A History of Canadian Gardening - Book review

A History of Canadian Gardening, Carol Martin; McArthur & Company, 188 pages; $29.95

"You can't grow anything in this climate", was a refrain I often heard when I first started gardening seriously almost 25 years ago. Names of famous landscapers from the British Isles seemed to be everyone's reference points. It is a common attitude that echoes throughout Canada's history and culture.

Carol Martin's book, A History of Canadian Gardening, now gives us a chance to change this attitude. She shows us that we have a long, rich tradition of our own influences, largely inspired by every gardener's dream of triumphing over what, at times, seems to be a truly adverse climate.

This book grew out of an exhibit celebrating Canadian gardening which Carol Martin organized for the National Library of Canada. As she gathered books and memorabilia to put in the exhibition, she noted that our country's social history was reflected in the evolution of gardening trends. Her interest was piqued and, once the exhibit opened and had an excellent popular response, she decided to continue to pursue the story of Canadian gardening.

This is not the first book to take a historical perspective. Ottawan Edwinna von Baeyer's Rhetoric and Roses: A History of Canadian Gardening, 1900-1930 and von Baeyer and Pleasance Crawford's Gardening Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian Gardening Writing are cited in the introduction and Carol Martin acknowledges them as important sources. But this book, in its broad panoramic sweep, is an important book for any gardener interested in knowing about our own roots. It is a book one can dip into, whether over many winter evenings or, now and again, when taking a break from the demands of gardening on a summer's evening. It is easy and informative reading.

The recounting starts not with the arrival of the Europeans but with the indigenous culture of the First Nations peoples. As Carol Martin points out in the book, although we often think of native people as mainly nomadic, long before Europeans arrived, many, such as the Iroquoian people in the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes region, were farmers. They grew food not only for their own consumption but to trade for other goods. As early as 600AD, corn was being grown in what is now Canada. Gradually other important staples, such as beans, tobacco, sunflowers and squash, were added to their gardens.

When the first European settlers arrived to establish permanent settlements, cultivating gardens was a utilitarian priority to supply food and medicinal herbs. Each wave of immigrants brought with them their growing traditions, not always suited to the new land. As Carol Martin indicates, pioneer gardening in Canada still continues today as people build homes and gardens in the wilderness north of the narrow band of settlement in Canada's south.

While early diaries and texts have been used to study our historical development, botanical descriptions and drawings, which tell of our natural history, have largely remained ignored, except by specialists. As Carol Martin says in her book, these texts by the religious of Quebec, such as Brother Marie-Victorien, founder of the Montreal Botanical Garden, and early writers, such as Catherine Parr Trail, demonstrate the value of scientific study of plant life and their importance to horticulture and agriculture in Canada.

Carole Martin then takes us through the later development of "elegant gardens". These extensive gardens were based on those found in Europe and were intended to express a profound attachment by the owner to nature.

Gardening became a serious business and horticultural societies began. Newly established Canadian universities set up departments of botany and interested amateurs went into the countryside and collected plant specimens. A reform movement became popular which stressed that gardens and natural settings could restore and improve people's lives. Public parks, such as the Halifax Public Gardens, were designed solely for public enjoyment. Even the CPR encouraged station gardeners to beautify their surroundings. Our own Society grew out of this later-Victorian urge to improve and beautify.

By the mid-19th century, seeds could be ordered from Canadian nurseries. The Experimental Farm stations were established across the country and there was much experimentation in plant breeding and hybridizing

While most Canadians can cite the names of early explorers, we know little about these hybridizers who played key roles in charting and refining our plant life. Individuals such John Macoun, who possessed that common gardener's trait of obsessiveness, was a tireless collector of flora and fauna from early in his life. At his home at Belleville, he created a personal herbarium of more than 100,000 plant specimens which became the basis of the Dominion Herbarium in Ottawa.

Carol Martin brings her book right up to the present day with our concerns about genetic modification, our preference for organic gardening, heirloom plants and for seed diversification as well as the plethora of gardening magazines and nurseries across the nation. As with any good gardening book, this one is rich with illustrations - early pioneer renderings of their lives and those of native peoples, colour reproductions from early seed catalogues, delicate botanical prints by Faith Fyles (a noted but sadly little-known Canadian artist), and archival photographs. These alone capture the transition that took place in gardening over the centuries.

Please contact the OHS or the author if you wish to republish these articles. © Ottawa Horticultural Society

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