i8 



and in particular for the turncourt, it is. better to place the garage in the closest 

 possible relation to a house and to abandon all consideration of a turncourt. 



An automobile turncourt may consist of a complete turn, or of a place for back- 

 ing around a quarter circle and turning ahead for another quarter of a circle, 

 a turn which may be called, from its shape, a "T." The T has the ^.dvantage of 

 requiring only half the space that the complete turn demands. The T laid out for 

 a large car will sometimes allow a small one to turn completely. The dimensions, 

 required for turning is known for most automobiles, and anyone can easily determine 

 that of his own car. The garage may be located just far enough back from the 

 house to allow for a T between itself and the house, and the pavement required 

 at the back door may thus serve simultaneously for a walk and a drive. A com- 

 plete turn will ordinarily require more space than its convenience is worth, although 

 its center may at times be used as a drying area. Complete turns require a diameter 

 from fifty to sixty feet at the least, and are rarely economical on lots of less 

 than two hundred feet frontage. Unless a complete turn can be turfed in the 

 center and a part of the area be made to serve some additional purpose, such a 

 plan is not advisable. In the positions just recommended for the garage, it 

 should be kept near the side boundary. Placing the garage as close to the house 

 as is practical also tends to conserve the area behind it, which will probably be 

 assigned to work yards, vegetables, cut-flower gardens, compost pits, and the 

 like. In case this space is not needed for work yards, it may be a useful enclosure 

 for small children, where they can play with less restraint than on a lawn and 

 can have their toys, sand-boxes and various playground apparatus. The loca- 

 tion of the garage and of the driveway leading to it is the largest factor in the plan- 

 ning of the service yard, and is therefore necessarily the first thing to be considered. 

 The least possible area should be used, however, and the space still unoccupied 

 should be carefully allotted to the other features that must be accomodated. 



Suggestions for the barriers for the service yard may be found in the discussion 

 of garden and lawn barriers. Limited space may suggest walls, or lattices, or 

 wire fences with vines, according to what seems fitting for the house and yard in 

 question. Free-growing borders, of course, are practical only when there is con- 

 siderable space. But here, as elsewhere, one should think primarily of such factors 

 as space, what will look best with the rest of his yard, and what he can afford to 

 build and maintain. The barrier between the service yard and the lawn may be a 

 wall, a lattice, or a fence, with or without vines over it; or it may be a plantation 

 of shrubs and trees, trimmed hedge fashion on the garage side and allowed to grow 

 freely on the lawn side. It is possible to use an arbor to separate these areas and 

 at the same time to furnish as a walk to the rear. A pleached arbor, made by train- 

 ing shrubs or trees in the form of an arbor, is an interesting feature in itself, and 

 would also serve as a covered walk; and, moreover, from the outside it could be 

 made to resemble a border plantation. In a small vegetable garden, one may plan 

 to cultivate close up to the walls , But it is neither possible nor practical to plan to 

 cultivate close to hedges or vine-covered fences, for the roots of these growing 

 things will spread into the garden space, and there will also be a strip of ground 

 that is worn by walking or in caring for the hedge, and other difficulties will arise. 

 With such barriers it will therefore be found best to plan a walk about the outside 

 of the garden plot, as with such an arrangement one may conveniently cultivate, 

 close up to the line. The walk is a needed convenience, and the area for culti- 

 vation will be all in one and the largest possible. Any other buildings to be 



