2022-23 Garden History and Design Committee
Karen Schmahl, Chair
Committee members: Kathy Palmer, Pamela Shovers, Mary Walker, Heidi Wurlitzer
Karen Schmahl, Chair
Committee members: Kathy Palmer, Pamela Shovers, Mary Walker, Heidi Wurlitzer
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The GH&D Committee is very excited about new GCA initiatives.
Parks: Where Nature Meets Community Olmsted 200: Celebrating Parks for all people The 200th anniversary of Fredrick Law Olmsted Sr.’s birth is April 26, 2022 and will mark an opportunity to celebrate a person that is considered the father of American Landscape Architecture. He championed public parks and open spaces. And he understood their link to the physical and mental health of communities. The GCA has embraced his work and encourage member clubs to celebrate it. To help us understand FLO and his work, a GCA scholarship recipient and 2020 intern at the Smithsonian Institute Archives of American Garden has formulated a series of 6 One Minute Reports highlighting Olmsted Principals of Design. Click on the links to the individual reports below: |
A Comprehensive Approach_6
Sustainable Design & Environmental Conservation_5
Orchestration of Use_4
Orchestration of Movement_3
Unified Composition_2
The Genius of the Place_1
Milwaukee is so lucky to have excellent examples of FLO’s expertise at Lake Park, Washington Park and Newberry Blvd. over to what used to be River Park.
All the GCA Clubs are presented with an opportunity to tie Olmsted’s revolutionary work in our parks and public landscapes, with a club project.
For more information about Parks: Where Nature Meets Community and Olmsted200 Celebrating Parks for all people click on these links or go to the GCA website, GH&D landing page soon.
The GH&D Committee welcomes everyone’s input and will keep you updated on plans to celebrate the American icon that is FLO.
Thank you!
GTGC GH&D Committee
Kathy Palmer (Chair), Alison Culver, Karen Schmahl and Mary Walker
Click the following link to be directed to the website of the National Association of Olmsted Parks (NAOP)
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Special thanks to Kathy Palmer and the Garden History & Design Committee for sharing this video with us at our January 12 membership meeting - and for providing us with delicious treats to enjoy while viewing it!
Thank you, as well to Alison Culver for penning the excellent article below about America's Earliest Gardeners. |
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AMERICA’S EARLIEST GARDENERS
Gardening was a pastime and passion for the founding fathers.
Most people recognize America’s founding fathers for their contributions to American Independence, but only a few know what these historic figures did in their spare time. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were avid gardeners and botanists, studied and knowledgeable on growing spectacular and admirable plant varieties. They each kept gardens to supply their kitchens with beautiful cut flowers and bountiful fruit, vegetables and crop harvests. Many of their revolutionary era crops and flowers are still grown by gardening/agriculture enthusiasts.
To understand the evolution of America it is imperative to look at the founding fathers as being more than politicians, but as gardeners, plantsmen and farmers. Not only did they create the United States in a political sense, but they also understood the importance of nature: Gardening, agriculture and botany were passions of theirs as deeply ingrained as their belief in liberty for the nation. Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison knew agricultural self-sufficiency was vital for the colonies.
Gardening was a pastime and passion for the founding fathers.
Most people recognize America’s founding fathers for their contributions to American Independence, but only a few know what these historic figures did in their spare time. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were avid gardeners and botanists, studied and knowledgeable on growing spectacular and admirable plant varieties. They each kept gardens to supply their kitchens with beautiful cut flowers and bountiful fruit, vegetables and crop harvests. Many of their revolutionary era crops and flowers are still grown by gardening/agriculture enthusiasts.
To understand the evolution of America it is imperative to look at the founding fathers as being more than politicians, but as gardeners, plantsmen and farmers. Not only did they create the United States in a political sense, but they also understood the importance of nature: Gardening, agriculture and botany were passions of theirs as deeply ingrained as their belief in liberty for the nation. Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison knew agricultural self-sufficiency was vital for the colonies.
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The founding father's deep passion for nature, plants, gardens and agriculture was aligned with their political thought. On an ideological level (the obvious being the economic importance of crops) it was important in terms of our country becoming self-sufficient which also related to Thomas Jefferson’s belief of America as an agrarian republic. It was central to Jefferson's philosophy that a rural nation was the finest of nations and that gardening was the center of what is best in human life. This was an imperative component of, and informed the founding father’s overall philosophy of, our national identity and belief that nature was invested with patriotic overtones - from this, a political manifesto grew.
Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman gardener and an experimenter, he documented over 500 varieties of fruits and vegetables. He set a model for sustainable farming, seed saving, organic gardening and local food. Jefferson believed the failure of one thing is repaired by the success of another. |
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On the eve before the battle of New York, George Washington’s first and largest battle of the War of Independence, Washington requested plans for a new garden filled only with native species. At a moment when America was facing the almighty British Army, he did not want a single English tree to have a claw in the roots of Mount Vernon. It could be said he was creating a horticultural Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson, during years of diplomatic service overseas, toured private gardens, studied agricultural techniques and sent seeds and plants home to be distributed among fellow plantsmen.
Jefferson, during years of diplomatic service overseas, toured private gardens, studied agricultural techniques and sent seeds and plants home to be distributed among fellow plantsmen.
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The kitchen garden was the most important garden on any grounds. Every house outside the towns/cities, and some in cities, had a vegetable or kitchen garden. These garden plots were necessary to supplement family diets. Most were small and close to the house with a brick, gravel or stone walkway from the houses entrance to the center of the garden. Planting beds were typically square, circular or rectangular with paths that forked out from the main walkway. Fruit, herbs, flowers and vegetables were mixed in the beds and frequently raised and enclosed with either fences or
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boxwood hedges. In addition to the kitchen garden, all cultivated fields and every garden contained vegetables (and herbs for medicine, food and fragrance). Revolutionary gardens were diverse, varying by geographic area, climate, economic status and heritage of the owner. Seeds from around the world were mixed with native plants like corn and tobacco.
As garden designs increased in complexity, the skill levels of gardeners and required tools followed suit. Proper tools of the era included: A spade for turning and smoothing the ground, shovel for throwing earth from trenches and ditches and a rake for keeping the garden tidy. Depending on the gardener, other tools used were garden shears, long pruners, baskets, watering cans, pickaxes, a ladder and stone rollers.
COMMON REVOLUTIONARY ERA PLANTS
Artichokes - One of the first vegetables Jefferson grew at Monticello.
Pumpkins - Most contemporary gardens are heavily influenced by Native American culture and the varieties they gave New England settlers in the 1600s.
Tobacco - Commonly grown for personal and trade purposes, it was colonial farmers main source of income in the American south.
Asparagus - First grown at Monticello in 1770.
Corn - The dominant grain in Virginia, it was a staple and meant sustenance. It grew in a variety of conditions and was resistant to disease.
Peas - Coastal colonies had the perfect climate for peas, they are still grown at Mount Vernon.
Allspice - Both Jefferson and Washington grew allspice - Jefferson shared allspice shrubs with Washington.
Parsley - Originally grown in revolutionary era gardens and a medicinal, it was later boiled to mask gamey flavors and used as a dye.
Catnip - Grown originally as a medicinal, catnip is native to North America and still abundant in modern gardens.
Rhubarb - Used primarily as medicinal, by 1777, sugar became more available as cooking ingredient.
Beebalm - Grown to attract pollinators long before revolutionary era, then used as a cooking spice.
Four O’clocks - Most 18th century gardens contained these beauties.
Black eyed peas - Exceptionally popular in the colony’s warmer regions.
COMMON REVOLUTIONARY ERA PLANTS
Artichokes - One of the first vegetables Jefferson grew at Monticello.
Pumpkins - Most contemporary gardens are heavily influenced by Native American culture and the varieties they gave New England settlers in the 1600s.
Tobacco - Commonly grown for personal and trade purposes, it was colonial farmers main source of income in the American south.
Asparagus - First grown at Monticello in 1770.
Corn - The dominant grain in Virginia, it was a staple and meant sustenance. It grew in a variety of conditions and was resistant to disease.
Peas - Coastal colonies had the perfect climate for peas, they are still grown at Mount Vernon.
Allspice - Both Jefferson and Washington grew allspice - Jefferson shared allspice shrubs with Washington.
Parsley - Originally grown in revolutionary era gardens and a medicinal, it was later boiled to mask gamey flavors and used as a dye.
Catnip - Grown originally as a medicinal, catnip is native to North America and still abundant in modern gardens.
Rhubarb - Used primarily as medicinal, by 1777, sugar became more available as cooking ingredient.
Beebalm - Grown to attract pollinators long before revolutionary era, then used as a cooking spice.
Four O’clocks - Most 18th century gardens contained these beauties.
Black eyed peas - Exceptionally popular in the colony’s warmer regions.
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Additionally, turnips, onions, cabbage, squash, carrots, parsnips and legumes were grown. These vegetables stored well through cold months. Beans, corn and cucumbers were grown, salted and pickled for preservation. Fruits not eaten in season were preserved as jam, dried or cooked into frozen winter pies. Chestnuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, cranberries, grapes, crabapples were grown, gathered and prepped for winter storage, some dried in the sunlight for preservation. Weather hardy fruit trees such as fig, apple and cherry (first imported from England as seeds and cuttings) were successfully transplanted and harvested in their new environment. |
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By the declaration of the American Revolution a taste for whiskey had been acquired among those who could produce it. Corn was grown in Kentucky specifically for the production of American Bourbon Whiskey and this step, just as the country was going to war with Britain, established American spirit in the American culture. Whiskey became the spirit of choice for Americans who wished to thumb their noses at Britain. In the north, whiskey was made with rye, while the south preferred corn. Rye was seen as more civilized grain and corn whiskey as more patriotic as it was produced from an indigenous American crop.
In addition to a taste for whiskey, a shift began in the consumption of cider over beer and growers opted to grow less barley because it was easier to ferment apple cider than brew beer. Although beer was an important consumable to Americans, hard cider was by far the most common beverage. Apple trees were being grown locally in the colonies, unlike grapes and grain which did not grow well in New England. Cider was easier to produce than beer or wine so farmers made it themselves - not to mention its affordability since it was not imported.
After their respective service to the country, each founding father returned to their private lives to continue promoting gardening, agriculture, botany and other useful sciences that enhanced the welfare of their country and mankind. These elemental passions were as deeply ingrained in the founding father’s characters as was their belief in liberty for the nation they created.
In addition to a taste for whiskey, a shift began in the consumption of cider over beer and growers opted to grow less barley because it was easier to ferment apple cider than brew beer. Although beer was an important consumable to Americans, hard cider was by far the most common beverage. Apple trees were being grown locally in the colonies, unlike grapes and grain which did not grow well in New England. Cider was easier to produce than beer or wine so farmers made it themselves - not to mention its affordability since it was not imported.
After their respective service to the country, each founding father returned to their private lives to continue promoting gardening, agriculture, botany and other useful sciences that enhanced the welfare of their country and mankind. These elemental passions were as deeply ingrained in the founding father’s characters as was their belief in liberty for the nation they created.
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MOUNT VERNON’S BOURBON CHERRY COMPOTE
2 cups Bing cherries 1 cup sugar 3/4 cup bourbon Juice of 1 lemon Combine and simmer all ingredients of medium heat. Gently cook until the mixture is thick and syrupy. Remove from heat and cool before storing. Refrigerate to store. |
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MONTICELLO’S BURNT CREAM
This recipe is from the back cover of “Thomas Jefferson’s Creme Brûlée . The recipe is attributed to Honore' Julien by Jefferson’s granddaughter Virginia R. Trist in her manuscript cookbook of Monticello recipes.
Boil 2 quarts of milk with a large piece of orange peel; when it is cool, take a ½ lb. of sugar, the yolks of 7 eggs and whites of 2 well beaten and stir them into the boiled milk with 2 or 3 handful of flour. Pass the mixture through a sieve, put it on the fire and stir it till it thickens; add an ounce of fresh butter, pour it into a deep dish and when it cools and drips on the surface a little, sprinkle it over with sugar and glaze it with a hot shovel, Flavour it with the essence of lemon or anything you like.
Enjoy!
GH&D Committee 01.12.21
Alison Culver
Kathy Palmer
Karen Schmahl
Mary Walker
Highlights of GTGC Gardens
Midwest Gardens Go to Washington
Deep Dene
A GARDEN FOR THE GENERATIONS
To live all one’s life in the same house in which one is born is a rare privilege. To be in that house surrounded by the same land with the same trees and wildflowers that still grow there today is even more rare. This was the gift given to Mrs. John D. Bryson (Cissy) and she has spent her life caring for the land and its gardens. Over the years, the gardens have grown and changed to reflect the lives of successive generations.
To live all one’s life in the same house in which one is born is a rare privilege. To be in that house surrounded by the same land with the same trees and wildflowers that still grow there today is even more rare. This was the gift given to Mrs. John D. Bryson (Cissy) and she has spent her life caring for the land and its gardens. Over the years, the gardens have grown and changed to reflect the lives of successive generations.
1926 was the year Cissy was born and her family moved onto the property. Gardens were begun soon after, placed on five acres of land surrounded by ravines and a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Undeterred by the heavy strips of clay that laced the soil, Cissy’s mother planted a huge vegetable garden, beds of phlox and iris along with formal gardens. She filled the ravine with wildflowers that still bloom today. And, she somehow found time to become one of the founders of the Green Tree Garden Club as well. At the age of five, Cissy was given her own small garden called “the nursery” which she tended daily. It took three full time gardners to pump and haul water from the nearby well and maintain all of the beds.
Years later a portion of land was sold and two new homes took the place of the original vegetable garden. A Chicago landscape gardner, Franz Lipp, who helped design Ravinia Park and Lincoln Park Zoo, was hired to design new gardens. Features of his design included a circle of yews, two large gardens surrounded by a hedge and boundary garden and a stone wall.
Because they were designed at a time when it was a custom and pastime to “go to the garden,” they were situated a short distance west of the house.
Lipp’s circle plan remained in place until Cissy’s marriage. In her belief that gardens should be located close by so that they could be easily seen and enjoyed, she added two new borders on the east side of the house overlooking Lake Michigan.
Among all the beds of annuals and perennials so carefully nurtured by her mother, one flower that Cissy had always loved was missing. The rose became the centerpiece of her most beloved and best known garden.
The gardens of today need to be close by if they are to be seen and enjoyed on a daily basis. To that end, the first step that Cissy and her husband, Jack, took was to design a garden room with French doors and windows that offered a full view to the south of their house. Construction began in 1990, and the plan for the garden was created shortly thereafter. The first challenge was to find a fence to measure nine feet in height that would prevent the herds of deer from devouring every living plant. Finding a fence that was not only strong, durable and aesthetically pleasing was not easy and Cissy spent months researching every fencing magazine she could find.
Years later a portion of land was sold and two new homes took the place of the original vegetable garden. A Chicago landscape gardner, Franz Lipp, who helped design Ravinia Park and Lincoln Park Zoo, was hired to design new gardens. Features of his design included a circle of yews, two large gardens surrounded by a hedge and boundary garden and a stone wall.
Because they were designed at a time when it was a custom and pastime to “go to the garden,” they were situated a short distance west of the house.
Lipp’s circle plan remained in place until Cissy’s marriage. In her belief that gardens should be located close by so that they could be easily seen and enjoyed, she added two new borders on the east side of the house overlooking Lake Michigan.
Among all the beds of annuals and perennials so carefully nurtured by her mother, one flower that Cissy had always loved was missing. The rose became the centerpiece of her most beloved and best known garden.
The gardens of today need to be close by if they are to be seen and enjoyed on a daily basis. To that end, the first step that Cissy and her husband, Jack, took was to design a garden room with French doors and windows that offered a full view to the south of their house. Construction began in 1990, and the plan for the garden was created shortly thereafter. The first challenge was to find a fence to measure nine feet in height that would prevent the herds of deer from devouring every living plant. Finding a fence that was not only strong, durable and aesthetically pleasing was not easy and Cissy spent months researching every fencing magazine she could find.
When she finally found a beautiful lattice design that would serve her purpose, she engaged a well-known Wisconsin landscape architect, Judith Stark, to help her design a rose garden. The result was a symmetrical plan of four parterres each with a rose tree centered, surrounded by an array of rose bushes. The dark green lattice fence provides a dramatic background for the brilliant shades of pink in the flowers. A charming antique sculpture of a nymph is the central feature of the garden.
The outlines of the garden are as pleasing to the eye in the winter as they are in the summer months; the branches of the rose trees and outlines of the fence etched in snow offer a dramatic contrast to the gray skies overhead.
People loved the garden from the beginning. Visitors from Milwaukee’s Layton School of Art, the Garden Conservancy and many garden clubs have visited and admired the garden. It is the two-page centerpiece of the Garden Conservancy’s book of gardens. Over the years, it has been a constant source of joy to its owners, their friends and lovers of gardens in the upper Midwest.
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The outlines of the garden are as pleasing to the eye in the winter as they are in the summer months; the branches of the rose trees and outlines of the fence etched in snow offer a dramatic contrast to the gray skies overhead.
People loved the garden from the beginning. Visitors from Milwaukee’s Layton School of Art, the Garden Conservancy and many garden clubs have visited and admired the garden. It is the two-page centerpiece of the Garden Conservancy’s book of gardens. Over the years, it has been a constant source of joy to its owners, their friends and lovers of gardens in the upper Midwest.
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Cissy's garden was accepted into the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens on January 31, 2020.
It was documented by Sandy Dawson and Mary Walker and photographed by Sandy Dawson.
Purtell Garden
Hattie and Ted Purtell’s garden is a slice of heaven. Grass and Lannon stone pathways wind their way through lush flower beds filled with a wide variety of plants that surround her home. "Good soil is the foundation of your garden". A quote from Hattie, "It’s the foundation of everything that grows and the foundation for getting healthier vegetables from the garden that nourish the flora in our digestive tracts. It’s one big cycle."
What do Julia Child's copper pans, Jacqueline Kennedy’s couture gowns, the Hope diamond and documentation of American Gardens have in common? This is not a Trivial Pursuit quiz. These disparate treasures all reside in the nation’s attic, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The Archives of American Gardens is housed within The Smithsonian Institution’s Horticultural Services Division to offer landscapers, historians and garden lovers access to a collection of approximately 60,000 photographs or drawings of historic and contemporary gardens. Because the very nature of gardens is site specific and transitory, the only means to reserve them for future study is through drawings and photographs.
The nucleus of the Archives of American Gardens is a collection of nearly 3,000 hand-colored glass lantern slides dating from the 1920s and 1930s and 30,000 35mm slides donated, along with supporting documentation, by the Garden Club of America in 1992. The Garden Club of America has continued to support this collection through ongoing research and development activities. Individual clubs have continued to expand the collection by documenting contemporary gardens and submitting them for inclusion in the Archives.
Portions of the archives with photographs and documentation are available online at www.siris.si.edu. The collection can be searched by geographic location, name of the garden or specific features in the garden. Examples of searchable garden features are ponds, fountains, fence designs or pergolas. Materials and images not available online can be accessed for research at the Archives by appointment.
Green Tree Garden Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has seven gardens in the Archives starting with Harmondie whose owner was president of the club from 1935-1937 to gardens of current members.
The gardens demonstrate a wide ecological and stylistic range. The historic family farm Lynden is now a renowned sculpture garden and art education center, which is part of the Milwaukee Art Museum. The most recent addition, The Little House in the Big Woods comprises an extensive native prairie, a large vegetable garden and woodland paths sprinkled with whimsical fairyland sculptures to delight both young and old. Two of the gardens are nestled in wooded lots bordered by the Milwaukee River. Both of these also include extensive vegetable gardens. "Afterglow Farm" overlooks Lake Michigan and includes an enclosed perennial garden as well as acres of native prairie. The owners of another garden, The Chimneys, have devoted years to developing an extensive arboretum. This garden includes fifty varieties of maple trees thoughtfully placed among the collection of native, European and Asian trees and shrubs framing the vistas and water features.
The photographing and documentation of gardens for inclusion in the Archives of American Gardens is a vital activity of the Green Tree Garden Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and an ongoing project of The Garden Club of America.
Respectfully submitted, Kathleen Asmuth & Kathy Palmer
The nucleus of the Archives of American Gardens is a collection of nearly 3,000 hand-colored glass lantern slides dating from the 1920s and 1930s and 30,000 35mm slides donated, along with supporting documentation, by the Garden Club of America in 1992. The Garden Club of America has continued to support this collection through ongoing research and development activities. Individual clubs have continued to expand the collection by documenting contemporary gardens and submitting them for inclusion in the Archives.
Portions of the archives with photographs and documentation are available online at www.siris.si.edu. The collection can be searched by geographic location, name of the garden or specific features in the garden. Examples of searchable garden features are ponds, fountains, fence designs or pergolas. Materials and images not available online can be accessed for research at the Archives by appointment.
Green Tree Garden Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has seven gardens in the Archives starting with Harmondie whose owner was president of the club from 1935-1937 to gardens of current members.
The gardens demonstrate a wide ecological and stylistic range. The historic family farm Lynden is now a renowned sculpture garden and art education center, which is part of the Milwaukee Art Museum. The most recent addition, The Little House in the Big Woods comprises an extensive native prairie, a large vegetable garden and woodland paths sprinkled with whimsical fairyland sculptures to delight both young and old. Two of the gardens are nestled in wooded lots bordered by the Milwaukee River. Both of these also include extensive vegetable gardens. "Afterglow Farm" overlooks Lake Michigan and includes an enclosed perennial garden as well as acres of native prairie. The owners of another garden, The Chimneys, have devoted years to developing an extensive arboretum. This garden includes fifty varieties of maple trees thoughtfully placed among the collection of native, European and Asian trees and shrubs framing the vistas and water features.
The photographing and documentation of gardens for inclusion in the Archives of American Gardens is a vital activity of the Green Tree Garden Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and an ongoing project of The Garden Club of America.
Respectfully submitted, Kathleen Asmuth & Kathy Palmer
After Glow Farm
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Kelton Farm, Saukville |
August, 2018 GTGC field trip to Kelton Farm. Spectacular gardens and amazing hospitality!! Thanks to Rosie Lyons for organizing!
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Contact us by writing to: GTGC, 10936 N. Port Washington Rd., #276, Mequon, WI 53092