Spaces between buildings also tell stories

Preservationists hope that before owners alter gardens, they'll take the time to carefully document what was there

Charleston landscape architect Glen Gardner was working recently on remaking a garden beside a Tradd Street home when crews dug down eight inches and discovered oyster shell paths.

Gardner feels confident those paths date from the 1930s, when an earlier garden was laid out.

"That just shows how quickly leaves and compost build up," he says. "That happened in 75 years — the garden added eight inches of elevation."

A defining feature of the Lowcountry is all the space between the buildings: the gardens, fields and landscapes, but it's only recently that historic preservationists have paid these spaces much mind.

That's slowly changing. In the spring, the state's garden clubs launched the South Carolina Historic Landscape Initiative with the goal of identifying, recording and promoting the state's rich garden heritage.

And last week, the Historic Charleston Foundation sponsored a lunchtime talk about preserving historic gardens, and the foundation's preservation director Winslow Hastie notes, "We've been focusing so much on the built environment, we've got to focus on the landscape as well."

It's a rather challenging business, partly because gardens need much more constant maintenance than buildings do if they're to keep their look.

And even then, trees grow or die, scrambling the amount of light and viability of the flowers and shrubs below, which also are growing or dying off. As Gardner says, "Nothing stands still in gardens."

Leaving a garden alone can lead to its demise rather quickly, but leaving it alone also can be a better step, preservation-wise, than making wholesale changes without documenting what was there. If the disturbance is kept to a minimum, it can be possible to find traces of its past.

That's what happened several years ago at 14 Legare St., where the owners authorized archaeological work and DNA plant analysis to learn all they could about the original 19th century garden, a garden they later did their best to recreate.

While that effort was impressive, Hastie and Gardner say that such expertise — and expense — isn't always necessary. Taking photographs and making simple measured drawings and verbal descriptions is better than nothing.

"My advice is whether you own a historic garden or a friend does, please contact someone before you change it," Gardner says. "People will document it for free."

Hastie says anyone looking for such help or advice can call the foundation at 723-1673.

Charleston's most recent efforts to document gardens have focused on the work of Loutrel Briggs, a Yankee transplant who was prolific and talented and whose mid-20th century gardens are the sorts of places most people think of when they imagine a quintessential Charleston garden today.

But Gardner says it's not just owners of properties where Briggs worked that should concern themselves with documenting or preserving their gardens.

Gardner laments cases when a homeowner sells off mature trees. He knows of one recent case in Orangeburg in which several mature camellias were dug up around a home and moved to a home in downtown Charleston.

"The garden in Orangeburg is as important as this garden on Legare Street," he says. "Unfortunately, not everybody feels that way, and money talks. You don't want to take history from one place and plop it down in another."

The foundation and others are trying to raise awareness because much of the destruction of the Lowcountry's garden history isn't malicious, or even intentional.

"It's not that they're being obnoxious Yankees or whatever you want to say," Hastie says, "It's just that they just don't know."

Robert Behre may be reached at 937-5771 or by fax at 937-5579. His e-mail address is rbehre@postandcourier.com, and his mailing address is 134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC 29403.

---

Notice about comments:
The Post and Courier is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Charleston.net does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not postandcourier.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "suggest removal" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our Web site.
Full terms and conditions can be read here.

---

Comments

This article has  1 comment(s)