The Gazebo – A Great Structure for the Garden

Doesn’t everyone find a garden gazebo romantic? Is it because of the scene in The Sound of Music where they sang “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”? TheGardenLady read that you can still visit that pavilion structure in Austria. I do not know where it is located.

This GardenLady finds the gazebo one of the loveliest buildings in the garden. It is the perfect spot to sit and gaze at your beautiful garden or to meditate in the serenity of your garden or to have a picnic. It shelters you from the elements and you can also have one screened in like a porch to shelter you from insects. It is sort of a dolls’ house for adults.

Apparently gazebos are one charming building that appealed to the wealthy as far back as 5 thousand years ago.  Royalty in Egypt had them built for their gardens as this was one building that was part of their garden as earthly paradise. Throughout history they have been used in lovely locations and have been made of different materials. In tenth-century Persian gardens some were so ornate they “had marble columns, and golden seats. Some were even constructed across pools or streams so that the cold water running beneath their marble floors would help to cool them.” In Japan the gazebo was and is still used for the tea ceremony where one can rest and enjoy the beauty of the garden. No one knows where the term gazebo originated, but there are other names for the same or similar buildings. George Washington had a small eight-sided one on his estate, as did Thomas Jefferson.

There are many lovely examples in public gardens. The Duke estate had one with the roof covered with wisteria. At Lake Mohonk there is a small one that shelters fishermen. When I visited the Rockefeller Gardens in Maine, I enjoyed the breeze and the rest while sitting in two different gazebos. One was at the Thuya Gardens.

This GardenLady has always dreamed of a gazebo on her property.  Please share photos of yours if you have one.

This post has been sponsored by TheRange.co.uk.

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