A Welcome New Year: Happy 2021 from Gardens to Gables

Gardening, in my opinion, is one of the best exercises in hope and faith one can practice. I know that my garden helped get me through the jolts and displacement of 2020, and while the calendar proclaims the new year…there’s still a bumpy road ahead for many of us. So I plan on continuing to find solace in nature, and writing about historic buildings as much as possible. While the weather might not allow too much work in the garden at the moment, I am happy that Santa Claus brought me two books to endure the gloom of January and February.

Books are always a good gift!

While I’ve collected scores of books about historic building types and a multitude of garden books, I don’t think my library contained anything relating to the often ephemeral landscape feature of fences.

The original book was self-published in 1963; my copy is a Dover imprint from 2012.

I have, however, photographed many an interesting gate and fence (the latter usually being wrought iron, a material that Carl F. Schmidt, architect and artist, dismissed as not possessing a “friendly or neighborly feeling”).

A particularly striking gate that caught my eye a few years ago in Staunton, Virginia.

Schmidt wrote in the forward: ” Slowly but surely during my lifetime, most of the beautiful old fences and gates have disappeared. Decay and prohibitive costs of authentic replacement have deprived the youth of today and all future generations of enjoying the beautiful fences, gates, and garden houses that once embellished our streets, gardens and highways.”

I admired this fence just last week and had to take a picture. I didn’t much consider its disposition, but it is beautifully haunting. Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.

Not only does Schmidt explore the world of wooden fences and gates in New England, but he also touches on the garden house – “sometimes called a summer-house, tea house, gazebo or belvedere… essentially of a light and delicate construction, hence its short life and scarceness today.” Black and white photographs are followed by pages and pages of measured drawings.

A wonderful nook of a garden house.

Schmidt divides garden houses into two categories: the latticed type (like the one in the O’Dey garden above) and the solid wall type. Its use was as a “sheltered retreat, where one could read and meditate.”

I hope Santa Claus will be able to replicate this garden house in my gardens…

I have just the book to take to my garden house (once it is built): another Christmas present, We Made A Garden by Margery Fish. First published in 1956, this enduring classic is part of the Modern Library Garden Series, chosen by Michael Pollan.

I am ashamed to say I hadn’t read it before now!

I started it a few days ago, and it’s just like a cozy conversation over a cup of tea. I hope to have it finished long before my garden house becomes a reality – and even if I never have such a fanciful structure in which to escape, I hope to always have a garden and books.

Happy New Year! May 2021 be more peaceful and healthy than the year we leave behind.