34 



House & Garden's 



THE SPIRIT of OLD-FASHIONED GARDENS 



With a Plan j or a Garden Reproducing the 

 Atmosphere of the Puritans 



AN old-fashioned gar- 

 l\ den — how the picture 

 flashes across the mind! 

 Lilac,laburnum, snowballs 

 and syringas arching over 

 the gate and crowding the 

 white pickets of the fence. 

 A sundial and arbor of 

 delicate Colonial pattern; 

 neatly raked gravel paths 

 skirting the lx)x-edged beds 

 wherein graciously nod the 

 flowers our grandmothers 

 loved — hollyhocks, hones- 

 ty, roses and heart's-ease. 

 Many such gardens can 

 still be seen, and the old 

 ladies are always smil- 

 ingly glad to entertain 

 you. They will point out 

 their treasures w'ith par- 

 ticular pride — the old lig 

 tree, the mull)erries, and the 

 grajx'S — and in the arbor 

 before you leave, serve you 

 tea in the blue Crown set. 

 How can such a garden 

 ' be reproduced ? Was not 

 its evanescent charm too 

 subtle to be e.xpressed in 

 terms of beds and walks, 

 shrubs and flowers? What was its secret? 

 The old gardens were successful because 

 they filled an actual need in the lives of the 

 people. To appreciate this it is necessary to 

 know how those people lived, and to .study their 

 ideals. A modem reproduction of an old- 

 fashioned garden must fill a like requirement 

 in the lives of jjeople today or it cannot be a 

 success, no matter how truly it imitates the old. 

 People are not now so dependent on their gar- 

 dens for the necessities of life. The raising of 

 fruits and vegetables for 

 practical use, while not 

 wholly discontinued, in 

 normal times has become 

 subordinate to the growing 

 of flowers for cutting and 

 out-of-door decorative ef- 

 fect. Standards, too, have 

 changed. We are no 

 longer satisfied with the 

 ungentle mi.xtures of color 

 which the old gardens dis- 

 played. 



There are distinct kinds 

 of old gardens in each sec- 

 tion of the country. In 

 the extreme South is the 

 Spanish tj^pe, a walled en- 

 closure of simple though 

 formal design, with roses, 

 heliotrope and carnations, 

 oranges and lemons, figs 

 and pomegranates. 



In the Carolinas we as- 

 sociate the walled enclo- 

 sures about the stately old 

 mansions with live oaks 

 draped in gray moss, aza- 

 leas, camellias, and crepe 

 myrtles. 



In Virginia, as with all 



In the old'faihioned garden flowers straggled informally over the walks, their back- 

 ground of tail shrubs lending an air of length and seclusion. These gardens, the plan 

 and the text are the work of Elizabeth Leonard Strang, landscape architect 



of the Colonies, the earliest gardens were for 

 necessities alone, but soon the luxurious ideas 

 of the Cavaliers began to assert themselves and 

 flowers occupied a definite place in the decora- 

 tive scheme. Living as they did on large plan- 

 tations, there were no homely enclosures or 

 cottage gardens. The settlers brought ideas 

 from Holland, accjuired during their exile in 

 that country; from Italy, and from England, 

 where the Elizabethan garden was then at 

 the height of its perfection and popularity. 



The Cavalier type, which was found in the Virginias, had a strongly formal spirit. It 



often included a parterre. The simplicity of the design and the neatness suggest the 



old Elizabethan gardens, their general source of inspiration 



These early gardens 

 were carefully designed. 

 Usually a terrace next the 

 house, with a retaining 

 wall and broad steps of 

 stone overlooked the par- 

 terre with its knots or beds 

 of boxwood. These were 

 often very elaborate, the 

 pattern deemed of more 

 importance than the flow- 

 ers which filled it. Next 

 came the garden proper, a 

 larger enclosure with broad 

 straight walks and beds of 

 simple design, the whole 

 alwa\s enclosed by a hedge 

 or high wall. 



The Quaker gardens, 

 like those of the Cavaliers, 

 were laid out along ample 

 jiroportions and long rest- 

 ful lines, but with less of 

 elalioration and luxury as 

 befitted their simpler tastes. 

 The gardens of the 

 Dutch were trim, minute 

 enclosures, their design 

 ha.sed on the square, the 

 circle, or the oval, kept 

 with extreme neatness and 

 planted with flowers, vegetables, herbs and 

 fruits, cabbages and tulips occupying espe- 

 cially prominent places among them. 



The Puritan nature is found expressed in 

 the gardens of Xew England, and such designs 

 as they followed were adaptations from the 

 Dutch, though more often the little fenced-in 

 front }ards held onl\- simple square beds. The 

 first mention we find of gardens for flowers was 

 in 1629, but from the very beginning there was 

 the useful plot at the back, where lowly back- 

 door flowers, vegetables, 

 fruits and simples shared 

 in contributing necessities 

 and comforts to their care- 

 takers. 



No formula can be laid 

 down for making an old- 

 fashioned garden. Ever}' 

 type of house, be it Span- 

 ish, Georgian Colonial, 

 Pennsylvania stone. Long 

 Island Dutch, or New 

 England square, has its 

 special problem, in the so- 

 lution of which climate as 

 well as architecture plays 

 an important part that we 

 must not overlook. 



In Puritan times, to 

 grow flowers for their 

 beauty alone was held to 

 be, if not a sin, at least a 

 vanity. Nevertheless the 

 l)usy housewife found mo- 

 ments in which to care for 

 the little fenced-in plot 

 before the house. 



The authoritative list is 

 short: crown imperials, 

 daffodils, red and yellow 

 tulips, poet's narcissus and 



