Vintage Wisconsin Gardens by Lee Somerville

Author:Lee Somerville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Cranefield described this urban garden as having “too much foliage.” He suggested that vegetation should be thinned to improve the look of the house and its grounds.

ANNUAL REPORT, 1904

Shrub Placement

Shrubs were a popular addition to both the rural and urban home grounds from 1869 onward. The preferred placement was to mass shrubs along boundaries rather than planting them in isolated spots on the lawn. In his 1904 article, Cranefield criticized the method of planting small shrubs individually and geometrically throughout the lawn area, noting that this type of arrangement was “planted but not planned” (see page 79).

An interesting development that reflected national changes is seen in the gradual recommendation for foundation plantings—that is, the planting of a border close to the foundation of the house. Andrew Jackson Downing had approved the use of shrubs in the 1850s but preferred to plant them in formal beds and along driveways.46 Garden historian Denise Wiles Adams noted that one of the first recommendations she found for foundation planting was in an 1891 article in Garden and Forest in which Charles Eliot suggested connecting the house with the ground “by massing shrubs along the bases of the walls or piazzas.”47 According to Adams, this idea did not gain popularity until after World War I, but landscape gardeners Liberty Hyde Bailey and Eben Rexford, among others, had proposed the design much earlier. In 1910 Bailey wrote that “strong and bare foundations should be relieved by heavy planting. Fill the corners with snow-drifts of foliage. Plant with a free hand, as if you meant it.” He added: “The corner by the steps is a perennial source of bad temper. The lawn-mower will not touch it, and the grass has to be cut with a butcher-knife. If nothing else comes to hand, let a burdock grow in it.”48

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