The Vernacular Garden

The study of vernacular gardening is a new departure for scholarly investigations of gardening practices and forms. While much has been written on the traditions of elite gardens—Villa d’Este, Versailles, Stowe, and others—little attention has been directed to the gardens of more humble and popular cultures reflecting regional, localized, ethnic, personal, or folk creations. The articles in this volume parallel developments in other areas of cultural studies and reflect a growing interest in a wider range of cultural artifacts that demonstrate how culture can profoundly influence our surroundings. These essays consider vernacular gardens, gardening, and gardening communities, including the journalism of popular homemaking, African-American communities, a “cooperative” of French market gardeners, the closed world of British Royal Naval housing, and a French mining community.