substantially checking the rivalry be- tween the house and the garden, until each has been recog- nized as equally necessary in the maintenance of the equi- poise and balance of improved suburban property, small or expensive, modestly or pretentiously treated. An all-around look over the horizon of gardens through- out the country shows that an effort to obtain a better de- velopment of the house plot has been stimulated by the prize garden competition which closed September 15, 1909, and formed the subject of a series of interesting and instructive articles appearing in our columns during the past few months. The last to be published is presented in the current issue. At its conclusion the donors are so much impressed with the wide interest manifested by our readers in the series, that they have decided to institute another gar- den competition for 1910 and to offer a prize of $100 for the four best planned and developed suburban and village gardens. The specific scope of this competition is the prep- aration of articles on "The Planning and Developing of Suburban and Village Gardens," accompanied by sketches, diagrams and photographs; the sole object is to further a love for gardening in America, particularly in suburbs and villages. We want our readers to help us so that we can assist others to beautify their surroundings. There are many people who would like to improve their garden con- ditions, but are unable to do so from the lack of knowledge, and this is the reason that we want your co-operation and your assistance. It makes no difference whether your gar- den be naturalesque or formal, English, Japanese, French or Italian, a rock garden or a rose garden, it will be judged solely on its merit as the successful presentation of a par- ticular arrangement of results. If you have an attractive garden, send in one or more photographs with a plan or a description of It. In these days almost everyone has a small camera and if you have one, take some photographs of your garden from time to time during the summer, showing the progress of the various plants and their gradual development. If you have no camera borrow one from a friend and make the pictures. Make a rough sketch of the garcien, showing the position of the plants and their relative arrangement to each other. Tell the story of the garden's success in your own way. Where it is found difl'icult, even by one who has the gar- den habit, to present in the text the full floral beauty of design and reach of culture displayed in his acre or anv part of it, he has the art of photography to render outline, tone and body nearly as well as it would be perceived if one were upon the spot. So the literary value of the written description or the technical perfection of the plans or photo- graphs will help you only so far as a good presentation of the garden helps the judges to understand the problem and its solution. The Editor when traveling through England some few years since took particular notice of the manner in which the garden was developed in small villages throughout that country, and he found that the love for the beautiful did not rest with the wealthy class or the middle class, but was deeply instilled into the hearts of the men of most modest means. He found that these people delighted in flowers and that this feeling for them found its expression in the wav in which they used them. There were flowers evervwhere. Vines clinging to the walls of the cottage, crimson ramblers trailing over the front doorway, flower boxes built in the windows and sills for the use of plants, trees and shrubs planted over the lawn. Wherever the space permitted, a garden was built at the rear of the house, and planted with all the various kinds of flowers in artistic profusion. Having this in mind, the Editor feels that there arc almost endless possibilities in a small house plot in this coun- try and that something ought to be done to stimulate the suburban house-owner to embellish what little land he mav have and add not only beauty to his own possession, but a charm to the whole general surroundings of the place in which he lives. He apprehends that despite the fact that our gardens are sufficiently ornamental in themselves, thev are isolated and bear no general relation to each other as do the gardens of Europe. England, for example, mav be considered as a single continuous garden. Hence each pos- sessor of a home should so design his garden as to harmon- ize with those around him, and we trust that he will not only contribute but receive valuable suggestions from the forthcoming garden prize competition.

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