By Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Manager
At the October 6, 2008 meeting of the Tiffin Woman’s Club, guest speaker Master Gardener Janet Del Turco led club members on a “mental tour” of her garden. Gardening has widely been a popular hobby amongst Americans and looking through the library’s wide array of gardening books attest to its popularity.
Across the gardening spectrum, there are sources on how to make one’s garden a space to unwind from the hectic schedules modern times have made the norm. Victorians had this aspect of gardening down to a science and those in Seneca County were no exception to prioritizing their garden spaces.
The C.S. Bell Americana (also known as the Bell Company) manufactured these cast iron horse post toppers. In Victorian times, iron was used in abundance to create garden urns, sun dials, bird baths and benches.
In Victorian times, the garden was one of the many places to exuberate beauty and be immersed in it. Benches were a common feature in all Victorian gardens so people could while away the time in a beautified space within nature (That is, if they were advantaged enough—lower classes simply brought their indoor furniture outside in mild weather).
Cast iron and wrought iron benches replaced simple wooden benches for awhile in the 18th and 19th centuries and not surprisingly, was one of the many ways upper class Victorians displayed their wealth. These pieces of outdoor furniture were labor-intensive and artisans had to spend hours heating the iron to morph it into the intricate designs Victorians desired.
The C.S. Bell Americana (also known as the Bell Company) was one of the hundreds of iron foundries in the United States in the mid-1800s. It’s specialties were post toppers and lawn ornaments.
Other common fixtures in Victorian gardens were sun dials and bird baths so Victorians could enjoy the colorful aviary species native to their locations.
At one time in Watson Station (an unincorporated community in Seneca County), a married couple, John and Ruth (Stover) Heckerd, built a three-acre bird sanctuary named Greenbrier in the 1960s, complete with a heated bird bath for the winter months. Many local garden clubs toured the sanctuary over the ensuing decades.
While the Seneca County Master Gardeners and the Blossoms ‘N Butterflies are two current garden clubs in Seneca County, several more existed at one time or another including the R.F. D. Garden Club, Tiffin Garden Club, Town and Country Garden Club and the Tiffin-Seneca County Men’s Garden Club.
The Tiffin Garden Club (founded in 1927) in the 1976 Bicentennial Parade. This photo is part of a series of photographs from this monumental parade that have been digitized onto the Seneca County Digital Library. They can be viewed here: https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/64548
The Bascom Community Garden Club was spontaneously formed in March 1937 by three neighbors. They contacted “Mrs. Martin of Attica, State Organizer” (of garden clubs), to inquire on how to create their own and on a “stormy April evening” the club held it’s first meeting with 17 members in attendance. One of their many contributions was an urn for the Soldier’s Mount in Sand Ridge Cemetery.
By this point, molds had become the norm for iron foundries (and places who made similar items out of other materials such as terra cotta and stoneware), offering a variety of garden urns/vases with fancy handles and iron pedestals for them. Foundries heavily promoted using such pieces for cemeteries, as well as conservatories and parks. Common patterns included grapevines, ferns, lily of the valley, morning glories, and ferns.
During Del Turco’s mental tour of her garden at that 2008 meeting, she took her audience through her fairy garden. Fairy gardens might seem like a more recent development in the world of gardening, but Victorians were also fascinated by mythical creatures, including the gnome, which continues to be adored today.
It was thought that, like fairies, gnomes came out at night with the specific job of tending to plants. Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” movie (1937), was produced when most Victorians’ children and grandchildren were able to transform their own gardens, and the movie further instilled the adoration for gnomes.
Whatever one decides to place in their garden, however, is intended to turn that space into a sanctuary. The designs and pieces may have changed, but the concept remains the same.
Works Cited:
Aileen Minor Garden Antiques & Decorative Arts. “A History of American Garden Ornaments.” https://amgardenantiques.com/gardenhistory.php
Bascom Garden Club. Bascom Then and Now. 1976. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/29193
“Bell’s Original Decorative Useful Americana”. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/43101
Seneca County, Ohio History & Families. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28803
Tiffin Area Chamber of Commerce. Tiffin, Ohio A Good Community in Which to Live and Work. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/34766
Trees.com. “History of Garden Gnomes – Origins, Meanings, Uses and Debates”. https://www.trees.com/gardening-and-landscaping/history-of-garden-gnomes