Notable Books

Southern Garden History Society is pleased to present information about new and upcoming books that may be of interest to our members. The books on this page are listed in alphabetical order by the author's last name.

Greene, Wesley: Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way
Rodale Inc. and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, co-publishers / 256 pages / February 2012 / ISBN-10: 1609611624; ISBN-13: 978-1609611620 / $30

In his new book, historic gardener and long-time SGHS member Wesley Greene introduces today's gardeners to the art of the well-ordered eighteenth-century kitchen garden by mixing history and folklore with practical advice on growing vegetables and herbs. Greene—a student of the period gardening tomes of influential British authors such as Philip Miller (The Gardener's Dictionary, 1768)—founded the Colonial Garden and Plant Nursery in the Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg, where he and other historic gardeners study and interpret eighteenth-century plants, tools, and cultural techniques and share their knowledge with visitors to the garden.

Now Greene offers readers the wisdom of gardeners who grew purple broccoli and three-foot-long cucumbers, improved melon seeds by walking around with them in their pockets, sheltered transplants with oiled paper, heated hotbeds for January seedlings with manure, used lime water to control aphids and trapped slugs in the lettuce beds with a simple tile.

"What connects all generations of vegetable gardeners is the optimism of committing seed to earth," explains Greene. "It's an unpredictable endeavor, and yet generations of garden writers have dared to predict that a seed planted in April will provide a harvest in July. In this book, we give you the best advice for the management of your kitchen garden from the most notable gardeners and botanists of the eighteenth century."

The book, illustrated with images by Colonial Williamsburg photographer Barbara Lombardi, has received pre-publication praise from Greene's fellow historic gardeners. J. Dean Norton, director of horticulture at Mount Vernon, said, "Greene's historical guide to eighteenth-century vegetables and gardening practices showcases tried-and-true techniques that are remarkably relevant for today's home vegetable growers — all thoroughly researched, beautifully illustrated, and written to inform and entertain." Peter Hatch, director of gardens and grounds at Monticello, called the book "a steaming hotbed of garden wisdom."

Wesley Greene will be a speaker at the Society's upcoming annual meeting in Richmond, VA.

Haltom, Susan and Jane Roy Brown: One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place
Photographs by Langdon Clay
University Press of MS / hardcover / 304 pages / ISBN-10: 1617031194 / ISBN-13: 978-1617031199 / September 2011 / List Price $35

Near the end of her life, Eudora Welty (1909-2001) still resided in her parents' house in Jackson, Mississippi, but the modest garden she nurtured with her mother, Chestina Welty, had all but vanished. Local garden designer, and former SGHS board member, Susan Haltom offered to help bring back her mother's garden and, in so doing, the memories of Welty's life. Susan Haltom went on to launch a historic restoration of the ¾ acre property in Jackson's Belhaven neighborhood and, in One Writer's Garden, Haltom and Jane Roy Brown draw connections between Eudora Welty's gardening and her writing. They show how the garden echoed the prevailing style of her mother's generation, which mirrored trends in American life: Progressive-era optimism, a rising middle class, prosperity, new technology, women's clubs, garden clubs, streetcar suburbs, civic beautification, conservation, plant introductions, and garden writing. The authors illustrate this garden's history—and the broader story of how American gardens evolved in the early twentieth century, with images of contemporary garden literature, seed catalogs, and advertisements, as well as unique historic photographs. Noted landscape photographer Langdon Clay captures the restored garden through the seasons. This book contains many previously unpublished writings, including literary passages and excerpts from Welty's private correspondence about the garden. [For more information about the Eudora Welty Foundation, Inc., visit: eudorawelty.org]

Sills, Vaughn: Places for the Spirit
Photographs by Lowry Pei and Hilton Als
Trinity University Press / 2010 / hardcover / 160 pages / ISBN-10: 1595340645 / ISBN-13: 978-1595340641 / list price $29.95.

This is a stunning collection of over 80 documentary photographs of African American folk gardens — and their creators — in the Deep South (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina). These landscapes have a unique historical significance due to the design elements and spiritual meanings that have been traced to the yards and gardens of American slaves and further back to their prior African heritage. These deceptively casual or whimsical foliage arrangements are subtle and symbolic reminders of the divine in everyday life, the cycles of nature, and implied right and wrong ways to live. In the spirit of "outsider" art traditions, blues musical roots, and other such folk manifestations, these gardens have a unique aesthetic and cultural significance. Over 20 years in the making, this is the first collection of fine art photography to document this subject and, as such, it adds greatly to our understanding and appreciation of this disappearing element of African American culture. Available on Amazon.com.

Tankard, Judith B.: Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden - From the Archives of Country Life
Hardcover with jacket / 8.5 x 11.25" / 192 pages / 147 b&w and 51 color illustrations. $45 U.S. / Rizzoli New York / ISBN: 978-0-8478-3633-8 / Release date: May 2011

Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden is the first book in more than two decades devoted to the most important garden designer of the twentieth century.

Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932) laid the basis for modern garden design and is credited with popularizing an informal, naturalistic look in counterpoint to the rigid, formal landscapes of the Victorian era. Her collaboration with Edwin Lutyens produced seminal garden masterpieces of the Arts & Crafts movement, including Hestercombe and Folly Farm.

Also known as a prolific and influential writer, Jekyll contributed more than one hundred articles to Country Life and designed three gardens for the publication's founder, Edward Hudson. As a result, the Country Life archive has an unrivaled record of her work. This book includes a combination of both archival black-and-white and contemporary color photographs highlighting a selection of the
more than 350 gardens Jekyll created.

About the Author: SGHS member Judith B. Tankard is a landscape historian, author and preservation consultant. She received an M.A. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and taught at the Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, for 20 years. Her articles and book reviews have been published in many magazines, including Hortus, Apollo and Country Life. She lectures regularly both in the United States and Britain. She is the author or co-author of seven illustrated books on landscape history, including most recently Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes and Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Turner, Suzanne and Wilson, Joanne Seale, photographs by Paul Hester: Houston's Silent Garden – Glenwood Cemetery, 1871-2009
TAMU Press, available March 2010; hardcover, 304 pages; ISBN10: 1603441638, ISBN13: 978-1603441636; list price $60

Glenwood Cemetery has long offered a serene and pastoral final resting place for many of Houston's civic leaders and historic figures. In Houston's Silent Garden, Suzanne Turner and Joanne Seale Wilson reveal the story of this beautifully wooded and landscaped preserve's development—a story that is also very much entwined with the history of Houston.

In 1871, recovering from Reconstruction, a group of progressive citizens noticed that Houston needed a new cemetery at the edge of the central city. Embracing the picturesque aesthetic that had swept through the Eastern Seaboard, the founders of Glenwood selected land along Buffalo Bayou and developed Glenwood. Since then, the cemetery's monuments have memorialized the lives of many of the city's most interesting residents (Allen, Baker, Brown, Clayton, Cooley, Cullinan, Farish, Hermann, Hobby, House, Hughes, Jones, Law, Rice, Staub, Sterling, Weiss, and Wortham, among many others). The monuments also showcase the artistry and craftsmanship of some of the region's finest sculptors and artisans.

Accompanied by the breathtaking photography of Paul Hester, this book chronicles the cemetery's origins from its inception in 1871 to the present day.

Through the story of Glenwood, readers will appreciate some of the natural features that shaped Houston's evolution and will also begin to understand the forces of urbanization that positioned Houston to become the vital community it is today.

Houston's Silent Garden is a must-read for those interested in Houston civic and regional history, architecture, and urban planning.

SGHS member SUZANNE TURNER is professor emeritus of the School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University and principal of Suzanne Turner Associates. She resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. JOANNE SEALE WILSON of Houston is the author of several publications in horticulture and landscaping, including a biography of historic landscape architect Rose Ishbel Greely. PAUL HESTER teaches in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University. His photographs have appeared in many books, magazines, and exhibitions.

Welch, William C. PhD and Greg Grant, with forward by Felder Rushing; contributors Cynthia Mueller and Jason Powell: Heirloom Gardening in the South: Yesterday's Plants for Today's Gardens
TAMU Press, College Station / durable binding paperback, 544 pages, 10.2 x 9.1 x 1.5 inches / ISBN-10: 1603442138; ISBN-13: 978-1603442138 / April 2011 / List Price $29.95

This is a new, expanded edition of the 1995 classic work on Southern heirloom plants by two current board members of the Southern Garden History Society, Bill Welch and Greg Grant. Heirloom Gardening in the South is a comprehensive resource that also offers a captivating, personal encounter with two dedicated and passionate gardeners whose love of heritage gardening infuses the work from beginning to end. Anyone who wants to know how to find and grow time-honored and pass-along plants or wants to create and nurture a traditional garden is sure to find this a must-have addition to their home gardening library. Tough and adapted, tried and true, pretty and useful, these living antiques—passed through countless generations—represent the foundation of traditional gardens as we know them today.

The book includes new essays on naturalizing daffodils, slips and starts, and growing fruit; a completely updated and expanded heirloom plant encyclopedia; revised plant lists (bulbs, cemetery plants, etc.); and new material on the creation of two of the authors' personal gardens. Building on the popularity of the original edition, this lively, entertaining, and informative new book from two proven experts will be enthusiastically welcomed by gardeners and horticulturists throughout Texas and the South.

White, Jane Baber: Lessons Learned from a Poet's Garden
Blackwell Press, Lynchburg, VA / hardcover, 192 pages, 310 photographs and illustrations | ISBN: 978-0-0830482-5-1 / limited edition available through the author / $45 plus shipping and 5% tax for Virginia residents

Southern Garden History Society board member Jane Baber White has written a beautiful and practical guide to restoring an historic garden. Using the enchanting garden of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer as a case study, Mrs. White has documented the steps taken by her garden club over a 28-year period to restore and maintain this historic National Register property. The ladies of Hillside Garden Club, a member of the Garden Club of Virginia, have provided an example of lessons learned, which can serve as inspiration and instruction to others facing similar challenges. The beautiful results have received international recognition.

Scott Kunst, owner of Old House Gardens in Ann Arbor, Michigan, gives Jane White's compelling book high praises, describing it as "a richly illustrated book laid out something like a scrapbook with all sorts of bits and pieces clipped together and overlapping one another – old family photos taken in the garden, notes Anne scribbled on seed catalogs, receipts, newspaper clippings, snapshots of the restoration, and evocative photos of the restored garden today." As an added bonus, the book also includes poetry and writings of Anne Spencer never-before published. The Anne Spencer Garden received the Garden Club of Virginia Commonwealth Award in 1985 and 2009, and it receives preservation assistance from The Garden Conservancy. The Southern Garden History Society will visit the Anne Spencer Garden in 2013 during the Society's 32nd annual meeting in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The book is offered for sale by the author to support the continuing work of Hillside Garden Club in the ongoing care of the Spencer Garden. For ordering information, write: janebaberwhite@gmail.com; telephone (434) 384-3132.