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‘America’s Romance with the English Garden’

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Thomas Mickey loves gardens and his new book “America’s Romance with the English Garden,” published by Ohio University Press, is a celebration of that love as well as a comprehensive history of how and why this county has so fully embraced the concept of an English garden.

The longtime Rye resident said he has been a garden aficionado for more than 25 years. The book is not, however, a gardening manual, although some tips can be gleaned from its pages. Rather, it is a history of how new technologies in printing and distribution of seed catalogues brought the products, influence and know-how of a traditional English garden to America, and of the ways we embraced the ideas of rolling, sweeping lawns, and using flowers to create beautiful living landscapes in this country.

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Thomas J. Mickey, author of “America’s Romance with the English Garden,” is scheduled to visit Barnes Noble, Crossings at Fox Run in Newington on June 1; the Discover Portsmouth Center, 10 Middle St., Portsmouth, on June 8; and, Rye Public Library, 581 Washington Road, Rye, on June 13.

“I have been writing about gardening for 17 years,” Mickey said. “I have written hundreds of articles on gardening and earned a graduate certificate in landscaping. I have a public relations background so got interested in the historical aspect of gardening. This book will not tell you how to grow tomatoes. It will tell you that to be a true English kitchen garden; tomatoes must be grown behind your house. This is the story of American gardening as told through the words and images of the seed and nursery catalogs of the 19th century.”

In an excerpt from his book, Mickey explains the concept of an English garden by saying “Here, the meaning of the phrase ‘English garden’ dates to the 19th century. Its landscape includes a lawn, carefully sited trees and shrubs, individual garden beds with native and exotic plants, and perhaps, out back, a vegetable or kitchen garden. The lawn and the use of exotic plants are relics of the English garden style we have loved for the past 200 years.”

Mickey made a proposal at the Smithsonian Institution, seeking and being awarded a grant to study the history of gardening. It is from that study that his beautifully depicted book evolved. An upcoming talk at the Smithsonian is in the planning stages, Mickey said.

“This book shows how the seed companies taught America to garden,” Mickey said. “They had to sell us on the English garden design and they did it very well. We use that design now from Maine to California.”

Plans are in process for a virtual book tour, a unique way for people to get a look at the book. Most of the illustrations come from original seed catalogs, printed after 1860.Other photos were taken by local photographer Ralph Morang. At the end of each chapter is a photo by Morang of a plant featured in that chapter.

Mickey is a professor emeritus of communication studies at Bridgewater State University. He is a graduate of Boston University, the University of Iowa and Harvard University’s Landscape Institute. He is a master gardener and has been a columnist for the Brockton Enterprise, the Quincy Patriot Ledger and for Seacoast Media Group.

His other books are “Best Garden Plants for New England,” Deconstructing Public Relations” and “Sociodrama: An Interpretive Theory for the Practice of Public Relations.”

“America’s Romance with the English Garden” will be available in early May and can be found through Amazon, Barnes Noble, and locally at RiverRun and Water Street bookstores. For details, visit Mickey’s garden blog at www.americangardening.net.

Mickey will be at Barnes Noble in Newington for a book signing event on June 1. He will be at the Portsmouth Discovery Center on June 8, and will give a talk at the Rye Public Library on June 13.

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