America’s Romance with the English Garden

Thomas J. Mickey, author of America’s Romance with the English Garden, will talk about the beginnings of the modern garden industry in the 1890s. when mass advertising, faster printing, national magazines, and free rural mail delivery made it possible to publish seed and nursery catalogs in the millions and send them across the country. Through essays, illustrations,and ads, these catalogs fixed the image of the English garden in the minds of striving Americans. The principal design elements of thatEnglish garden included the lawn, small groupings of flowering shrubs, a vegetable garden out back, flowerbeds on the lawn, trees to line the property,and a curved walkway. At a time when homeowners were eager to learn how to garden, it was no surprise that Americans everywhere loved the English Garden and the same garden appeared from California to Maine.

Thomas J. Mickey, a resident of Quincy, Massachusetts, is Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Bridgewater State University, where he taught for twenty-two years. He is also a graduate of the Landscape Institute at the Boston Architectural College. He is a Master Gardener and has been gardening for over 25 years. Mickey posts regularly on his blog americangardening.net. He is the author of three books, including Best Garden Plants for New England and his newest book America’s Romance with the English Garden. His garden column appears regularly in Quincy’s newspaper, The Patriot Ledger.

All Somerville Garden Club meetings are free and open to the public. Meetings are usually held the second Wednesday of each month at the Tufts Administration Building, (TAB), 167 Holland Street, second floor, wheelchair accessible. Parking is available, and the building is a ten-minute walk from the Davis Square MBTA stop.