Archive.org has a host of old gardening books (from mid-19th to mid-20th Century) available in many formats and on a host of topics. I happened across a few in my Pinterest feed and gone completely down the rabbit hole in this treasure trove of information. Sure some ideas might be out of date, but you never know what you might find when you explore these books. I’ll be sharing more books as I find them in the coming weeks. –Douglas

Historical Garden Books: The Joy Of Gardens By Lena May McCauley – 3 in a series

Historical Garden Books: The Joy Of Gardens By Lena May McCauley - 3 in a seriesHistorical Garden Books: The Joy Of Gardens By Lena May McCauley - 3 in a series

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FOREWORD

ANY book about gardens, written for the pleasure of writing, must have its sources in dreams. The visions of gardens beautiful and retired hover before the imagination, and no real garden, however humble, but is invested in celestial light of cherished hopes of what it may become in fragrant flowers or what it might have been had fortune been kind.

The facts and the fancies of this book were discovered in various gardens, some centuries old, fruitful of memories of those whose hands have long since turned to dust, others in the joyous public gardens with parterres, and the most precious of all in the quiet gardens of my friends.

“Gardening,” said a wise writer, “is among the purest of pleasures,” and one tossed on the fretful world knows that there is no purer delight than that which comes to the human heart with friends in gardens. To many friends, far and wide, I owe whatever inspiration lives in these pages.

The illustration of the book was an afterthought carried out in the desire to suggest the art of landscape gardening. Credit is gratefully recorded to those who aided with the pictures, and especially to Jens Jensen, Jessie T. Beals, Mary H. -Northend, J. Horace McFarland, W. H. Rau, Henry Fuhrman, E. L. Fowler, Alice Enk, and Mode Wineman.

More information on this book:

Publication date [c1911]
Topics Gardens
Publisher Chicago : Rand McNally
Collection cdl; americana
Digitizing sponsor MSN
Contributor University of California Libraries
Language English

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