19 2 0 
55 
March, 
A 
GARDEN 
UTILITY HOUSE 
Where There Is Room to Work and Keep All the Implements, Supplies and 
Various Garden Appurtenances as They Should Be Kept 
N O matter how small the garden, the tools 
to be used should be stored in a dry, airy, 
easily accessible and conveniently located place. 
One of my New Jersey clients made just 
enough excavation under the high end of his 
veranda to allow him to stand erect. As four 
feet of lattice-work extends from the floor to 
the ground and as the door opens directly upon 
the middle of his lot, this is a convenient place 
for him and it saves him the cost of a build¬ 
ing. Several other clients and friends use 
parts of their barns or garages. Until last 
spring I used the house cellar because no other 
place was available on the property I then 
leased. Result: my tools all rusted! 
A cellar is the worst place usually available. 
It is always damp in the summertime, if not 
also at other seasons, and tools kept there are 
sure to deteriorate rapidly. Moreover, it is 
almost invariably inaccessible and generally it 
is poorly lighted. It should be the last place 
to be chosen for operations necessary to do 
under cover or in which to store implements, 
keep seeds, fertilizers, etc. 
So Atlasta Fruit Farm, my present place, is 
to have a garden utility house for 
working with plants under cover 
and for storing tools, seeds, etc., 
because neither the barn nor the 
shed is suited to these purposes. 
As others interested in gardening 
may be in need of such a house, 
the following ideas may be worthy 
of their consideration. 
The Location 
The garden utility house should 
be placed as conveniently as pos 
sible, so as to save steps to the 
garden, orchard, etc. It should 
preferably be upon rising ground 
so as to be well drained. If a cel¬ 
lar can be placed beneath it, so 
much the better, because this will 
serve for a basement for a heater 
or for storing roots such as carrots 
and potatoes, though this is less 
desirable than the heater idea. If 
with cellar, the floor should be of 
matched Georgia pine or similar 
long-wearing wood; if without cel¬ 
lar, then concrete with hard, smooth 
surface is the material. In the 
latter case it will be well to have 
the floor slope to one point, not in 
the center but near one side, where 
a drain with large traps is located 
so the floor may be flooded and 
washed when necessary. AMien a 
concrete floor is to be made, the 
sills should be bolted to it, bolts 
being set in the soft concrete; when 
a wooden floor, locust or cedar 
posts set below frost line are ad¬ 
visable. 
If possible to have the high side 
facing south, I would choose the 
style of building shown in the 
drawings, because having this 
largest side in. that direction and 
the smallest side toward the cold- 
M. G. KAINS 
est c^uarter of the compass (north), it is more 
easil\' warmed and lighted l)y the sun than 
any other form. Then, too, the roof is easier 
to ljuild than is the even span style. Its per¬ 
haps most conspicuous disadvantages are that 
unless it is made higher than is really neces¬ 
sary, it has little storage s})ace beneath but 
near the roof, especially on the low side, and 
it is not so sightly. 
The door may be at either end—east or 
west—or on the south, one of the former pre¬ 
ferred, because this position allows a larger 
glass surface on the south. As it will often be 
necessary to use a wheelbarrow or a hand 
barrow to carry earth, etc., in and out, the 
door should be fully 3' wide. The height 
should be not less than 6'. A window should 
be placed at each end near the back; none on 
the back or north wall itself, partly because 
this space is best for hanging tools and partly 
for keeping the wall freer from cracks. On 
the south wall should be the principal win¬ 
dows, especially to light the bench placed there, 
but also the wTole of the interior. In the 
drawing these are about 3' x 2' with 2' spaces 
between. This allows for three windows. 
The roof may l)e made of cedar or asbestos 
shingles or one of the patent roofings, pre¬ 
ferably the former because of their appearance, 
and because they may be used to cover the 
outside walls. If wood shingles are used, they 
may be made more durable by being treated 
with creosote or other w'ood preservative. For 
a house up to 20' x 20' the sills may be of 4" 
X 4" material, the plates and studding 2" x 4" 
scantling. Hemlock, spruce or pine are all 
good for these parts, though cypress is better 
for the sills where the wood must come in 
contact with damp ground either inside or out. 
It is very slow to decay. 
The Bench 
The work-bench, which should extend across 
the full southern front, should be not wider 
than 3' because few people can conveniently 
reach farther back than that. It should be 
high enough to j^revent stooping. The back 
should be boarded up 15" or 18" so a large 
pile of soil may be placed upon it and mixed 
without having it either fall behind or spill 
off the front. Both back and sur¬ 
face should be of smooth, matched 
1" lumber, preferably Georgia pine 
because of its hardness and free¬ 
dom from splinters. For the ordi¬ 
nary sized garden the potting part 
of the bench need not be longer 
than 6' or 8'; the balance should 
be utilized for carpentry and other 
indoor work and should have a 
vise to hold tools while being 
sharpened, if for no other purpose. 
To allow for this the part where 
the vise is to be attached (unless 
an ordinary carpenter’s vise or a 
patent one is used) should be 2" 
thick and extend out far enough to 
attach a portable vise. 
Beneath the bench should be 
Inns for soil, manure, flower pots, 
leaf mold, sand, etc. These should 
be backed and sided to prevent 
spilling in these directions. Their 
fronts should have no cleats at the 
floor, so the shovel may be used 
without obstruction in getting out 
soil. Preferably the floor boards 
(if wood and not concrete is used) 
should run from back to front, not 
across the bins, to facilitate han¬ 
dling and avoid splintering. The 
fronts of the bins are removable 
from slots placed at the uprights. 
A Movable Table 
To supplement the bench a mov¬ 
able table on small, stout wheels, 
not casters, will be found a great 
convenience, because it can be 
placed handy to receive flats filled 
with plants during the potting sea¬ 
son as well as for other purposes. 
If made with a watertight top with 
a shelf beneath, many light articles 
may be kept here. .Above the 
{Continued on page 80) 
The ground plan and side elevation (from the inside). (4) 
Movable table. (B) Bench across entire front of house, divided 
underneath into bins for soil, etc. (C) Door 3' wide. (D) 
Closet 24" X IS" X 5' or 6'. (E) Space over which wheel-hoe 
and other large tools hang, with fertilizer sacks on floor. (F) 
Open space for working. (G) T x 4' space for articles which 
cannot be hung up. (H) Removable stove 
