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The Gardener's Gift of Travel

© Georgene A. Bramlage

Travel is one of the finest gifts that can be offered to a gardener. As satisfying as the exotic or expensive outing might at times be, this gift need not be either exotic or expensive.

With a bit of inquiry, it's likely that new places of interest can be found close to your doorstep. Whichever it is, a local day trip or an excursion of longer duration, a garden visit presents a pleasant learning opportunity to study the outline and bones of someone else's garden. What's more, there is always the prospect of absorbing the enduring atmosphere not only of the gardens, but also of the mindset of the garden's makers and the moment in time in which they worked.

To demonstrate that enchantment and delight may be found at any bend of a gardener's pleasure trip, I've identified a series of gardens in North America as ones having something to enlighten each of us. With each one, I've included a little explanation of why I believe it is important. Most I have visited; others are still on my "to visit" list.

I predict that your outings, when taken in a spirit of exploration, will encourage you to look more enthusiastically and closely at your own property and how it, your home and your life style can all link together. As you continue to mull over what kind of a scheme and basic design might be suitable for your landscape, it will become second nature to you to learn from studying what others before you have tried.

The first series of gardens, presented here, create a virtual field trip that mostly illustrates the garden design concepts of formal written about in Article 1. The second series, which will be posted soon, contains examples of informal gardens, while the third series will contain those with which I am particularly fascinated, and return to time and again. Happy Traveling!

We begin our virtual field trip in The Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA). This restored town is the best example existing anywhere today of the 17th - 18th century landscape model. It is a fusion of a simple town plan imposed by Governor Francis Nicholson upon the small 17th century hamlet known as Middle Plantation and the remnants of a typical Tidewater, Virginia landscape, which consists of level places and the ravines that mark their drainage.

Nicholson, responsible for the early design of this colonized area, was Governor of Virginia from 1694 until1699, and in 1696 he changed its capital from Jamestown to Williamsburg. Among other notable achievements in what were then the British colonies, Nicholson also founded William and Mary College in Williamsburg.

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