There's a book titled Grandmother's Garden, The Old-Fashioned American Garden 1865-1915, which is written by art historian May Brawley Hill. She uses her knowledge of art to describe and illustrate the period of great gardening changes in America between the Civil War and World War I.

I have not read this book , but have a book review that I saved because it intrigued me. If you'd like the review, I could email it your way. Let me know.

Wellspring

You may find this link helpful, if you haven't already seen it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Early Victorian Gardening

This is a great reference book too: Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940 by Denise Wiles Adams. I found it at my library recently.

Thank you, wellspring, scraplolly, and bungalow_house, for these tips. I'll certainly use all your leads.

This is off the cuff for sure, but:
-- foundation plantings are not limited to yews and rhodos but can be just the idea of planting next to the foundation and disguising or blurring it. So a "foundation planting" could be anthing, and could be quite interesting and attractive, and there are lots of discussions about that on this forum. However, if you don't want the foundation "planted," for whatever reason, then you are more aimed at planting out at the sidewalk.

Again off the cuff, if you have a small front yard you can get a nice sense of enclosure, without being oppressive, by plantint out toward the street and having a bit of negative space, or lawn, toward the house. Sometimes, from a "gardener" 's perspective, it can be nice to work in/on the garden from within it and not as exposed to the street. If you sit on the porch, you may get a better view of your garden if it's out a bit (with the short distances you described). You still have the option to plant "something" at the foundation if you want to, but perhaps small and more restrained, or bring lawn grass right up to it.

If a fence, such as picket or iron, is in line with the style of house, then it's possible to place a low or open-style fence a bit in from the sidewalk and plant on both sides. The street side might contain more manageable plants, more evergreens--things that are less likely to run wild and make you worry about maintenance, especially if you are just learning about gardening, while on the house side you can experiment more, while still keeping the two "sides" compatible. The fence then also becomes a way to train roses or other appropriate plantings. If you determine you have the time and interest, you can always make the street side more riotous and cottage-like later.

Then, as might be evident from the books listed above, another "look" is to look streetside in across sidewalk and bit of lawn to "bed" of plantings at the house.

The actual measurements will be an important issue--15 feet from sidewalk to house doesn't make for much more than a strip of lawn or a small circle, and some people would consider planting the whole yard; but if done properly, a bit of lawn, assuming you can cut it, can look better and allow you better access to tending the garden(s) from both sides rather than having to wade through them. Hardscape can serve the same purpose. The smaller the yard, the more I favor planting out, since by definition you have to sacrifice a few feet of space at the foundation to avoid crowding or rot (not knowing what yours is like).

When I hear "perennials" I hear months of dead/blank space, so remember that evergreen shrubs of some sort should be in the design as well. You would have lots of options, I would think.

A final consideration is whether the best design would include small ornamental trees or shrubs for height (maybe only one or 2)--since these have to be placed a bit away from the house, they could then be incorporated into a planting bed. Or, the size of the yard and house may be better served by all low plantings.

Thank you frankie_in_zone-7. All very helpful suggestions. I stayed up way too late last night reading old forum posts and no doubt will spend many more hours in this way.

I agree that some lawn would look better than planting the whole yard, small though it is. I believe a fully-planted yard would look too "busy," blending with and distracting from the ornamental details on the house itself. All your thoughts about bed placement are very insightful. I have also been considering a low front fence.

I'll keep all this in mind and spend the next weeks doing what research I can, including following the leads given here. Perhaps I will post pictures in a while when it is easier to see what we have. At the moment it is chiefly a construction site.

Thanks again.

It is likely that your house would have been planted to the street with roses and perennials with no lawn. Box (buxus) was quite in favour so this might work as a low hedge instead of a fence. One thing you should be aware of is that city ordinances or allowances for snow clearing (salt etc.) will have changed making grass near the street an essential.

Good point, ink--we get very little snow where I live, so I never think about that problem.

Another book that may be helpful is Liz Primeau's "Front Yard Gardens - Growing more than Grass". It shows of all sorts of houses.

Also, it may be helpful (as Frankie suggested) to first think about whether you want the best view to be from the street, or from the porch you plan to build. We practically live on our front porch 7 months of the year, so privacy and the view from my chair is most important to me.

The link below illustrates what frankie suggested ... though you probably don't have as much space between street & house.

Shrubs with a wrought iron fence like this would look good viewed from the house, and provide some privacy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baird House

Now, that's a house!

I love the look of shrubs through the wrought iron, too. Just lovely.