Garden travels, day outings, lengthy trips or virtual excursions begin with home-based exploration and research. The ten articles selected here describe historic garden landscapes in North America. They make an easy task of deciding which gardens to visit. Emphasis in each article is on design characteristics pertinent to each garden and the garden’s historical significance.
Garden landscape styles change slowly, and often remain as foundations for later garden styles. American garden and rural landscapes on the east coast rely upon styles of 17th and 18th century English-based garden traditions. Garden landscapes on the west coast and in Florida borrow heavily from Spanish, and to a smaller extent, Italian ideas. Midwest gardens borrow ideas from idealized Native American cultures and European styles.
New gardens of interest can be found close to your doorstep. A garden visit presents an opportunity to study the outline and bones of someone else's garden. There is also the prospect of absorbing the enduring atmosphere of the gardens, and also the mindset of the garden's makers and the moment in time in which they worked.
©Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage. 2007. Reproduction without permission prohibited.
![]() |
|
![]() |