Page 8

This front graden is entirely filled
with flowers, including a pole covered
with morning glory at the far left.
Madison area (ca. 1873-79). Andrew
Dahl, photographer.
front gardens were divided into
several sections with paths or step-
ping stones. The flower beds were
frequently defined by a neat edging
of stones or boards. The most pop-
ular flowers were phlox, larkspur,
asters, pinks, gladiolus, hyacinths,
petunias, mignonette, zinnias, dah-
lias, calendula, iris, peonies, and
several types of lilies. Shrubs in-
cluded lilacs, honeysuckle, vi-
burnum, hydrangeas, and roses.
  This latter garden style appears
to have been a frontier adaptation
of an ancient gardening tradition.
The most recent cultural source was
the New England dooryard gardens
that many of Wisconsin's settlers
had known in their youth. Of
course, those New England gardens
originally had been patterned after
English cottage gardens. The fact
that this garden style was used by
European immigrants as well as
Yankees and persons of English
background is not surprising in the
light of the similarity between Eu-
ropean peasant gardens and En-
glish cottage gardens.
  A few authors in the 1840s and
1850s acknowledged the old-fash-
ioned dooryard garden as a valid
style, but many published garden
guides were critical of the mixed
plantings, stating that too much va-
riety in the garden produced a con-
fusing, even weedy, appearance, es-
pecially during the seasons when
flowers were not at their peak of
bloom. Most garden writers em-
phatically preferred a well-mani-
cured green carpet of lawn with sep-
arate small flower beds, each filled
with roses or a single variety of an-
nual such as verbena, petunia, phlox
drummondi, or portulaca.
  Thus it appears that although
published information advocating
a different, "modern" style of gar-
dening was readily available, most
Wisconsin settlers continued to
cling to memory and folk knowl-
edge in the arrangement of their
gardens. Situated in a totally new
environment and at a great dis-
tance from the former home they
might never see again, they quite
understandably created gardens of
nostalgia. Wisconsin gardeners
would not be influenced to turn
from folk traditions to a display of
contemporary garden fashions un-
til the post-Civil War period.Oé
  NOTE: All manuscript and pho-
tographic materials used in this
study are from the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, Archives Di-
vision. For specific references see:
Sharon Crawford, "The Develop-
ment and Evolution of Domestic
Gardens in Southern Wisconsin
During the Nineteenth Century"
(Master ofArts Thesis in Landscape
Architecture, University of Wiscon-
sin-Madison, 1983).
   Suggested Reading
Danhof, Clarence H. Change in Ag-
riculture: The Northern United
States, 1820-1870. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1969.
Hedrick, U. P. A History of Horti-
culture in America to 1860. Lon-
don: Oxford University Press, 1950.
Kern, G. M. Practical Landscape
Gardening. Cincinnati: Moore,
Wilstach, Keys and Co., 1855.
Schafer, Joseph. A History of Ag-
riculture in Wisconsin. Madison:
State Historical Society of Wiscon-
sin, 1922.
Stilgoe, John R. Common Land-
scape ofAmerica, 1580-1845. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
8/Wisconsin Academy Review/September 1984