Garden Houses and Other Dependencies

ALMOST ALWAYS the home grounds are dominated by the residence. On the small lot this is unavoidable, but even on the large place it is usually true. This is a desirable condition, for the whole landscape treatment can be designed in harmony with the house and really as a development of it. One passes from the living room to the terrace or porch, and then through the gardens and lawns to the remotest part of the property.

The intensity of development of all the various parts may be gradually lessened as one passes farther from the residence and the scheme is thus tied into a coherent whole. In most carefully developed schemes, however, there will be buildings other than the main residence. Some of these, like the garage, tool house, and stable, are primarily utilitarian. Others are essentially ornamental, and garden houses, guesthouses, studios, dovecotes, arbors fall in this category. All these either useful or purely decorative buildings have to possess certain characteristics if they are to fit harmoniously into the scheme. They have to harmonize either with the architecture of the residence or, if at a sufficient distance from it and fully secluded, with their natural surroundings. Thus, for instance, a teahouse, terminating a formal garden and standing in full view of the residence, will usually be in the same architectural style as the house, be it Colonial, English, Italian, or whatever.

On the other hand, a shelter built in the woodland may appropriately be rustic in character, of native stone or of wood. Such buildings also must be properly placed in relation to the scheme as a whole and particularly in relation to their immediate surroundings. The garage should not intrude upon the lawn or the flower garden, nor should log cabins or other rustic buildings be built without due regard to their relation to other parts of the design. Figure 9 shows a scheme in which two secondary buildings have been used. The average place would not perhaps support so many, but it serves to show how such structures can be fitted into a scheme without seeming out, of place or too conspicuous. One is a formal teahouse, in the style of the main house; the other is a rustic shelter, harmonious with its wild surroundings. back to garden planning home page.

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