XI
A SOD HOUSE FOR THE LAWN
The difference between this sod house and the ones used in the arid regions consists in the fact that the sod will be growing on the sod house, which is intended for and is an ornamental building for the lawn. Possibly one might say that the sod house is an effete product of civilization where utility is sacrificed to display; but it is pretty, and beauty is always worth while; besides which the same plans may be used in building
A Real Adobe
and practically are used in some of the desert ranches along the Colorado River. The principal difference in construction between the one shown in Figs. [50], [53], and [57] and the one in [Fig. 55] is that in the sod house the sod is held in place by chicken-coop wire, while in the ranch-house ([Fig. 55]) the dirt or adobe is held in place by a number of sticks.
[Fig. 50.] [Fig. 51.] [Fig. 52.] [Fig. 53.] [Fig. 54.] [Fig. 55.] [Fig. 56.]
A house of green growing sod and the Colorado River adobe.
[Fig. 50] shows how the double walls are made with a space of at least a foot between them; these walls are covered with wire netting or chicken-coop wire, as shown in [Fig. 53], and the space between the walls filled in with mud or dirt of any kind. The framework may be made of milled lumber, as in [Fig. 50], or it may be made of saplings cut on the river bank and squared at their ends, as shown by detailed drawings between Figs. [50] and [52]. The roof may be made flat, like Figs. [54] and [56], and covered with poles, as in [Fig. 54], in which case the sod will have to be held in place by pegging other poles along the eaves as shown in the left-hand corner of [Fig. 54.] This will keep the sod from sliding off the roof. Or you may build a roof after the manner illustrated by [Fig. 49] and Fig. [51], that is, if you want to make a neat, workmanlike house; but any of the ways shown by [Fig. 52] will answer for the framework of the roof. The steep roof, however, must necessarily be either shingled or thatched or the sod held in place by a covering of wire netting. If you are building this for your lawn, set green, growing sod up edgewise against the wire netting, after the latter has been tacked to your frame, so arranging the sod that the green grass will face the outside. If you wish to plaster the inside of your house with cement or concrete, fill in behind with mud, plaster the mud against the sod and put gravel and stones against the mud so that it will be next to the wire netting on the inside of the house over which you plaster the concrete. If you make the roof shown in [Fig. 54], cover it first with hay and then dirt and sod and hold the sod down with wire netting neatly tacked over it, or cover it with gravel held in place by wire netting and spread concrete over the top as one does on a cellar floor. If the walls are kept sprinkled by the help of the garden hose, the grass will keep as green as that on your lawn, and if you have a dirt roof you may allow purple asters and goldenrod to grow upon it ([Fig. 62]) or plant it with garden flowers.
