Cultivating A Historic Garden On Main Street

By Jan Howard

A period garden designed more than 30 years ago for the historic Matthew Curtiss, Jr, House on Main Street will reach fruition this spring through the talented hands of a master gardener.

Volunteer Brid Craddock of Newtown, who completed the Connecticut Master Gardener program last year, began work on the project last fall, digging out the garden, which had become overgrown, and moving and relocating some of the plantings.

Rudy Favratti, a plant scientist from the University of Connecticut, originally designed the garden.

“It’s a great little project,” Ms Craddock said of the plan to refurbish the perennial garden in the back yard of the house. “It’s a great experience.

“The combination of gardening and history, that is my passion,” she said.

Ms Craddock has spent the winter researching the historic plantings Mr Favratti suggested for the period garden and where to obtain them.

The majority of plants will be delivered in May, she said. “I can’t wait to get started. I’m having a good time. This is so much fun.

“Heirloom plants are more available now,” Ms Craddock said. “People began to realize they were disappearing. People became seed savers because of the fear of extinction. Some of the plants are resistant to insects and diseases we now have.

“There is growing interest in what would have been in yards,” she said, pointing to research at historic sites such as Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, Mount Vernon in Virginia, and Strawberry Banke in New Hampshire. “Researching plants is common in New England.”

There are several sources for antique seeds, she said, adding, however, “I had nomenclature problems because plant names have changed.”

Antique seeds are available through catalogs, such as Twinleaf, produced by the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello.

Peggy Gross, president of the Newtown Historical Society, said members of the Garden Club of Newtown worked with Mr Favratti on the original plan, provided some of the original plantings, and have maintained the garden over the years.

“This will be the first time the garden is fully planted,” Ms Gross said, noting that boxwood on the side of the house has been replaced and there have been recent plantings in front of the house.

The garden plan reflects the time the house was built, about 1750, Ms Craddock said, noting, “We could put in plants that would have been available from then on.

“We can choose more contemporary plants,” she said. “I wish we could be a fly on the wall and take a time machine back.”

Ms Craddock said people in the colonial era would have planted their best flowers by the back door. “They planted lots of herbs,” she said, noting that the Matthew Curtiss House does have an herb bed. “Herbs are coming back because they are ornamental.”

She explained that hedges, such as those at the Matthew Curtiss House, would have also been used for kindling. “They had multiple benefits.”

Among plantings in the design plan are feverfew, peony, chrysanthemum, alyssum, heliopsis, bee balm, phlox, primrose, marigold, dianthus, phlox, bleeding heart, iris, shasta daisy, ferns, hosta, hyacinth, daylily, and others.

Tulips have not been included in the garden because they attract deer, Ms Craddock explained.

“With the new knowledge we have from plant historians, we wouldn’t plant what we have here.” She said plant archaeology could determine the genus of a plant through the casting of the soil where root structures are in the ground, but not the variety.

In addition to perennials, the garden will contain some annuals and short-lived perennials. Ms Gross has donated some pulmonaria, or lungwort, a spotted leaf plant introduced about 1750. “I brought it because we needed filler and it likes shade,” she said.

Historic plants are determined by their introduction date or when they were first advertised for sale, Ms Craddock said. Some of the plantings suggested for the garden, such as candy tuft, mountain laurel, and mock orange, were introduced in the early 1700s.

Once the garden is completely planted this spring, the different specimens will be identified by cedar plant markers, which Ms Craddock created by cutting the tops off a picket fence. A design of the garden plan will also be available for reference. Ms Craddock has also prepared a guide that explains the care of each plant in the garden.

“Most gardens do not provide a plan or mark the plants. This will provide an education,” she said.

Matthew Curtiss, Jr, was born in Newtown in 1746, and his wife, Hannah Ford, was born in 1755. Near the end of the American Revolution, Mr Curtiss bought the house on Main Street where he and his family lived until around 1800. The actual date of the building of this home is not known; however, an architectural study of the house indicates it is consistent with houses built between 1725 and 1750.

Some books Ms Craddock used in her research include The New Traditional Garden by Michael Weishan; The Well Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy diSabato-Aust; Theme Garden by Barbara Damroshc; Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants by Steven M. Still; Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs by Michael Dirr; and Manual of Woody Landscape Plants by Michael Dirr.

Ms Craddock said during the Connecticut Master Gardener course, “I had the benefit of hearing the best advice from professors in every field. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

She is currently taking a course in herbaceous plants from Robert Herman, formerly with White Flower Farm, at Naugatuck Community College. “It’s a delight,” she said. “I’ve learned so much.”

A resident of Newtown since 1999, Ms Craddock earned a degree in design from Endicott College, though she said, “It never was my passion.” Her real passion then as now was landscape architecture. She is involved in the Garden Club of Newtown and has helped decorate the Matthew Curtiss House for the annual Holiday House Tour. She is a member of the borough zoning board and has been instrumental in organizing an annual Main Street party for the past two years.

Last year she created a garden at Dickinson Park. Her gardens at her Main Street home include a colonial style pattern garden, a 35-foot herbaceous border of flowering plants, and a sundial garden in front of her house.

“I have been gardening forever,” she said. “I had my first garden when I was in kindergarten. My father mowed it over. He thought it was weeds.”

 Ms Craddock recently started her new business, Craddock Heirloom Gardens. She can be reached at 364-1774.