Timeline of American Garden History

In Boston, the Puritans purchas 44 acres of property to designate as a public green space, known as the Boston Common.

The gardens surrounding the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia begin under the direction of Governor Alexander Spotswood.

John Bartram of Philadelphia establishes his botanic garden, known to be the oldest surviving of its kind in North America. In 1732, Bartram began trading seeds and plants with Peter Collinson, a London merchant and botanist. His reputation in international trade and botany earned him the title of “Royal Botanist” to King George III. Bartram was considered the greatest naturalist in the world, and was believed to have introduced 150 North American plant species to Europe.

Henry Middleton begins work on his vision for the plantation’s gardens, now considered to be the oldest landscaped gardens in the United States. The labor of enslaved people enabled plantations like Middleton Place to expand and create ornamental gardens. Middleton hired an English gardener design six terraces and a pair of “butterfly lakes,” to be excavated by enslaved laborers.

Future President Thomas Jefferson cultivates hundreds of varieties of vegetables, fruits, and flowers at his Virginia estate Monticello. Jefferson writes to artist Charles Wilson Peale, “No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. I am still devoted to the garden. But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.”

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubles the land area of the United States and officially opens “the West” for settlement. As settlers from Europe pour into the United States, so too did their seeds, plants, and gardening styles.

An act of Congress establishes the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.

Organized by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first of many rural cemeteries that played an integral role in 19th century life. Covering 175 acres, the cemetery is landscaped with ornamental plantings, ponds, monuments, fences, fountains, and chapels that provide a setting to commemorate the dead as well as inspire a tranquil environment.

Horticulturalist and writer Andrew Jackson Downing publishes the first edition of “A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening Adapted to North America.” In the book he introduces what is later considered the “American Dream”: “… an attachment to a certain spot, and a desire to render that place attractive—a feeling which seems more or less strongly fixed in the minds of all men.”

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux win the commission for New York’s Central Park which spurred the creation of parks across the United States. Olmsted was firmly established as the foremost landscape architect of the time, designing public commissions and private estates alike.

From 1861-1865 the Civil War interrupts the rise of horticultural activity by curtailing the “embellishment of gardens and decoration of grounds.”

Congress establishes Yellowstone as the first National Park, though few guidelines or funds are assigned to preserve it.

Frederick Law Olmsted creates a plan for the design of the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C., with drives, paths, trees, fountains, and terraces.

The Centennial Exposition’s Horticultural Hall in Philadelphia showcases exotic specimens and garden displays to millions of visitors.

The W. Atlee Burpee & Co. of Philadelphia is founded and later becomes the largest mail-order seed company in the world.

The emergence of the Arts and Crafts movement shaped architectural and artistic trends of the period. The movement developed in England in response to industrial consumerism and its ideals–simple traditional craftsmanship–flourished in North America. Early stages of the movement are often associated with Aestheticism which advocated “art for art’s sake.”

English art critic John Ruskin “formulate[s] a theory by which architecture could be judged by its dependence on natural form, and ornament was only acceptable when it was clearly derived from natural sources.” The contrived, exotic gardens of the Victorian era quickly became commonplace, unnatural, and out of fashion.

Frederick Law Olmsted was a member of the design team lead by architect Daniel Burnham who brought classical architecture on a grand scale to Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition. Urban planning and the height of Neo-Classicism inspired the “white city” created for the Exposition.

On the 100th year anniversary of Washington, D.C’.s establishment as a capital city, President William McKinley appointed a commission to improve the design of Washington, keeping in mind the original plan that military engineer Pierre L’Enfant had in mind when he first laid out the nation’s “Federal City” in 1791.

As they moved to urban cities in the North during the early 20th century, working class African Americans created distinctive neighborhoods with yards that contained vegetable gardens. “By growing familiar foods, they not only supplemented their incomes and diet, but, through exchanges or gifts of fresh produce, reinforced community bonds and preserved tangible links to their heritage as African American southerners.”

The Garden Club of America grew out of a letter-writing campaign to several garden clubs by Mrs. J. Willis Martin and Mrs. Bayard Henry. At their first national meeting members adopt the policy that, “The objects of this association shall be: to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening among amateurs; to share the advantages of association through conference and correspondence, in this country and abroad; to aid in the protection of native plants and birds; and to encourage civic planting.”

“Probably no other appeal to the patriotism of the American people ever met with more widespread and generous response than ‘war gardening.’…[S]purred on by the knowledge that ‘food will win the war’ men, women, and children all over the United States took up war gardening…Both as individuals and as members of various organizations they have gone about this as true soldiers of the soil, in the same spirit with which their husbands, fathers, brothers, and friends went into the army and the navy.”

An Act of Congress establishes the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Modeled after Ebenezer Howard’s garden city ideal developed in England, Greenbelt, Maryland is a planned community built by the Federal Government during the Great Depression.

Millions of tons of fruits and vegetables are grown by citizens who planted victory gardens to aid in the war effort.  A victory garden is even planted on the White House grounds.

“The irony of victory gardens for an interned population was dramatic.” Many American citizens of Japanese ancestry plant victory gardens while being unjustly held in internment camps during World War II.

After World War II, more people than ever before moved from cities to newly built suburbs. In these middle-class developments, gardens often turned inward to the backyard, where patios were used for private relaxation and entertainment.

Biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring draws attention to the effect of pesticides and pollution on the environment.  

Residents of West Philadelphia decided to transform the vacant lots where row houses once stood. Collaborating with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, gardens were created on this site.

Americans continued to form community gardens into the new millennium. Organized programs centered around children, the elderly, and immigrant populations and intended to educate as well as provide neighborhood sustenance.