The Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Garden.

HISTORIC GARDENS
Strawbery Banke maintains 6 historic gardens, three newly-created gardens, and three apple orchards, in their original locations or adapted from historical plans.

Each garden is typical of a historic era, exhibiting plants and planting techniques of their times:

1600s 
Subsistence level, raised bed kitchen gardens and the clearing of land for agriculture created an English sense of order in the natural landscape of the colonial settlements.

• Sherburne 17th Century Kitchen Garden

1700s 
Dooryard gardens, market gardens, and agriculture came to life with new plants imported from far-flung ports. An appreciation of American native plants was born of newfound Revolutionary patriotism and increased leisure time for budding botanists.

• Walsh House Teaching Garden

1800s
The highly romantic and formalized Victorian landscape often stood in sharp contrast to the landscape of industrialization. Mechanized industry brought with it farm abandonment and new immigrants settling in this neighborhood and joining the workforce.

• Goodwin Garden

1900s
Victorian garden styles gave way to Colonial Revival gardens, heirloom plants in the backyards of new immigrants, and the Victory garden as a new model for the American garden.

• Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Garden
• Shapiro Ukrainian Vegetable Garden
• WWII Victory Garden

Present
Within the cultural and historic landscapes of the Puddle Dock neighborhood, Strawbery Banke Museum also maintains teaching gardens and orchards designed to teach lessons from the past for gardeners of the 21st century.

• Ethnobotanical Herb Garden
• Victorian Children's Garden
• Victorian Hot House (Greenhouse)
• Strawbery Banke Community Garden

The Historic Landscapes Department at Strawbery Banke preserves both garden design elements and period-appropriate plant selections. The living collection is based on surviving specimens, archaeological research, seed and pollen analysis, oral histories and other primary sources. This evidence helps restore, recreate or rehabilitate the gardens cultivated by past inhabitants of this layered landscape.

The Heirloom Seed Program is part of the cultural legacy for future generations. When gardeners use heirloom plants today, they revive the ideals and tastes of those who carefully stewarded them through generations. 

"Green," sustainable and organic gardening practices are the cornerstones of the historic landscapes program at Strawbery Banke, focused sustainable practices including the use of organic methods of fertilizing, composting, and pest control. The museum fosters the values of preservation while caring for the environment and teaching from historic plants.

Garden tours are offered daily May through October. For information about private garden tours for garden clubs and other special-interest groups, contact Visitor Services jbrown 'AT' sbmuseum 'DOT' org. The Curator of Historic Landscapes is also available to provide programs at offsite locations.

The Historic Foodways Program is also offered daily (May 1 - Oct 31) in Wheelwright House where interpreters demonstrate hearth-cooking and the preservation of heirloom produce. Interactive Historic Foodways: Fireside Talks are offered seasonally.

The Horticulture Learning Center in Cotton Tenant House provides seasonal programs related to gardening, food preservation and the use of plants grown in Strawbery Banke gardens.