Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth

Earle, Alice Morse, 1851-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 624K words
Chapters: 63

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth by Alice Morse EarleAuthor: Earle, Alice Morse, 1851-1911,Language: English, Class: SB: Agriculture: Plant culture, Release Date: Mar 4, 2012

Editor's review

Alice Morse Earle was a prominent American garden essayist of the late nineteenth century, and this book is her systematic survey of old garden traditions. In an essayistic style, it discusses the appearance of gardens in New England from the colonial period to the early nineteenth century, plant varieties, the arrangement of flowers and trees, and gardening customs, while also touching on the place of flowers in daily life and emotion. Its value lies not in being a practical cultivation manual but in reconstructing, through documents and personal observation, a vanished way of garden life; the prose is warm and rich in detail, with a distinctly nostalgic quality. For readers studying American garden history, material culture, or nineteenth-century women's writing, it is a rare primary source; for general readers, it can be read as a slow garden essay, experiencing the rhythms of old gardens through plant names and the turning of the seasons. It is best read alongside a plant guide or a garden history to fill in the botanical references.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American garden history and colonial material culture
Those who enjoy nineteenth-century essays and a nostalgic, leisurely style
Literary scholars studying women's writing and the history of daily life
Plant lovers curious about old flower names and garden layouts

Not a good fit for

Gardening beginners seeking modern practical cultivation techniques
Readers expecting a systematic theoretical framework or academic argument
Those who read only Chinese and are unwilling to look up English plant names

Reading tips

Read slowly in chapter order, noting the plants and gardening customs mentioned after each chapter
Keep a plant-name reference on hand to check old common names against today's scientific names
Read alongside works on American garden history or colonial life for deeper context
Treat it as bedtime reading, taking only a section or two at a time to preserve its leisurely pace

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a gardening cultivation guide?

No. It is closer to a garden essay and a survey of historical sources, focusing on the appearance of old gardens, plant names, and gardening customs rather than modern cultivation steps. If you want to learn to grow flowers, you will need a practical manual; if you want to understand the life history behind gardens, this book is just right.

How difficult is the English, and what background is needed?

The original is late-nineteenth-century English prose, with long sentences and occasional old plant common names and local expressions. University-level English reading ability is enough to make progress; look up plant names in a guide or dictionary as needed, and do not read word by word—focus on understanding the meaning and atmosphere.

Is the book's content regionally limited?

It draws mainly on old gardens and related documents in New England, with a clear regional character. Readers can view it as one facet of gardening traditions in the northeastern United States rather than a global garden history; simply keep this scope in mind while reading.

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About the author

Earle, Alice Morse, 1851-1911 Author

Alice Morse Earle (1851–1911) was an American writer known for her books on everyday life in early New England and the colonial period. Seven of her works are included here, focusing on concrete themes such as domestic life, childhood, inns and travel, holiday customs, and gardening—among them Home Life in Colonial Days, Child Life in Colonial Days, Stage-coach and Tavern Days, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, and Curious Punishments of Bygone Days. Her writing often begins with objects, manners, and small details of daily routine, in a careful and accessible style that seeks to recover the historical experience of ordinary people. Because public information is limited, biographical details are not elaborated here; through her topic-based studies she made colonial social life tangible, and her books remain useful introductions to early American everyday culture.