Regency Gardening - Bulbous Roots for Sale

At this time of year--with two months of winter left where I live--my thoughts turn to my garden. I pore over seed catalogues looking for new flowers to try, new bulbs to plant.

It seems that during the Regency, garden lovers had exactly the same desire to plan their gardens. In the late fall, the newspapers offered advertisements from seedsmen and nurseries for the latest in Dutch 'bulbous roots'.

Carlisle Patriot - Saturday 10 October 1818

Dublin Evening Post - Tuesday 12 October 1819

Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser - Monday 21 October 1816

The Tyne Mercury; Northumberland and Durham and Cumberland Gazette - Tuesday 29 October 1816

Bristol Mirror - Saturday 23 October 1819

In January, the Hull Packet posted the advertisement below. Several familiar plants are on the list--I have an amarillis [sic] blooming in my dining room right now! And martagon lilies are now enjoying a resurgence in popularity...

Hull Packet - Tuesday 17 January 1815

By March the seedsmen were advertising. If I had a garden in Regency times, I would hope to be able to purchase one or two packets of new, different seeds to supplement those I had collected and that I traded with my neighbours.

The Suffolk Chronicle;  or Weekly
General Advertiser & County Express
Saturday 02 March 1816

 By spring and early summer the flower shows were beginning and competition was keen.

Saunders's News-Letter Dublin - Monday 05 April 1819

The Globe - London - Friday 03 May 1811

Durham County Advertiser - Saturday 07 June 1817

There were many astonishing botanical artists practicing during the Regency era. The illustrations in this post are by Pierre Jean Francois Turpin, one of the greatest. He probably became known and appreciated in England after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

I must go and make up my order for seeds now from my new catalogues. It is nice to know I am continuing a tradition that dates back well before the Regency era.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

Sources: 

British Newspaper Archive http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/

J. C. Loudon and his Gardening Vision

J. C. Loudon 1783-1843

John Claudius Loudon was a Scot, educated in horticulture (biology, botany, etc.) at the University of Edinburgh and a prolific garden and landscape designer and writer, despite significant physical frailty.

His most notable publications appeared in the 1820's after the Prince Regent had become King George IV. But Loudon published pamphlets and articles almost from moment he began designing gardens, landscapes and the layout of farms.

One of his most interesting pamphlets was published in 1807. Titled

Engravings, with Descriptions, illustrative of the difference between The Modern Style of Rural Architecture
and the Improvement of Scenery, and that displayed in A Treatise on Country Residences,
and practised by Mr. Loudon

the pamphlet contained 'before' and 'after' engravings of some of Loudon's work. He aimed to improve the 'picturesque' work of Capability Brown with his own 'gardenesque' style.

Mr. Loudon describes the intent of his pamphlet in the introduction:

His engravings of Barnbarroch (Barnbarrow) House, in Scotland, show clearly the significant extent of the changes he proposed.

Barnbarrow House in 1805

Barnbarrow as it would look three years after renovations commenced

In his pamplet, Loudon also used illustrations of some grounds at Harewood House (where he undertook a substantial renovation). In this area he proposed to join three sections of water into one.

Harewood House grounds 1805

Same Harewood location with proposed changes

In a telling series of illustrations of a 400-500 acre portion of an imaginary estate, Loudon shows the progression of design through one hundred years.
Figure 1 shows the formal early 18th century plan:

Figure 2 shows the layout as it would have been conceived by Brown, Repton and their contemporaries:

And Figure 3 shows his own concept for such a property. In all three cases the house is difficult to locate, clearly secondary to the overall landscape design.

A study of Loudon's work shows the development of landscape architecture into the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. In his later years, he undertook city and cemetery planning. But he began his work, in gardens, in the early 1800s, challenging the ideas of the great Repton who died in 1818.

Many of Loudon's works including his "Gardener's Magazine" are available free from Google Books. Those of his wife, Jane (nee Webb), an established author who undertook to write also on botany and flower gardening, are likewise available.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

Feeding London -- The Market Gardens

In the spring, my thoughts always turn to gardening. I prefer flower gardening to vegetable gardening, but I've done my share of food production. As my gardening thoughts wandered to history and to the Regency, I began to wonder where all the vegetables and fruits that filled the Covent Garden markets were grown.

From The Gardener's Pocket Journal 1808

I discovered that they came from the market gardens that surrounded the original 'City' and its satellite communities. In the mid 17th century, Marylebone was home to several such gardens, as was Islington to the north. Those continued through the 18th century, and were augmented by those to the east around Dagenham.

By the time of the Regency, some 10,000 acres of market gardens supplied London's needs for fresh vegetables, and fruits. One of these gardens--of about 200 acres--was the Neat House Market Garden, just north of the Thames across from Vauxhall, the famous pleasure gardens.

From A-|Z of Regency London

The area had been known as the "Neat" for centuries, possibly named after an original owner. It now lies under Warwick Square and part of Chelsea.

There is a book, which I intend to read, called The Neat House Gardens: Early Market Gardening Around London by Malcolm Thick. It seems as if it might answer all one's questions about the process of this food supply.

But, in brief, the vegetable cultivation began shortly after Christmas, the crops rotating through radishes, spinach and onions, followed by cauliflowers, cabbages, and celery. Then the many other seed crops begun in January came ready for planting out. The crops were fertilized by manure from the streets of London.

In addition, many of the gardens grew fruit crops; they realized an income of 400,000 pounds per annum, only a little less than the 645,000 pounds that vegetables brought in.

The encroachment of the residential areas, and the incorporation of the villages surrounding London into the 'Greater' area pushed the market gardens further and further afield. Improved transportation methods facilitated this change, and the markets of New Covent Garden Market still overflow with produce.

The tidy fields of the Neat House Garden on the map above continue to fascinate me however. I wonder about the people who owned the land, grew the plants and operated this thriving industry. There are stories there...I just know it.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

Source: Much of the information in this post came from an excellent on-line article "London's Early Market Gardens" at http://www.gardenhistoryinfo.com/gardenpages/marketgardens.html

The Gardener's Season - It's Spring!

My thoughts have turned to gardening once again, as we experience an early flush of spring heat here on the Canadian prairies. My perennials are hesitantly poking their leaves above earth, and the trees are beginning to bud. In Great Britain things will be considerably greener; the island is several climate zones warmer than my home although it is on the same latitude.

Gardening in England has always been a rewarding activity. We have all heard of Repton and Nash and their predecessors Capability Brown and William Kent. They worked with head gardeners and teams of under-gardeners to carry out the horticultural dreams of the nobility and aristocracy in grand style.

But what of the gardens of the gentlefolk? The people like the Austens at Steventon Rectory, the Bennets of Pride and Prejudice, the Austen ladies at Chawton, and the Dashwood ladies of Barton Cottage. Their gardens would be smaller in scale, of necessity filled with vegetables, and for pleasure infused with flowers. They would rely on jobbing gardeners, or a carefully-tutored odd jobs' man to undertake or help with the work. Homeowners needed information and instruction on how to keep their gardens productive and attractive.

Books such as Modern Domestic Cookery and Useful Receipt Book by Elizabeth Hammond include a practical section on 'The Kitchen Garden' which lists the tasks required in each month. I can see Mrs. Austen or Elinor Dashwood perusing it with interest:

April "Plant French beans, cuttings of sage, and other aromatic plants; sow marrow-fat peas, and more beans for a succession; some thyme, sweet marjoram, and savory. Prepare dung for making ridges to receive cucumber or melon-plants, designed for hand-glasses. Sow small-salading weekly; and also some cos and Silesia lettuces. Weed the growing crops, hoe between the beans and peas, cabbages, cauliflower plants, etc. At night, cover your cucumbers and melons with hand-glasses."

But it is The Gardener’s Pocket Journal, and Daily Assistant in the modern practice of English Gardening by John Abercrombie--published in its 11th edition in 1808--which provided everything one might need to know. Month by month, almost day by day, it lists tasks which must be done in the kitchen garden, the flower gardens, the green-house, the hot-house, the orchard, and the nursery (trees and shrubs).

For example, in November Mr. Abercrombie suggests: "Remove pots of plants and seeds to a warm situation in the sun, or plunge them also into the ground, in a somewhat raised dry light soil, to preserve the roots better from frost; or the more tender or curious place in a frame or glass case, etc."

In June, he says: "Weeds rising numerously at this season, should be diligently destroyed, in all parts between rows of young trees and shrubs, etc. and among all young plants in seed-beds."

At its end the book catalogues every species of tree, hedge shrub, fruit bush and tree, which may be grown in Britain, in what the author calls 'A General Register'. There is a list of kitchen garden plants, and also a 'register' of flowers--annuals both hardy and tender, biennials, perennials and bulbs. Most of the annuals I recognize--some of them I grow--but what, I wonder, is Alkekengi? Ketmis? Venus's looking-glass? Likewise there are many familiar names among the perennials, but what was Collonsonia? Fraxinella? London pride? Last year in my gardening blog post, I opined that I did not know what flowers grew in the cottage garden. Now I have a complete list!

The Pocket Journal also gives instruction for tasks in the green-house and the hot-house. I was not fully aware of the differences between those two shelters until I read about them in this book. It was a fund of information two hundred years ago, and it is a delight for gardeners today.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Do you enjoy gardening? How does your garden grow this year?

Next week we will be joined by Regency author, Susanne Marie Knight, and she will be talking about Gentlemen's Clubs. Please visit again then and enjoy her informative research!

Award-winning author Susanne Marie Knight specializes in Romance Writing with a Twist! She is multi-published with books, short stories, and articles in such diverse genres as science fiction, Regency, mystery, paranormal, suspense, time-travel, fantasy, and contemporary romance.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

P. S. The Gardener's Pocket Journal is available for download from Google Books!