In this third installment of our series, we'll concentrate on more informal historic garden styles: the "working" garden, the "grandmother's" garden, and the Arts and Crafts garden. In our fourth and final installment, we'll review resources for heirloom plants.
Such practical gardens were usually designed in a totally utilitarian manner. Beds, frequently raised and relatively narrow, facilitated easy access from all sides for planting, cultivating, and harvesting. Working gardens were usually laid out using straight-line beds and often included paths mulched with gravel or other materials to keep down weeds. Because of the cultivation requirements of most vegetables and fruits, gardens were laid out in full sun. Vegetables were usually organized by type and rotated through the beds over the course of several years to reduce the possibility of disease or insect infestation. Berries were usually placed on the outside border of the garden, forming a kind of barrier. Fruit trees were either incorporated in the border of the garden or in self-contained orchards.
Fences were essential to the working garden to keep out predators of both the human and animal variety. On wealthier properties, stone or brick walls were often used to both protect from predators and to offer protection for fruit and vegetable species that might be only marginally hardy. On less affluent homesteads, fences were usually made of whatever materials were readily available, whether it be stone in the Northeast or wood in the Northwest. For marginally hardy varieties, the layout and relationship of the house and other outbuildings were often used to provide protected zones.
The real focus of the working garden was on production rather than aesthetics. Plants and seeds were chosen for a variety of reasons:
Because of this focus on production, gardeners took the selection of species and cultivars very
seriously. Professional controversies abounded about the quality, hardiness, and appropriateness of
varieties. Gardeners interested in production had (and continue to have) very strong opinions about
plant species and their strengths and weaknesses. The "Great Russian Apple Controversy" gives a
sense of just how seriously they took these issues. As closely argued as any political debate, the
topic of Russian apple stock obviously hit a nerve with many nursery people and reflects concerns about
plant quality and productivity. The attached excerpts are from The Prairie
Farmer, 1887.
Like the working garden, the cottage garden was highly practical; but the cottage garden strove to jam as much in the space as possible while still providing appropriate growing conditions. Cottage gardeners tried to determine what would fit where, what would grow in which conditions, and then tried to fit as many plants as possible in the available ground. Although such crowding may at first seem counterproductive, it actually could benefit both the garden and the gardener. Tightly packed, plants:
Cottage gardens used all available space, growing vines and cascading plants through trees, over shrubs, on trellises, or on the house and outbuildings. Fences were used, again, to protect plants from predators, with the bonus of yet more growing space for fruits, vegetables, or flowering species. Many cottage gardens had a seating area or two, often benches in the shade of a tree. Paths tended to be wide, for easy navigation with a wheelbarrow or garden tools. Rustic materials -- twig benches, stone pathways -- were used to reinforce the organic sense of the garden.
In cottage gardens, plants usually ended up where they are most used and appreciated: herbs end up close to the kitchen door for easy snipping; fragrant plants near windows and doors where their scent could be enjoyed from both inside and outside the house; and vines were often planted over trellises framing a seating area for a shady rest after a long morning's work. Plants were put where they will grow, where there is room, or where they self-seed. Appearing random to the "untrained" eye (or to an eye more focused on structure of design), cottage gardens really did develop over time, with the help of both nature and the gardener.
Within these strong "bones," plants were allowed free reign. They were encouraged to tumble, spill, and ramble through the beds, over pathways, and around structures. As a reaction against the ostentation of Victorian gardens, with their emphasis on collections of imported species, "old-fashioned" plants became popular again, returning to earlier simplicity. At the same time, these native plants were practical, easy to grow, and tested by time; another reflection of the importance of the past and of authenticity both in the Arts and Crafts house and the garden. The result was a garden timeless and restrained in style, reflecting the historical roots of garden design and execution.
"Working" garden refers to one used for utilitarian purposes, focusing on the production of food and other products. Traditionally, especially for small landholders, the spaces surrounding their houses were used to produce vegetables, fruits, and herbs for home use. These gardens saved money while introducing variety into their diets. Although food production is not usually required by present-day old house owners, establishing a working garden of edibles, particularly heirloom varieties, may represent one way of reclaiming an old house's past.
Working gardens are designed for efficient and effective food production. This may include vegetables, orchards with fruit trees, berries, grape arbors, or herbs. Working gardens also sometimes included devices to extend the growing season by incorporating protected or walled areas, cold frames, and, in well-to-do households, greenhouses or glass houses.
A range of cultivars was chosen to provide early, mid- and late-season harvests. Many varieties were also chosen for their "keeping" capacity, root cellars being an essential element before the days of refrigeration and off-season shipping. Many varieties were also continuously sown throughout the season, often every two weeks, to allow for harvesting over the entire growing period.
For many of us, the old fashioned garden of our fantasies is our grandmother's garden: an abundance of flowers, color, and a cacophony of plants waving in the wind on a sunny summer day. This "tidy mess," the cottage garden, is a jumble of colors and scents in a controlled chaos.
The cottage garden was an outgrowth of the cottager's need to use all available space in some "useful" way, just as the working gardens did. However, these gardens go a step beyond the working garden. Cottage gardens gained a reputation for being beautiful as well as useful, as flowers and scented plants were chosen for color and scent and intermingled with more traditionally useful species.
Some plants have become cottage garden standards, including old fashioned roses (Rosea), both climbing and shrub varieties; hollyhocks (Alcea rosa), sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), and foxgloves (Digitalis) for height; pansies (Viola), chives (Allium), pot marigolds (Calendula), pinks (Dianthus), and phlox for ground covers; poppies, snapdragons, lilies (Lilium), lavender (Lavendula), and black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia) at the intermediate level; and sweet peas, honeysuckle (Lonicrea), and clematis for climbers.
Although the roots of both the working and cottage gardens reside in the practicalities of subsistence living, the Arts and Crafts movement and its gardens were an ideological backlash to the rapid industrialization during the latter half of the 19th century. Followers of the Arts and Crafts movement admired crafts people, creating artistic houses with old-fashioned gardens, and thus authentic lives. The homes included hand-crafted goods, integrated and informal living, rooms open to the out-of-doors, and owners worked rustic materials and organic elements into the design of their human environment.
In the Arts and Crafts garden, the human-designed elements tended to reflect a structured, focused sense of design and layout and plants were planted naturalistically and thickly to give a clear sense of nature's abundance. Garden layout and design incorporated more traditional, strong architectural elements: stone walls, rustic garden furniture, box edging on beds, and garden "rooms." At the same time, this structure incorporated "surprise" elements: the sunken garden, the hidden seat, the unseen "room." Garden structures had to function within the garden as well. Pergolas, structures of uprights and connecting arches for supporting climbing plants or fruit trees, became particularly important as a way of providing sheltered, outdoor living space, an attractive structure and frame for climbing plants.
Under this heading occurs the following note in regard to the fruits of East Europe in the address of President Watrous, at the meeting of the American Nurserymen's convention: "We, in the West, have spent some money, and a great deal of time and labor in testing a swarm of trees and plants brought with high hopes from the frozen steppes of Russia, from the home of the Cossack, where the climate is rude and boisterous, where men are full of the untamed forces of nature, and where, as we are told, none but the hardiest trees and plants may survive. The testimony as to severity of climate, as well as to healthfulness and fruitfulness of trees there, is not impeached; but the sad fact remains, that under different skies and in a different soil, these strangers have frequently proven a most woeful disappointment. The same is too often true of things transplanted far from their place of origin in our own country."
When this very brief reference to the fruits of East Europe was read, Charles Gibb, of Abbotsford, Canada, and two other earnest friends of horticultural advancement were with us, and had spent many hours observing the growth and perfect health of foliage of the various of the apple, pear, cherry, plum, ornamental trees and shrubs on the College grounds, from East Europe, and contrasting their endurance of the past rainless year with the behavior of our native trees and shrubs, and our thousands of fruit trees of the old lists which we are not grubbing out in our orchards.
That we were surprised at this brief note, I need not say. Russia, it is true, is a great country, with extremely varied conditions of climate and soil; and our West and Northwest is a great country, with equally varied conditions to which we must adapt fruits, shrubs, etc. Fruits that are proving bonanzas, in this time of orchard troubles, with Mr. Tuttle in Wisconsin, with Mr. Mitchell in North Iowa, or on the slopes of Turtle Mountain in Manitoba, may prove nearly valueless in Central Iowa.
As to the men of this region who "are full of the untamed forces of nature," we can only say that we wish our people had a little of their untamed force in some desirable directions. For instance, the roadsides and the divisions between estates of this part of Russia are planted with plum and cherry trees, producing fruit of better quality than any we grow; at intervals of a few miles we find planted forests, ranging from 7,000 to 30,000 acres in extent, put out for economic uses and climatic effect. Each large city, and each of the five agricultural and forestry schools along this line, can boast of first-class arboretums, such as are not as yet known on this Continent; and orchards and small fruit plantations are more systematically managed than in any part of our country.
It is true we have also imported and sent out for trial the fruits, etc., from points farther north in Russia, where the words "Frozen Steppes" and "Untamed Tartars," will more aptly apply, but as a rule, we expect these to show their greatest value on the northern borders of fruit-growing in our valley. The only purpose of this hasty note is to object to the brief and ambiguous manner in which the President of an important and useful organization of our nurserymen refers to the fruits and the fruit-loving people of the great east plain of Europe.
Ed's Prairie Farmer: After reading the article by C.L. Watrous, under above heading in your issue of Aug. 27th, several queries and thoughts came to my mind, causing me to question his general statements. I wonder how he has been so unfortunate as to have only fruited "a few" of the Russians. There will probably be on exhibition this week, at the Des Moines State Fair, nearly one hundred varieties. Again, I wonder which was the "exception," that was not of "the very lowest quality, thin, sour and poor," etc. Was it Yellow Transparent, or Thaler, or Longfield, or Red Transparent, or Noble Redstreak, or Garden, or Tivtovka, or Arabka, or Borovinka, or Charlanoff, or Cross, or a score of others which might be cited, and which can not be characterized as above.
As to hardiness, the writer's opinions on this point appeared in the August number of the Student's Farm Journal; also in Iowa State Register of Aug. 27th, in speaking of relative ability of these Russians and natives to withstand hard winters, followed by dry summers, as exhibited in Agricultural College orchard and nursery this fall. What better test of hardiness of trees can be applied than that of using them as scion stocks, cutting them back each year to mere stumps? And yet I question that of the three hundred specimen trees of as many varieties, which have for the last six years been used for this purpose-and unsparingly-if there can be found to-day one-fifth showing positive "signs of infirmity," much less "such signs as to stamp them worthless;" and of the orchard, were I to say a twentieth of them exhibited signs of ill-health, I am sure I should be far above the mark.
This statement will apply not only to the College orchard, but to various nurseries and orchards which I have visited the past summer, in the Northwestern part of the State. Taking the statement of Mr. Watrous, that only one out of the twenty-five pears tried has proven healthy, and supposing the fruit of this one hardy pear to be of no special value, would not its possible value as a means of producing something desirable by hybridization be a sufficient incentive for its general cultivation? On the cherry and plum question we agree with Mr. Watrous, "that time must prove them." I do not hesitate to say that the decided acquisitions found among the Russian poplars and willows alone will more than repay the time, money and labor spent on the importation and trial of all the Russian trees and shrubs, ornamental and useful, now in the hands of experimentalists.
1st.-The settlers upon the vast Western plains made early provision for an abundant supply of fruit, especially of the greatest staple-apples.
2d.-Their hopes were at first gratified and a considerable amount of fruit was produced.
3d.-During the last six or eight years there has been a general winter-killing of nearly all the leading sorts. Only a very few proved hardy, west of the Lakes, and north of say latitude 400 degrees, including some localities further South.
4th.-When this state of things came about there was much discouragement, and greatly increased efforts were put forth to ascertain if hardy "iron-clad" varieties could not be introduced from the Steppe regions of Eastern Europe-the great plains in south-central Russia, etc. Gentlemen from this country, partly under the auspices of the Bureau of Agriculture at Washington, and especially under the encouragement of the Iowa State Horticultural Society, aided in part by experimental funds from the Iowa State Agricultural College, and with liberal contributions from Mr. Charles Bibbs of Canada, made a journey to Russia and spent some time there in investigations. They brought home a considerable variety of fruit, timber and ornamental trees, shrubs, etc. Numerous importations have also been made since.
5th.-The testing of these trees is carried on extensively on the experimental grounds of the Agricultural College of Ames, Iowa, and also at many sub-Stations all over the West and Northwest. These tests are chiefly under the direction of Prof. J.I. Budd, professor of Agriculture and Forestry. The Iowa State Horticultural Society has also 220 Experiment Stations in different parts of the State.-Prof. Budd and others are very enthusiastic, and are convinced that some at least of these Russian fruits will prove most valuable acquisitions.
Capt. C.I. Watrous, President of the American Nurserymen's Association, who has large nurseries near Des Moines, and some other gentlemen, are less sanguine of the success of the "Russians," especially in localities south of latitude 42 deg. They claim that the Russians are not yet sufficiently tested to warrant their being planted on a large scale, particularly in localities south of about 42 deg. (Des Moines is near latitude 41.5 deg. north).
Mr. Watrous gave some intimations of his views in his annual address before the American Nurserymen's Association in Chicago last summer, as published in this Journal of June 25'h.
In our issue of July 9th Prof. Budd criticized the conclusions of Mr. Watrous. In the Prairie Farmer of July 27th Mr. Watrous (who had been absent) responded, and criticized the claims of the Russians more severely than he had done in his address. In response to this, we have received a number of communications, one of which appeared last week (Sept. 10th), three are given in this week's paper, and thus far we have two others for next week, one from Mr. Elmer Reeves, of Bremer Co., Iowa, partly siding with Mr. Watrous, and one from Mr. J. C. Ferris, Secretary of the Northern Iowa Horticultural Society, on the other side. No doubt Mr. Watrous will in due time respond. (He is now at the meeting of the American Pomological Society in Boston.)
We gladly give space to these important communications. The question is one of the utmost interest, and in the multitude of counsel there will be wisdom.
We confess to have indulged, and to yet indulge very high hopes of the results from these efforts to bring in from abroad valuable fruits of long established character and pedigree so to speak. If five hundred different sorts of apples, for example, are brought hither from Russia, and $500 is expended in testing each one of them, it will be money well used, even if it should result in finding only a single really valuable apple that will flourish in our great Northwest.
With these general explanations, our readers will peruse with interest what is appearing, and may further appear, from our correspondents, who are mainly men of large experience and well and favorably known in the West generally. And right here, we might add, we have no space for personal contests. Let us have candid and earnest discussions, remembering that every one is entitled to his opinion.
"Foreign Fruits Unsuccessful"
This is an article by Professor J.L. Budd, Iowa Agricultural College, appearing under the "Horticultural" section of The Prairie Farmer, July 2, 1887, v. 59, no. 27, p. 442. It appears to be the first article on the Russian apples that resulted in several letters to the editor.
The "Frozen Steppes."
But our purpose at this time is to call attention to the "frozen steppes" from which we had latterly introduced trees and shrubs. They like east-and north-of Belgium. West of the Carpathians the orchardists of Belgium and Prussia may talk of the relative productiveness and quality of varieties, but the word "tender" or its equivalent, is not know in the sense we use it. East of the Carpathians we enter on the broadest prairie of the earth, extending into Central Asia. With the breath of the ocean shut off by the mountains, and the arid winds from the far interior of the north and east plain, we find at Proskau, in North Silesia, a new list of orchard fruits, and a new list generally of ligneous plants. From Proskau east to Saratov on the Volga-a distance of over 1000 miles-we pass over "Frozen steppes" from which we have recently selected the best fruits and shrubs for trial on our prairies south of the 442nd parallel. If called "Frozen Steppe," the same term will apply aptly to any part of Iowa or Illinois, as the summer heats are sufficient to ripen dent corn, melons, and tomatoes, and the cold of winter is not more severe or continuous than in the north half of Iowa; and the snowfall, on an average, is less from Orel to Saratov than in North Iowa.
The Population and Soil
As to the present population of this part of the east plain, we must freely admit that they do not approach in mentality, or home comforts and conveniences, the farmers of any part of our noble country; but the same remark will hold true of the peasants of west Europe, to a greater or less extent. It is the famous black-soiled section of Russia, and since the time of Peter the Great, it has been developed in products, status of mentality, and all accompaniments of civilization, to an extent not realized by the average American.
Frozen Steppes of Russia
From Ames, Iowa, a letter to the editor by John Craig.
The following lead article in The Prairie Farmer continues the discussion of Russian fruit and indicates the importance of the controversy in the editor's mind. The article was written by Orange Judd, Editor and Business Manager.
Saturday, Sept. 17, 1887, (vol. 59, No. 38, p. 595)
Important Fruit Discussion
All readers interested in fruit-culture, either as growers or consumers-and who is not?-will study with profit the discussions now going on in the Prairie Farmer concerning the value of "Russian Apples" for our country. For the benefit of those who have not followed what has already been said and for those not familiar with the subject, we will explain briefly:
Jabs, Carolyn. 1984. The Heirloom Gardener. Sierra Club Books.
Luebbermann, Mimi and Echtermeyer, Faith. 1997. Heirloom Gardens: Simple Secrets for Old-Fashioned Flowers and Vegetables. Chronicle Books.
Davies, Jennifer. 1988. The Victorian Kitchen Gardener. Norton.
Strickland, Sue, Whealey, Ken, and Cavanaugh, David. 1998. Heirloom Vegetables: A Home Gardener's Guide to Finding and Growing Vegetables from the Past. Fireside Books.
Stuart, David C. 1998. Gardening with Heirloom Plants. Reader's Digest Books.
Weaver, William Woys. 1999. Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener's Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History. Henry Holt and Co.
Yepsen, Roger B. 1998. A Celebration of Heirloom Vegetables: Growing and Cooking Old Time Varieties. Artisan Books.
Hensel, Margaret. 1992. English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners. WW Norton and Co.
Hill, May Brawly. 1995. Grandmother's Garden: The Old-Fashioned American Garden, 1865-1912. Abrams.
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Lloyd, Christopher and Bird, Richard. 1990. The Cottage Garden. Prentice-Hall.
Scott-James, Ann. 1982. The Cottage Garden. Penguin.
Wilder, Louise Beebe. 1932/1974. The Fragrant Garden. Dover Books.
Jekyll, Gertrude and Weaver, Lawrence. 1912/1981/1997. Arts and Crafts Gardens. Garden Art Press.
Next: Part 4, Heirloom Plants and Seeds
