The winter season has a wonderful way of reminding us that we long for shelter – in obvious ways, and in subtle ones, too. The wind blows fierce and cold as we scamper in from outdoors to the heat radiating from the wood stove. But once inside the shelter of our home, we look for greater shelter … a cozy nook, a window seat with a comfortable, secure view of the wild outside or any protected, quiet place.

Adequate shelter is a primal need. Building a home is a response to that primal need. Creating a livable landscape is an extension of that fundamental urge. A truly satisfying landscape is achieved by incorporating many of the same elements of design that we use in crafting a comfortable indoor space. Mainly, a relaxed landscape is a series of “shelters,” spaces carved out of nature that cause us to feel fully at ease with it. These shelters often are connected – not unlike the interior rooms of our home.

How do you create shelter outside? Think back to when you were younger. Children instinctively have a sense of creating shelter wherever they go. They seize large boxes at every opportunity, hop inside with a pillow and blanket and create their own personal nest. They carve caves and tunnels out of snow banks. They layer branches over depressions in the ground and burrow under them, half hiding, half seeking the snug protection of their creation.

The urge to create comfortable shelters within the home takes the form of small, intimate spaces, clearly defined nooks that allow us to let down our guard and simply be. We create those spaces with the thoughtful proportioning of the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the room, and by careful incorporation of the form, color and textures of the walls, ceiling and decor of the space.

In the landscape, the same qualities affect comfort and a sense of shelter. The landscape has “walls,” (fences, hedges, buildings and any vertical surface) “ceilings,” (tree canopies, arbors, the sky, or any overhead horizontal surface) and “floors,” (grassy areas, decks, patios or any underfoot horizontal surface).

Sheltered “rooms” in the landscape can be blatant – gazebos or enclosed pergolas – or they can be more abstract in the form of a nicely turfgrass-carpeted area surrounded by deep herbaceous borders that are flanked by tall arborvitae hedges. A favorite sheltered spot may be located pondside, under a weeping willow, where an outcropping of stone provides a quiet resting place. Another treasured area might be immediately outside the back door, in a chair pressed against backdrop of the home, looking out over the back deck toward the forest beyond.

Landscaping is both an art and a science, which poses a challenge for most of us. Even if we develop the artful ideal of our garden space, we still have the science side of gardening to contend with: getting the ideal collection of plants to attain the form conceptualized in the plan. On the other hand, we can be excellent gardeners, raising plants to their ideal, but if we have a limited artistic sense of space, those plants yield to us only one dimension of their potential dividends.

Creating cozy shelters in the landscape is largely an act in achieving functionality in our yard. The beginning point of the landscape design process is to identify in detail the function of space. Implementing a variety of forms – via mass, color, texture and a range of artistic elements and concepts – comes after clearly defining function. “Form follows function,” we say – this is a common tenet guiding three-dimensional design of any sort. But as the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”

So think this week about the function of your landscape and about shelter. Think about what makes you feel comfortable inside your home and outside in your landscape. Meet here next week for a primer on landscape design that will help you create unity between function and form.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 512 North Ridge Road, Montville 04941 or e-mail dianagc@midcoast.com. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.