Gardens

The gardens behind the house were always an important part of the landscape. Miss Florence was an avid gardener and would mail order heirloom bulbs and other specimens from flower catalogues. Behind the house there were three distinct gardens, two for perennial flowers and a smaller one for herbs and vegetables. There was also a row of lilac trees and flowering shrubs that bordered the walkway to the outhouse.

“Stay over for a few days and enjoy the tales she will tell to the truly sympathetic who gather about the long tables that fill her dining-room and feast on the delicious fresh vegetables from her farm. Beyond the flower garden, which is a veritable tangle of fragrant beauty, her cultivated fields stretch down to the sparkling waters of Lieutenant River that the artists love to paint.”

~ Journalist Alice Lawton, American Motorists, 1928

These gardens have been replanted using historic photographs and paintings, as well as the gardening preferences of the time. Known as “Old-Fashioned” or “Grandmother's” gardens, these planting beds featured flowers with associations to the colonial past, such as hollyhocks, phlox, and delphinium. Unlike the more formal gardens of the Victorian era, these gardens were meant to look untamed, often overspilling their tidy beds.

Miss Florence “endeavored to infuse the air of yesteryear through the medium of the good old-fashioned flowers.”

~ Journalist H.S. Adams, 1914

Learn more about the outside of the Griswold boardinghouse by clicking the choices below:

• Overview
• The Griswold House
• Side Porch
• Gardens
• Lieutenant River
• Chadwick Studio