Bookshelf: Historic American Gardens

Looking for some garden design inspiration now that it's time for us to all get out in the garden? These beautiful books on historic American gardens will help some new ideas to blossom. The final book in this trio of recently published garden books will help you put your inspirations into action to create your own gorgeous American garden!

Ellen Shipman and the American Garden

Ellen Shipman designed more than 600 gardens in the United States between 1914 and 1950. This book celebrates her work creating gorgeous formal American gardens for famous clients including the Fords, the Edisons, the Astors, and the du Ponts. She drew on the Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts movements, with an original approach to color.

You can see the results in her gardens in places including the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida; the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio; the Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, and Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University.

Seeking Eden

This new book celebrates the rich garden heritage of the state of Georgia, with the stories of nearly thirty public and private gardens. These include Colonial Revival gardens, historic town squares, college campuses, a conservation garden, rock gardens and ornamental 19th century parterres.

The book looks at the evolution of the gardens over the last couple of centuries, right through to the present day, with photographs to help bring their histories alive! If you want some inspiration from the luscious old gardens you've seen in Georgia, here's the answer!

Garden Renovation: Transform Your Yard Into the Garden of Your Dreams

I love that subtitle, as Greg and I have been working for the last few years on just that dream in our Newberry, South Carolina garden. You can see some of our landscaping and gardening challenges and successes for our vintage 1920 bungalow renovation in my blog posts: The "before" jungle of a garden  when we moved in and The "after" garden: Roses in bloom.

American Gardens Done Right

We could have used this Garden Renovation book earlier! It's written by garden designer Bobbie Schwartz, who takes a practical approach to transforming a problem child yard into a delightful garden paradise. She shares tips, ideas on how to plan the landscape and tackle planting choices and also shows her ideas in action with case studies and before and after photos of her own clients' yards, featuring American gardens from across the country.

Happy gardening!