Gardenvisit.com The Garden Guide

Book: The Principles of Landscape Gardening
Chapter: Chapter 4: Private and Public Landscape Gardens

Size of a cottage garden plot

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1586. The whole space to be enclosed, including the garden and the site of the house, cannot be less than one eighth part of a statute acre. The cottage should, if possible, be placed in the centre, fronting the south-east, by which means, if it be a square or a parallelogram, the sun will shine on each of the four sides a part of every day in the year. Its floor should be raised two steps above the level of the garden; its principal windows to the south-east. A gutter should be placed under the eaves, to prevent the ground, at the base of the walls, from receiving extreme moisture, and thus rendering the interior damp and unwholesome. The cottage should consist of the following parts:- A porch to throw off the rain from the steps of the door, and prevent it from being blown in by the wind. On the smallest scale, two broad boards, or two slates or flag-stones, placed pediment-wise over the door, will suffice. A lobby, broad passage, or other space inside the door, to contain lumber, fuel, garden tools, and to serve as a place for washing, or working at coarse work, &c. A cooking and living-room entered by the lobby or outer room; the fireplace with an oven and small boiler, both included in a cast-iron grate. A sleeping-room over the living-room, and entered by a stair from the lobby or outer room. A garret, or children's or lodger's sleeping-room, or small room for any purpose, over the lobby or outer room. A pantry, taken off the lobby, with a small window to the north-west. A closet, for utensils arid articles used in the living-room, taken off that room, with a window to the north-west or south-east. A hen-roost, forming part of the garret over the lobby, and entered by a poultry-ladder, placed against a small opening near the bottom of the outer wall. In the garden should be a well, with a pump, if deep; unless some other source of good water is near. A water-closet, placed in a hidden part of the garden, behind the house, so contrived that the visitor may neither be seen from the windows of the cottage nor the public road, with a going and returning, or an incidental approach, instead of the direct cul de sac paths which commonly lead to such places. A pigsty, attached to the north-east or south-west front. A dunghill, or a small spot adjoining the pigsty, surrounded by a dwarf wall. A niche in the wall of the south-cast front of the house, to hold two or more beehives, with two iron bars, joined and hinged at one end, and with a staple at the other, to lock them up to prevent stealing.