Hi I've just joined Gardenbanter to try and solve a problem of garden styles in the 60's 70's and 80's. There is lots of info on Georgian or Victorian garden design (And even the fifties) but nothing on more recent years. All I can remember of gardens back then were swings and bikes not varieties of plants. Can anyone please help identify what varieties of plants were fashionable and how they would have been used, shrubbery, rockery hedge etc.
Cheers GUY
Hi Guy
Asking that sort of question in an ng which has international following makes a sensible response a bit hard. I can tell you what they were like in Australia during each of those periods but I can't imagine that knowing that Australian native plant gardens were all the rage in the 70s and unsuccessful largely because at that time there was limited knowledge of the size to which some of the plants would get to as they matured probably wouldn't be too useful to you.
I suggest you head off to a second hand book dealer because every one I have ever been to has a LOT of gardening books for those decades. I go regularly to replace my locally produced gardening book from the 60s.
With Farml's advice in mind I'd look at the Time-life series of gardening by James Underwood Crockett. This is circa 1972. There is a similar series circa 1960 but I can't find it or remember the details.
Bill
'Bill[_13_ Wrote:
Hi, Guy, As a boy growing up in the fifties, gardens were still very much influenced by the war years with every back garden in the land still growing veg and every front lawn surrounded by roses with a hydrangea in the corner and clumps of very traditional perennials like, solidago, pinks, cranesbill geranium, asters, chrysanthemum and dahlias etc. etc. My involvement with gardening started with me working at my local garden centre in Somerset in 1966 when I remember a far greater proportion of deciduous shrubs than are popular today ; Forsythia, Weigelia (as it was spelt then) Lilac, spirea and really shrubs which were grown for their flowers. Of course, it was these early garden centres that were responsible for introducing the general public to more unusual evergreen shrubs that up until then had only been known by a very small section of society. So slowly as we drifted towards the
70's, the average man had not only more leisure time but had the money to spend on plants and became less reliant on what was grown at home. In the late 60's everybody wanted a rockery, alpines were very popular, as were dwarf conifers especially 'Boulevard' and 'Rheingold'. By now containerisation was the norm, albeit those horrid floppy bags,but it did mean that for the first time plants were available all the year and not just in the traditional dormant period. In the 70's I moved to Cornwall and worked initially as a landscape gardener and then again for a garden centre. By now (mid 70's) slab patios were in vogue, and to go on them garden furniture (Iroko for the rich, plastic for the poor) rockeries now incorporated waterfalls and ponds, the first of the conservatories were appearing, albeit initially for the majority only lean-to alluminium greenhouses (which were totally unsuitable to sit in due to at the best condensation and at the worst leakage) Curved flowing borders by now had replaced straight lines and natural slate, especially slate crazy paving was all the rage. Lots of garden centres by now had sprung up so everybody had access to an ever increasing range of mainly evergreen shrubs, the traditional deciduous species now only selling when thay were in flower. As we moved through the eighties, the garden became 'the outdoor room' with barbeques now gracing the patio. There were still the die-hard veg growers but the 'organic' revolution was really taking hold. Television was now playing its part in driving trends (this really took off in the early nineties with programmes like ground force etc.) and the garden centres were now becoming outdoor activity centres. Car boot sales became big business and from the early nineties (to date) is where I have been selling plants. So enough waffle, not really very much about plants !Best wishes Lannerman.
Thats Brilliant! I was just after a feel of how gardens changed over the years and what trends were about when. This is very helpful cheers GUY
lannerman;866662 Wrote:
Delightful books and well worth reading but Nichols' garden books were about gardens that predate the time frame mentioned by the OP.
I was thinking of Gardens Open Today as being a "60's" garden...but I could be wrong
Hmmm - I have a whole bunch of "garden memoir" books.. Maybe I need to go do some re-reading.. All of the ones I've kept were such happy reads. Dumped "Green Thoughts" - while the author wrote well and informatively, there was something about her that just rubbed be the wrong way.
Cheyrl
You could be right too though. I've not read that one. I've read the series that included 'Laughter on the Stairs' - where he starts from knowing nothing to having that huge garden and being very picky about his plants.
:-)) Your mention of him made me think that I needed to reread too. I share the series with a friend as we both bought some of the set but they live at her house.
I'm going to take some time next week and find all my BN and a few others. In particular, "Onward and Upward in the Garden" by Katherine White and the Richardson Wright books need to come to the fore...
Reading is an interesting adventure these days. I had switch from a combined script to "distance" and readers for my glasses. (I could not adjust to bifocals; apparently there is some percentage of the population that can't.) I can see fine to read and stitch, but need switch back and forth if I need to get up and do something (like laundry or answer the door).
Cheryl
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