Cool Garden Blog Discovery

An almost unknown blog about a fascinating subject.

I've been following an incredibly interesting blog recently: American Gardening, which is about American garden history. Anything with the word "history" in it may sound dull, but I can't believe how fascinating it actually is -- there have recently been brief (but nicely illustrated) posts about such topics as:

... how Chrysanthemums became popular in the 1880s (I had no idea how recent an introduction they are, unlike most other "old-fashioned" flowers we grow)

... how women weren't recognized as serious gardeners until the late 19th century

Beatrix Farrand (Pinterest)

... a number of posts about nineteenth century seed catalogs, which are beautiful art in their own right, as well as fascinating for modern gardeners to look at

... and many short reviews of garden and garden history books that the author recommends.

The author of the blog is Thomas Mickey, a retired communications professor, avid longtime Master Gardener and garden historian, who has written a beautifully illustrated book: America's Romance with the English Garden, which I bought when it was published in 2013. There are any number of garden history books about British gardens, but not so many about American gardens and gardeners, so Mickey's book was a nice addition. His book focuses on 19th century seed catalogs and the role they played in influencing our tastes toward English style gardens, rather than Italian, French or other national historic garden styles.

A book full of beautiful images from
nineteenth century gardens.

Anyway, I highly recommend taking a look at Thomas Mickey's blog. It's possible that I am the only person who knows about this blog besides the author (at least, I am the only one who ever comments) and that's a shame, because the blog is really quite interesting. The posts are brief but informative and I always feel I have learned something of value about the history of how we have come to garden the way we do today.