GIVING NATURE A CHANCE IN THE CITY
Sanborn, Mrs. A. W.
GIVING NATURE A CHANCE IN THE CITY How the Women's Outdoor Art League Helped to Make a More Beautiful City of Ashland By MRS. A. W. SANBORN AFEW years ago when Ashland started to make her first...
...If the same forethought is used in the selection of shrubs for the planting of home grounds there is much satisfaction in the results...
...A. W. SANBORN AFEW years ago when Ashland started to make her first permanent street improvements, the Woman's Outdoor Art League asked that it might supervise the work on Ellis Avenue...
...Thus in rotation we always have some bright color mingled with the masses of green...
...The usual 25-cent suppers and amateur theatrical performance were employed for the cause and brought generous results...
...In addition, we asked a contribution from the property owners along the street of two dollars for each 25-foot lot...
...They were taken in June, when in our climate the early flowers and shrubs are in their glory, but the black and white of the cuts are wholly inadequate to show the profusion of bloom and the beautiful color effects of the lilacs, snowballs, and bridal wreath, planted in masses as they would naturally grow, all flowering at the same time...
...The avenue is 100 feet wide, so it was possible to make a parkway 24 feet wide through the center, and still have a good driveway of 20 feet on either side and a 10-foot boulevard between the sidewalk and the curb...
...Although we did not fully appreciate it at the time, we now lealize the value of the advice of a good landscape artist in doing any work of this kind, for in his plan for the length of the street, he exercised forethought and wisdom that no layman could have shown...
...This is one of the principal residence streets in the center of town and leads up to the High School, which made it a very desirable street to use as an object lesson...
...Various means were adopted to raise this sum...
...This has been demonstrated by a few of our townspeople who have profited by the object lesson given them in the planting done by the Outdoor Art League...
...In some blocks he gave us the early-flowering v a x i e t y of shrubs that I have mentioned, in others he placed those that bloom late in the season, like the sweet briar and rosa rugosa...
...To do this, we knew we must obtain plans from a landscape artist and also buy the necessary trees and shrubbery to carry them out, all of which would take a considerable sum of money...
...The first ones were taken the year the planting was done and the others this summer, after five years' growth...
...In addition to the low-growing shrubs we planted in each block a few ornamental trees, such as the mountain ash, the bird cherry, the canoe birch, and the varieties of maple that are so beautiful after the first frost has touched the leaves...
...and the city gave a substantial sum from the treasury...
...Our ambition was to plant this in the most improved and up-to-date manner, for we were a new organization, full of the enthusiasm of youth and wished to make this the first step toward the goal we hoped sometime to reach—the ideal city beautiful...
...and in still others those that have bright colored berries and foliage in the autumn and winter—the high bush cranberry, the sumac, and Thunberg's barberry...
...The accompanying pictures show the result of our effort...
Vol. 1 • August 1909 • No. 33
