Library EventSecond Sunday Garden Forum: Iowa Gardens of the Past with Beth Cody

Iowa City gardener and author Beth Cody will give a presentation of the history of ornamental gardening in Iowa, illustrated by a slideshow of beautiful vintage gardens and colorful seed catalogues from her new book, “Iowa Gardens of the Past”. Iowa gardens are conspicuously absent from landscape history books and Beth set out to rectify that exclusion. She discovered that Iowa has indeed had many beautiful gardens, both private and public which miraculously have been preserved in garden photos and illustrations. She compiled photos and history of grand gardens and modest gardens in small towns and on turn-of-the-century farms as well as images and history of gardens created by nationally or regionally well-known garden writers, hybridizers and horticultural entrepreneurs.
With her presentation and in her book, she is rescuing historic Iowa gardens from obscurity.

Beth’s book is available at www.iowagardens.com. and would make a wonderful holiday gift. It’s a delightful read and may spark great memories of your grandma’s garden.

Born and raised in Ames, Beth has lived in the Iowa City area for more than twenty-five years. She and her family (and 700 garden books) live in a 95 year old farmhouse on their 5 acres in the Amish countryside. She is a small business owner and an avid amateur gardener who is either working in her garden, thinking about her garden or reading garden books. Beth writes a garden blog at garden fancy.blogspot.com and is a volunteer with Project GREEN.

This event will be taking place on Zoom, and registration is required. A reminder email will be sent out the day before the event with the zoom connection details.

The Second Sunday Garden Forums are cosponsored by Project GREEN and the Iowa City Public Library. The events are free and open to the public.