An arbor or pergola and trellis have been installed.  Although most of the arbors in the period were made of wood  and were large in scale, a metal trellis and arbor were chosen for this project so as to blend into the garden and not compete with the architecture of the building.  "Pergolas are long, open arbors, Italian inspired . . .  meant for vines, and vines were popular throughout the post-Victorian garden.  Besides providing shade, privacy and vertical interest in small spaces, vines helped integrate the house and site in a naturalistic way.  Vines were grown on pergolas; up chimneys, walls, and fences; on arches over doors and gates; and on lots of trellises" (Kunst 1986).

"Perennial borders became very popular during this period (Gay Nineties and Early Twentieth Century).  The influence of the Englishman William Robinson (1839 - 1933), who detested bedding out and involved garden designs, was being felt.  Robinson advocated the planting of large, deep perennial beds.  Depths exceeding a ten foot minimum were recommended, and within these borders, masses of perennials were to be planted in an organized and designed manner.  Robinson's ideas were also being recommended by many American garden writers and designers, and his concepts were readily accepted" (Favretti, 1978 revised 1997). 

Doctors of the mid-1800's advised against placing plants against the foundation of the house as it would hold in stale air and promote diseases such as tuberculosis or consumption.  Only a few vines were allowed to be planted up against the house (Koziol presentation, 2004). In the Victorian era, plants were usually placed in beds away from the house, often with intricate formal designs and high maintenance. Foundation plantings, therefore, were relatively new during the post-Victorian era, and "were frequently recommended as a way to "settle" the house in its grounds.  Made up of shrubs, small trees, flowers and groundcover at the base of the house, foundation planting has become a convention of 20th-century landscaping" (Kunst 1986). 

While the Centennial garden has a few formal elements, it is primarily informal in style, like an English cottage garden. Unlike the very formal gardens of continental Europe, popular in the Victorian era in America, English gardens were derived from the monastic herb gardens that many people acquired when Henry the 8th created the Church of England and redistributed the monastic lands to a future "middle" class (Longley presentation, 2004).

English gardens, however, were often enclosed like the monastic herb gardens from which they descended. Frank J. Scott, an American landscape architect believed that "it is unchristian to hedge from the sight of others the beauties of nature which it has been our good fortune to create or secure; and all the walls, high fences, hedge screens and belts of trees and shrubbery which are used for that purpose only, are so many means by which we show how unchristian and un-neighborly we can be.  It is true these things are not usually done in any mere spirit of selfishness:  they are the conventional forms of planting that come down to us from feudal times, or that were necessary in gardens near cities, and in close proximity to populous neighborhoods with rude improvements and ruder people.  It is a peculiarity of English gardens, which it is as unfortunate to follow as it would be to imitate the surly self-assertion of English traveling-manners".  Faurot Hall "overlooks an open area of mowed grass and trees" (Scott, 1870).

Mowed grass not only a desirable feature in the early 1900s landscape, it was possible to achieve as well.  Thanks to Elwood McGuire of Richmond Indiana who, in 1870, designed a lawn mowing machine that was readily available to "the common man". By 1885, America manufactured 50,000 lawnmowers a year and supplied a worldwide market (Bellis). A "smooth, closely shaven surface of green is by far the most essential element of beauty on the grounds of a suburban house" (Scott, 1870).

"Let us, then, (again) describe Decorative Planting to be the art of picture making and picture framing, by means of the varied forms of vegetable growth" (Scott, 1870). The Centennial Garden concept is to frame Faurot Hall with a garden border of heirloom plants that fits well in the total picture of this Tudor Revival Style Building surrounded by open mowed lawn and trees. The Centennial Garden is a fitting tribute for the Missouri State Centennial Celebration in that it reflects the past, honors the present, and grows into the future.

References:

The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds.  1870.  Reprinted as Victorian Gardens Part 1: Suburban Home Grounds by Frank J. Scott with a new introduction by David Schuyler.  Library of Victorian Culture American Life Foundation, Watkins Glen, NY 1982.

Garden Style. 2004. Presentation by Peter Longley at the Second Annual Springfield Garden Symposium, Nathanial Greene Park, June 5, 2004, Springfield, Missouri, Sponsored by the Southwest Missouri Master Gardeners.

Greener Pastures: The history of the lawn mower and innovations that keep our lawns green. Mary Bellis. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllawns.htm 

Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings; A handbook for reproducing and creating authentic landscape settings.  (1978) 2nd ed. revised 1997.  R. J. Favretti and J. P. Favretti.  Altamira Press.  201 pp.

A Midwestern Garden. 2004. Presentation by Nina Koziol at The Midwest Gardening Symposium, March 19-21, Thornhill Education Center, Lisle, Illinois, Sponsored by Fine Gardening Magazine and The Morton Arboretum.

Post-Victorian Houses:  Landscape and Garden.  1986.  Scott G. Kunst.  The Old House Journal (April, 1986) pp. 128 - 135.

Restoring American Gardens:  An encyclopedia of heirloom ornamental plants 1640 - 1940.  2004.  Denise Wiles Adams.  Timber Press.  419 pp.