Beautiful Garden Gates: The Charm that Is Always Found in an Interesting Approach to an Enclosure

Few people realize how much depends upon the approach to any given place. A pleasant entrance that rouses the interest and conveys some impression of individuality seems an earnest of pleasant things to come and is always associated in the memory with the anticipation that came from that first impression. Especially is this true of a garden gate, which for most of us holds a suggestion of sentiment and poetry because it is in its own way a symbol; it leads out to greater spaces or inward to more intimate beauty. Even to the most prosaic it always holds something of a promise of the peaceful and pleasant place that lies within. Thus it seems right that a garden gate -should have a charm and grace all its own; that it should be embowered with trailing vines and blooming flowers in summer time and should always hold forth the inviting suggestion of pleasure and welcome beyond.

The illustrations given here are all of very simple garden gateways that are made attractive by the method of construction, by the placing of vines and flowers or by some graceroundings. The hooded gate shown on this page forms a charming link between garden and garden. One may rest a moment within its shade and it seems to bind together the two plots of green divided by the fence. The trellised arbor and archway which spans the flower walk in an English garden is illustrated here because of the charming suggestion it contains for making a division between two parts of the same garden. The “pergola gate” shown below is illustrated without the vines that are meant to clothe it, because we desire to give a clear idea of the construction. The finely planned proportions of the heavy timbers and the straight unornamented lines suggest an inspiration from Japan. The vine covered rustic arbor which arches over the walk leading to the entrance of the house beyond is hardly a garden gate, yet it comes within the same class because it furnishes a most attractive approach to house and garden.