Seeking Eden promotes an awareness of, and appreciation for, Georgia’s rich garden heritage. Updated and expanded here are the stories of nearly thirty designed landscapes first identified in the early twentieth-century publication Garden History of Georgia, 1733–1933. Seeking Eden records each garden’s evolution and history as well as each garden’s current early twenty-first-century appearance, as beautifully documented in photographs. Dating from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, these publicly and privately owned gardens include nineteenth-century parterres, Colonial Revival gardens, Country Place–era landscapes, rock gardens, historic town squares, college campuses, and an urban conservation garden.

Seeking Eden explores the significant impact of the women who envisioned and nurtured many of these special places; the role of professional designers, including J. Neel Reid, Philip Trammel Shutze, William C. Pauley, Robert B. Cridland, the Olmsted Brothers, Hubert Bond Owens, and Clermont Lee; and the influence of the garden club movement in Georgia in the early twentieth century.

FEATURED GARDENS:

Andrew Low House and Garden | Savannah

Ashland Farm | Flintstone

Barnsley Gardens | Adairsville

Barrington Hall and Bulloch Hall | Roswell

Battersby-Hartridge Garden | Savannah

Beech Haven | Athens

Berry College: Oak Hill and House o’ Dreams | Mount Berry

Bradley Olmsted Garden | Columbus

Cator Woolford Gardens | Atlanta

Coffin-Reynolds Mansion | Sapelo Island

Dunaway Gardens | Newnan vicinity

Governor’s Mansion | Atlanta

Hills and Dales Estate | LaGrange

Lullwater Conservation Garden | Atlanta

Millpond Plantation | Thomasville vicinity

Oakton | Marietta

Rock City Gardens | Lookout Mountain

Salubrity Hall | Augusta

Savannah Squares | Savannah

Stephenson-Adams-Land Garden | Atlanta

Swan House | Atlanta

University of Georgia: North Campus, the President’s House and Garden, and the Founders Memorial Garden | Athens

Valley View | Cartersville vicinity

Wormsloe and Wormsloe State Historic Site | Savannah vicinity

Zahner-Slick Garden | Atlanta