Book Review: Restoring American Gardens

Another caveat from Adams is that ...not all heirloom plants are appropriate for planting in today's gardens. Plants that have proved to be invasive or particularly vigorous might threaten the environment where you live....Always substitute for those plants that might take over, even if they have historic value to your site. The future must be protected as well as the past. In Appendix D, Adams provides lists of potentially invasive plants for regions across the United States.

Adams also suggests that we not only consider the plants themselves, but the importance as well of thinking about how plants might have arrived in a gardener's life and what they represented in an earlier landscape. The issue of maintenance is an issue in every historic garden approach, says Adams. It is important to determine a manageable approach, and in the case of public restorations like those of the National Park Service, create a documented maintenance plan.

Locating plants can be a challenge, says Adams. She provides several suggestions such as swapping with friends or hunting along roadsides and in old cemeteries. Appendix C provides names of nurseries and seed firms that specialize in providing period plants.

Gardens and Architecture: Design Styles for Historic American Building Types (Chapter 2) draws from many contemporary sources to describe garden styles associated with specific architectural types. Adams also provides some period designs for modern implementation and lists in Appendix B specific period plants for various regions of the United States. This chapter is made a visual delight by using copies of contemporary photographs, postcards, magazine illustrations, and garden plans.

This chapter provides a visual and written guide to American gardens and their houses. Adams also points out that there are differences between urban and rural garden practices as well as between high-style and vernacular gardens. Again, she warns that there are great differences between the idealized house and garden and the reality of what was really there. Here is how Adams divides gardens and architecture for this book:

• Vernacular and Folk Houses (1600-1920)
  
• High-Style Architecture
  • Georgian and Federal (1700-1830)
    
  • Greek Revival (1820-1860)
    
  • Italianate (1840-1885)
    
  • Queen Anne (1880-1910)
    
  • Urban Town Houses (Row Houses)
    
  • Craftsman and Prairie (1900-1930)
    
  • and Colonial Revival (1880-1955).

Gardens and Geography: Ornamental Garden Traditions from Maine to Oregon (Chapter 3) delves into the influence of climate, topography and cultural traditions on regional garden styles. In Chapter 2, Adams consolidates the scope of garden styles and architectural styles;

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