African-American Gardens - Design and Development: Part 3

Mary Miller (South Carolina) says, What I do in my yard I do because I like it nice. The way I arrange it, I didn't give that a thought.

Plants in rural African-American yards are appreciated as individuals rather than massed. Factors such as soil type, slope, and nearness to structures, drives and roads are also criteria at work here. Gardeners placed plants where they thought they would grow well or there was space. Sometimes, if the gardener grew grass - an expensive rarity - and mowed it, plants grew in relaxed rows so they were not damaged by mowing.

Perry Royal (Alabama) says, I just put them when there is space, you know. When it's blooming it really looks good.

The swept yard, although it probably originated in West Africa, was at one time an ever-present yard and garden feature for all cultures throughout the South. In most African-American families, sweeping the yard was a Saturday morning task for children. Ironing the yard is what some called it. Everything was clean underneath the house also - Iron it out. Handmade yard brooms were common. The worldwide and accepted reasons for this routine are to reduce insects and have a place where children can play, and adults can work and gather socially.

Inexpensive mass-produced yard ornaments and found objects placed alongside various combinations of flowers generate yard art. When gardeners like Susie Evans (Alabama) don't have spare cash and want something, they do as she did - use something else. When I moved here I didn't have the money to buy things like I wanted. I wanted big white posts on the side of my gate. I get out there (a mile in both directions along the paved road in front of her house) and when a wheel (hubcap) rolled off I stick it beside the gate. I call them 'old slave-time junk.' Gateposts at the entrance to Susie's yard are now decked out with hubcaps.

Westmacott, though searching for typical yard ornamentation, found many unique and high-spirited collections of recycled and found objects. His photos illustrating some of these are enchanting. However, to their makers, these groupings are deeply personal, individual and unselfconscious expressions. In no way are they seen as tacky or kitsch, or from another point of view, as trendy. 25 Years of Landscape Architecture at Dumbarton Oaks shows that many cultures other than African-American in the

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