Colonial Garden Styles

Rural Gardens

• Variations in rural colonial gardens were mainly due to family size. These gardens were grown to feed the family. Many were situated around the house, walkways, buildings and livestock pens. In rural colonial gardens, carrots, radishes, cabbages, onions, leeks and garlic would have been grown close to the house, for ease of access. Items grown in quantities, such as pumpkins, beans or corn, would have been planted away from the house in fields. Herbs were intermingled with the vegetables unless they were pungent; these herbs were planted by themselves.

Merchants and Townspeople

• The merchants and townspeople's colonial gardens were usually symmetrical and more formal in design, compared to the rural gardens. These gardens imitated the formal patterns found in Europe. The colonial gardens in town were limited in size by streets or other property. Most of these gardens would have been surrounded by fences, walls or hedges. These gave the owners privacy and help protect the gardens from wind and animals. These gardens also had items such as topiaries, sundials, statues and arbors.

Wealthy Landowners

• Wealthy landowners based their colonial garden designs on some of the larger estates in Europe. These gardens had a tendency to combine formal and natural designs in their landscaping. The colonial gardens of the wealthy would have groves of trees surrounding large open areas of lawn. The wealthy landowner's garden would also have formal designs closer to the house.

Colonial Garden Plants

• Some of the typical trees or shrubs found in the colonial gardens were striped or red maple, flowering dogwood, the common boxwood, rose of Sharon and lilac. For flowers, the colonial garden had Dutch crocus, cockscomb, nasturtium, black-eyed Susan, larkspur or periwinkle. These would mainly be found in gardens of the townspeople or the wealthy. Vegetables and herbs would vary, depending on the family's desires.