Victorian Gardens - Softcover

Chapters include: The History, Planting Arrangements, Garden Planning, Herb & Kitchen Gardens, The Greenhouse, Components of the Victorian Scene. Flower gardens were slow to cross the Atlantic because Americans concentrated on growing vegetables and fruit. The Victorian style, according to the author, "provided for a garden of seclusion and natural beauty, a created segment of nature." It's one aspect of Victorian culture that seems perfectly adaptable to our lives today. This book, timed for spring, is specific about how to plan one: "trees and shrubs in the background, an uninterrupted expanse of lawn, and...flower borders and formal shrub design." Inspiring photographs make a reader want to rush for a shovel and the nearest nursery, and there are landscaping plans for different-shaped plots. These have been adapted, Highstone says, from a book published in 1870, and the diagrams are easy to understand.