interwarGardens

Over recent years, there has been growing recognition that not only can buildings have heritage significance but also gardens, parks and landscapes. However, they are not well represented as a type of heritage item on the State Heritage Register. Those that are listed tend to be the oldest and the grandest. Twentieth century gardens and more humble places are even less appreciated or listed. Landscape architect at the Heritage Office, Stuart Read reviews an often overlooked heritage place: the interwar garden. With the passing of time allowing greater distance, interwar places are becoming more appreciated for their unique qualities and for the stories they tell of ways of life and social values now much changed or gone altogether. Two everyday objects introduced into Australian households in the interwar period transformed gardens and gardening. The lawn mower and garden hose were introduced between 1910 and 1950. This period also coincided with the rise in popularity of house and garden magazines. A recent project by the National Trust (NSW) Parks & Gardens Classification Committee with Heritage Office staff looked at gardens in this broad period between 1910 to 1950. (Technically, "interwar" gardens refers only to those gardens formed between 1918 and 1945.) Information gathered in the project will help owners appreciate, conserve and recreate gardens in sympathy with houses of the era. Gardens in this period were influenced by a number of "fashions" with no one style predominant, and indeed very few pure examples of a style remain. Economic boom and depression, the growth of the nursery trade and the availability of plant material all impacted on garden style. Designers and writers in popular magazines like Australian Home Beautiful, books like the Australian Gardener, overseas trends particularly British garden styles, lingering Victorian and Edwardian tastes and the conservatism of public parks and gardens helped to shape popular taste. Perhaps the only common thread throughout was the cult of the rose and the gladioli! A walk around the Canberra suburb of Ainslie, much of it formed in the 1920-30s highlights some of the distinctive features of interwar gardens. The "early" gardens are characterized by their low front hedges, open, spare planting, straight lines, functional fruit and vegetable growing areas out the back, and the predominance of lawns as a garden element. This speaks volumes about the need for self-sufficiency, notions of modesty and public versus private space. These interwar gardens contrast with later Ainslie gardens which have high front hedges or walls blocking views "in", dense cottage or "Tuscan" planting palettes, a lack of fruit trees or vegetables & curved lines. The Heritage Office is currently working with the community to identify and better manage significant cultural landscapes. Community groups and individuals are encouraged to nominate gardens, parks or landscapes which they can demonstrate are of state heritage significance.

The following is a basic design "checklist", outlining common hard and soft landscape elements of the predominant garden styles, with approximate dates of application.

Federation
1900-1930
Low open front gardens, curved front path with standard roses lining it, curved flower beds hugging the house, gravel paths, square topped pickets, weatherboard fence, salt glazed terracotta edging tiles, brick garden bed edges, buffalo or couch lawns punctuated with flower beds in geometric forms, wire mesh gates and fences, fretworked or slatted garden furniture, woven wirework garden furniture, arches, rustic terracotta pots, rustic woodwork, brush box, coral trees, camphor laurels, pepper trees, Norfolk Island pines, frangipani, Lord Howe Island palms, Canary Island date palms, jacarandas, Cape chestnuts, tree ferns, camellias, oleanders, standard roses, nandina, winter flowering honeysuckle, hydrangeas, roses, wisteria, sweet peas.

Arts & Crafts
1900-1920
Lapped & capped fences, fretted timber screens, jacarandas, cottage & woodland gardens, herbaceous borders, lilies, ferns, iris, agapanthus.

A garden showing a mix of California bungalow
and Arts and Crafts influences, with low pipe
and wire mesh fence, roses and herbaceous
perennial plantings and purple cherry plum,
a popular small tree favoured by Walling and
Sorensen among others. Photograph by Stuart Read.

California Bungalow
1916-1930s
Gardens dominated by couch or buffalo lawns, low open front gardens not above 0.5-1m, shrubs to 1.8m by house, taller trees to rear. Favoured heavy timber pergolas, rustic gates, square lattice screens & arbors, timber planting boxes, brick edged beds, birdbaths, sturdy wooden benches, fences of cement rendered brick/ pipe rail/ wooden rail or hedges up to 0.5m, rusticwork pots, lattice gates. Coloured cement or crazy paved paths, winding paths lost out to straight paths. Flower beds in lawns increasingly criticised. Increasingly "natural" look with more native plants used such as bottle brushes. Roses very popular, replaced earlier annuals, used on pergolas, fences, trellises, as hedges. Asian plants also favoured: silver birches, Bhutan & Monterey cypresses, magnolias, crepe myrtles, hydrangeas, camellias, citrus, hibiscus, golden privet hedges, roses, hollyhocks, cannas. Also jacarandas, brush box, Canary Island date palms, silky oaks, Roman cypresses, oleanders, Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria) hedges, ladder ferns, dahlias.

A California bungalow house and garden - note the low shrubs
and standard roses, low cement rendered wall, expansive
lawns and trees to the rear. Photograph by Stuart Read.

Front cottage garden typical of interwar period.
The house is a California bungalow type, with
thigh-height timber and crimped wire fence, roses
fringing paths and edges, paired clipped trees and
shrubs and lavender framing the front door.
Photograph by Stuart Read.

Georgian Revival
1920s- 1930s
Formality, symmetry, axes and vistas, central entry paths of flagged stone, masonry walls, imitation stone cappings, square columned gate entablatures, loggias, atria, circular terraces, metal balustrades, Chinoiserie timber features (tea houses, moon gates etc), timber pergolas, tennis courts, rear terraces, straight hedges and paths, urns. Palette of "colonial" plants favoured, often in geometric layout: white cedars, jacarandas, robinias, paired fan palms, Lombardy poplars or Roman cypresses, pepper trees, white or blue plumbago, lavender, box, rosemary, olive, laurel or privet hedges, low abelia hedges, camellias, Lord Howe Island palms, flowering hedges of hibiscus, roses, bignonias.

Hollywood Spanish/Mission
Late 1920s-1950s
Stucco-ed or cement rendered walls, courtyards, terraced gardens, columns, garden seats, fountains, semi-circular arches/ gates/ gables, fretwork gates, iron grilles/ screens, perforated masonry screens, tile copings, iron balconies, mosaic-ed tubs, sundials, wrought iron garden furniture/ gates/ grilles/ screens, mask wall fountains, masonry piers, timber pergolas, mosaic, crazy paving, regular or irregular flagstones, central courtyard pools, roughcast cement pots, planter boxes, birdbaths, 1m mesh and pipe fences/ gates. NZ Cabbage trees, especially upright forms of cypresses, junipers, fan and Lord Howe Island palms, oleanders, citrus, hibiscus, bananas, bird of paradise flower, Abelia or Escallonia hedges, agaves, aloes, yuccas, cacti (succulents in pots), aquatic and tropical plants, geraniums and Kochia (fire bush) popular.

Old English/Stockbroker Tudor
Late 1920s-1930s
Saw tooth brick garden bed edging, stone walls, flowering cherries, maples, camellias, rose gardens, ivy and Virginia creeper, lavender and box hedging, annuals popular.

P&O/Streamline Moderne
1930s-1950s
Curved house windows to integrate view and in/outside, concrete paths, sunrise gates, stepped masonry fences, deco glazing on garage doors, iron/ steel pipe balustrade rails, wrought iron balustrading in nautical/ linear patterns, diagonal boarded gates, mosaic-ed pots, wrought iron garden furniture, hills hoists, concrete pots, brick or coloured concrete terraces, crazy paving/ paths, goldfish ponds, gardens of hard edged neatness. Conical cypress trees, bird of paradise flower, philodendrons, fruit salad plant (Monstera), bananas, mother-in-law's tongue, potted prickly pears, cacti, spiky shrubs, agaves, aloes, gladioli.

Note the art deco/moderne rendered cement and pipe wall, moderne front
porch, low open front garden with clipped shrubs, conifers, expanse of lawn
and limited annuals and perennials. Also note the Norfolk Island pines
behind the houses. Photograph by Stuart Read.

Edna Walling/Edwardian informal
1925-1950s
Axiality in plan, Italian influence with formal layout softened by informal planting, or informal layout & lush planting, wide use of terraces, low stone walls/ steps, mix of native and exotic plants, even "wild" planting, garden rooms, natural stone paving, irregular patterns, curved border edges, generous use of trees, shrubs, climbers, perennials - richly planted. Peaceful, romantic feel, massed planting. Generous use of trees and larger shrubs, less common in non-"designed" gardens. Silver birches, elms, oaks, cedars, flowering plums and cherries, magnolias, lilacs, forsythias, erigeron, honeysuckle.

For further advice on cultural landscapes, contact Stuart Read at the NSW Heritage Office, ph: (02) 9849 9554.

The National Trust plans to publish a guide booklet on interwar gardens later this year. The guide is in the final stages of preparation and will include information on history, popular garden elements, planting palettes, back yards, structures and a detailed bibliography of sources.

Edwardian informal/ Edna Walling influenced garden, lushly planted with
cedar, wattle and cypress trees framing the house. Roses, dianthus,
snow-in-summer and Jack and Jill daisies fringing the concrete strips
driveway. Photograph by Stuart Read.