Difference between "scenery" and "landscape"

What's the difference between scenery and landscape? In what situations can I use them interchangeably?

The scenery/landscape at the school is beautiful.

Does landscape sound natural in the sentence above?

Solution 1:

Scenery is a term with generally broader in meaning than landscape (which may encompass landscape). It often refers to indoor settings.

Merriam-Websters defines scenery as:

1: the painted scenes or hangings and accessories used on a theater stage

2: a picturesque view or landscape

3: one's usual surroundings [e.g.] needed a change of scenery

Landscape is generally much more focused on natural geography (although it may be humanly enhanced or supplemente):

1 a: a picture representing a view of natural inland scenery

b: the art of depicting such scenery

2 a: the landforms of a region in the aggregate

b: a portion of territory that can be viewed at one time from one place

c: a particular area of activity : scene [e.g.] the political landscape

Except for the third aspect of the second definition, which is somewhat metaphorical, the depiction reflects a natural place.

Solution 2:

You would not use landscape in that way; the user asymptotically has explained why in an earlier answer.

What you could say, though is:

The landscaping at the school is beautiful.

NOAD explains it like this:

landscape (n.): all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.
landscape (trans. v.): improve the aesthetic appearance of (a piece of land) by changing its contours, adding ornamental features, or planting trees and shrubs; [as n.] (landscaping)

So, if you want to point out that the landscapers have done a particularly good job of arranging the shrubs and caring for the flowers, then you could indeed say that the school has beautiful landscaping. (In fact, in that context, I believe landscaping is a better word than scenery.)