This book is the result of my long-standing interest in gardens and gardening. I’ve pulled weeds, planted flowers, and grown herbs in many gardens, following in my mother’s and grandmother’s footsteps. In 1976, when I first came to live in Wisconsin, I was shocked at the harshness of the climate and doubted I would ever be comfortable here, let alone able to nurture a garden. But I learned to adapt, just like the nineteenth-century immigrants who successfully established their homes, gardens, and communities in this unfamiliar region.
I was quickly captivated by Wisconsin’s unique settlement history and was fortunate to be able to combine my areas of interest when I began volunteering as a historical interpreter and gardener at Heritage Hill State Historical Park in Green Bay. Through theme areas, each containing several historic structures, this fifty-acre living history site portrays the events and people that shaped Green Bay and northeastern Wisconsin over three hundred years. Over time I found myself more and more involved in the history of the gardens surrounding the homes, and began a quest to discover how they were originally planned and planted. The staff and volunteers had noticed that visitors to the park were increasingly interested in what was growing in the gardens and why, and we wanted to be able to answer their questions accurately. We also realized that the landscape around the buildings should be incorporated into the existing interpretive plans that told the stories of the lives and interests of the people who settled and lived in northeastern Wisconsin.
At most historic sites, the enormous expenditure of time and funding needed to preserve, maintain, furnish, and interpret the interior and exterior of important structures tends to take precedence over the landscape. Often, interested, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic local gardeners are encouraged to develop and maintain the surrounding gardens, but they are seldom given specific guidelines, and resources (and funding) for research are not generally readily available. Even with the recent increased interest in heirloom seeds and plants—and, indeed, in gardening and garden history—it is not easy to unearth the detail needed to portray the narrative of a specific garden. Ideally, the landscape should supplement and enhance the interpretation of a historic building by further demonstrating the cultural traditions and ethnic history of earlier times. With the rising interest in home gardening and the ever-increasing availability of heirloom varieties of seeds and plants, historic sites have not only an opportunity but perhaps a responsibility to provide visitors with accurate representations of the gardens framing their buildings.
ASTER
As I became more involved with the gardens and the groups maintaining them, I found myself asking more questions than my gardening books could answer about the form and composition of area historic gardens. Existing works on American garden history mainly focused on the works of well-known landscape architects and their high-style, designed estates along the eastern seaboard, rather than the everyday, or vernacular, gardens of ordinary people.
While the late nineteenth century produced increasing amounts of garden literature, both in book and magazine format, these publications, for the most part, originated along the eastern seaboard. What I was looking for were primary and secondary regional and local resources that would provide Wisconsin homeowners, historic site administrators, and gardeners with the information they needed to establish or reconstruct an accurate representation of a late-nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century garden. I was sure it was available if I just knew where to look, and eventually I realized that I needed to endeavor to answer my questions through an academic approach.
To that end, I applied and was accepted into the master’s program of the Department of Landscape Architecture at UW–Madison in the fall of 2004. I was encouraged by an extremely supportive group of faculty members to proceed with my study, which was to locate, consolidate, and document the horticultural and garden literature written specifically for Wisconsin homeowners in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I wanted to provide an easily accessible baseline for all who are interested in Wisconsin garden history research; additionally, I expected that this research would determine whether national garden history publications were valid at the regional level.
BALSAM
The major questions I asked were, first, what were the primary sources of garden information for Wisconsin homeowners during the mid- to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and how successfully were they disseminated throughout the state? Second, what were the major recommendations and guidelines for the development and maintenance of rural and urban vernacular gardens, and how did they change over the time span? And third, can the completed analysis provide a timeline for changes in Wisconsin home gardens, and, if so, is there a relationship between regional and national trends during that same period? In other words, is there a model, or models, that could be used to create or restore a “typical” Wisconsin garden to a particular time period or a particular location? To aid in my research I focused on a specific time period—that of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—but this by no means implies that the form and composition of mid-twentieth-century gardens is not an equally interesting topic.
The term garden, from the Latin gardinus, shares its roots with the term yard, and the two words are often used interchangeably in the United States. However, the original meaning of garden was “enclosed area.”1 The meaning of the term vernacular is more complicated. Originally the Latin word verna meant “home-born slave,” implying someone who belonged to a house. The term vernacular later came to mean a “way of speaking that is tied to or characteristic of a particular region.”2 From this came the current usage of “everyday” or “ordinary.”
In historic preservation terminology, the phrase vernacular architecture was originally used as a catchall to describe everyday, nonarchitecturally designed buildings. Recently, however, architectural historians have expanded this definition, stating that “vernacular architecture is not just a type of architecture, but also an approach to architectural studies that emphasizes the intimate relationships between everyday objects and culture, between ordinary buildings and people.”3 In the same sense, the vernacular garden is not only the area surrounding a vernacular home but is also interconnected to and a reflection of the occupants of that home. The changing appearance and function of the house and garden over time can be further defined as the result of the interactive relationship between people and their home landscape. The vernacular garden is many layered, retaining incompletely erased remnants of earlier occupancy in its form and composition.
Notes
1. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. “garden.”
2. Thomas Carter and Elizabeth Collins Cromley, Invitation to Vernacular Architecture: A Guide to the Study of Ordinary Buildings and Landscapes (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005), xv.
3. Ibid.
DIANTHUS
Once I had formulated and organized my research, I began to look at resources and fairly quickly came across a wide selection of little-known primary information and published literature on Wisconsin gardens. I gathered and consolidated it all, finding much of it extremely valuable, some quite surprising, and all of it interesting.
The most helpful was the collected published proceedings of the annual meetings of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society (WSHS). Based in Madison, the WSHS originated as a special-interest fruit-growers group under the broader umbrella organization of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society during the 1850s and forged its own constitution in 1865. The foremost mission of the society was to promote the development of orchards, with a secondary stated goal of advancing horticultural knowledge and practice throughout the state. In spite of its comparatively small membership and homogeneous ethnicity, its publications are still the best source for the ideas and ideals of horticultural practice that were predominant in Wisconsin during this time period.1
The proceedings of the annual meetings were distributed to all society members, in book form, between 1869 and 1928. Initially titled Transactions of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, it was renamed the Annual Report of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society in 1890. Each volume contained a full transcript of the papers, presentations, discussions, and business meetings held at the annual and, later, biennial meetings of the previous year. Sometimes papers were also submitted in written form to the WSHS secretary for inclusion. Two society journals, The Wisconsin Horticulturist (1896–1903) and Wisconsin Horticulture (1910–1967), supplemented the annual report. These journals, especially Wisconsin Horticulture, offered an informal exchange of information between members and the society’s officers through question-and-answer segments, editorials, opinions, and photographs.2
MIGNONETTE
I began by selecting all presentations, articles, and reports related to home horticulture from the fifty-nine years’ worth of Transactions and Annual Reports and in all issues of The Wisconsin Horticulturist and Wisconsin Horticulture. I copied, subdivided, and analyzed the 450 presentations and articles I found. The first and largest group consisted of about 300 presentations and articles that specifically addressed methods of “improving,” “beautifying,” or “ornamenting” the home grounds. A review of these presentations forms the basis of this book.
PANSY
Buried within a common theme of civic, family, and personal improvement through horticulture is a thread that deserves attention: the role of women in the home and garden, and, by implication, in society. Women often presented at the annual meetings, and their voices resonate—tentatively during the first years of society operation, but with increasing confidence and assurance. What they had to say is significant and relevant, and I have included several of their remarks, either as epigraphs or within the text of this book. Their changing role within the society is discussed in more detail in chapter 3, as are the civic improvement objectives they were promoting.
While personal, family, and civic topics are not directly related to the improvement of home grounds, they are relevant because they reveal the issues WSHS members considered important for their own well-being, as well as that of their community, state, and nation. Often these included broad-reaching concerns that were the precursors of those that led to the wider social reform that overlapped this time period. These annual presentations provide a richer and deeper insight into the goals, developing philosophy, and changing ideals of the WSHS and are an indication of what was happening on a larger scale within the state.
However, the published proceedings obviously reflect the ideas and beliefs of a group that was overwhelmingly Anglo-American, fairly well-educated, and English-speaking, at least during the society’s early years, and targeted a readership with similar ethnic and social backgrounds. There is little evidence of much attention to, or interest in, the equally strong garden traditions and history of the much larger groups of non-English European immigrants who were settling in Wisconsin during this same period.3 Despite this limitation, the amateur and professional horticulturists who composed the WSHS provided, through the society’s written records, a fascinating and previously unstudied view of the aspirations and ideals of a specific cultural group united in its belief that horticultural knowledge and practice led to an improved lifestyle. Scattered throughout the settled areas of Wisconsin, these farmers, businessmen, club women, academic faculty, and nurserymen enthusiastically supported and initiated agricultural and horticultural changes throughout the state. As older members died and a younger group of emerging academics and professionals entered the arena, the publications recorded nostalgic recollections intermixed with excitement about emerging ideas. Discussions about farm improvement, women’s suffrage, village improvement, or war gardens mirrored the social, economic, and political concerns of the state during this era.
PETUNIA
The WSHS occasionally published recommended reading lists on various gardening or farming topics for its members. In the course of unearthing this sometimes obscure primary literature, I discovered that one nationally known nineteenth-century author, Eben Rexford, wrote six popular gardening books from his home in Shiocton, just west of Green Bay, while several others, including Liberty Hyde Bailey, O. C. Simonds, and Frank J. Scott, had strong regional ties to the Midwest. My initial belief that all the nineteenth-century garden writing originated along the eastern seaboard was therefore incorrect: the books and magazines may have been published in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, but their authors were just as likely to be from Michigan or Wisconsin or Ohio. This suggests a possible correlation between national and regional garden styles. Additionally, around the turn of the twentieth century, the uniquely Midwestern “Prairie style” of landscape architecture developed by Wilhelm Miller, O. C. Simonds, Jens Jensen, and others was gaining recognition at the national level, thereby encouraging a regional approach to garden design. WSHS speakers often included references to both national and regional writers; clearly a state horticultural society was a useful conduit for the distribution and dissemination of national horticultural ideals.
Photographs of gardens and homes were important sources during my research. Although the first photographs did not appear in WSHS publications until the late 1800s, earlier collections on file at the Wisconsin Historical Society include images of gardens and homes around the state. The Andreas Larsen Dahl and Charles Van Schaick photographic collections are particularly useful records of Wisconsin landscapes during the 1870–1900 period. As cameras became more universally available during the first decades of the twentieth century, photographs of Wisconsin gardens and homes were increasingly included in WSHS publications, often as examples of the ideal.
The recommended plant lists discussed in chapter 5 and listed in the appendix are simply a consolidated record of what the WSHS was advising for success in the Wisconsin garden, rather than a comprehensive inventory of all that was available at the time. For more information about the dates of introduction and varieties of specific plants and seeds, please refer to the books listed in the selected bibliography. These are important resources for the historical gardener, and their existence underscores an increasing national interest not only in gardening for its own sake but also in unearthing vernacular garden history. Numerous online sites also provide almost limitless, though not necessarily accurate, information on the same topic. Most important, several Wisconsin historic sites are either establishing or have already established accurate period gardens that illustrate different aspects of Wisconsin settlement and garden history. Each is unique, and all well worth a visit.
SWEET PEA
As I worked my way through the literature, photographs, and archival material, I sometimes felt as though I were exploring one of those dense, dark shrubberies that were so popular with the English aristocracy in previous centuries: winding pathways that led to blind alleys and impenetrable thickets; interesting unidentifiable overhanging branches and undergrowth; rough walkways; and too many intriguing corners inviting more exploration. I found such a treasure trove of material that I could have easily spent the next ten years processing it all.
This book is simply the beginning. It identifies various little-known but easily accessible resources that clarify questions about the appearance and composition of the Wisconsin vernacular garden during the mid- to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also provides a foundation for further research into individual home gardens, whether public or private. I have included guidelines and recommendations for that complex but worthwhile undertaking in chapter 6.
I hope that Vintage Wisconsin Gardens will encourage you to delve more deeply into the intriguing and fascinating history of the Wisconsin cultural landscape and its early gardens, and also offer guidance for incorporating some of these ideas into your own vintage garden.
WHAT IS A VERNACULAR GARDEN? 
