Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth

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About this book

Box borders, herb beds and familiar flowers give Alice Morse Earle a way to write about the history of American gardens. This illustrated nonfiction volume ranges from colonial garden making and front dooryards to lilacs, apples, sundials and roses. Its chapter subjects connect planting with household customs, childhood and poetry, while the picture captions locate gardens at homes in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other states.

Earle also brings a gardener's personal judgment to the colors of flowers. Her strong dislike of magenta sits beside close attention to the rose and lilac shades of wild orchids. She describes Arba Peirce, a naturalist she has known since childhood, whose knowledge of local woods and marshes supports his trade in gathered flowers. Readers interested in garden history can find both records of older planting traditions and observations of how people notice, value and use plants.

About the author

Alice Morse Earle

Alice Morse Earle (1851-1911) was an American historian from Worcester, Massachusetts. She published seventeen books on colonial dress, customs, childhood and household life, drawing on diaries, inventories and surviving objects, and did much to establish everyday domestic history as a subject worth serious study.