but, just owning a house didn't make a man's house a home, there was the definite need for a woman -- and if she couldn't be a wife, then she would be a sister or daughter (123). For women, the home was a place of work, for it was where they put in their long hard hours while the men were away working. The home was her reason for being really. If she were out shopping, it was for the home (124); for the woman, the home was always where her heart and duty was. Does Loudon make gender distinctions in his discussion of gardens? Loudon does make gender distinctions when he is discussing gardens. He talks about how satisfying it is for the master of the house to come to his garden after a long day in the city, how it is so nice to enjoy these gardens in the summer evening. Loudon makes a reference to the children watching their father as he delightfully tends to the garden...

While Loudon discusses how men will enjoy their gardening -- their hoeing and raking, women will certainly love the flowers that come from their gardens. However, Loudon then states that there are very few women who would be competent enough to plant and take care of their own flower garden! Loudon states that while every woman can make a dress from a pattern, cut it out and sew it -- and one would think that that is all a woman needs to know how to do to plant a flower garden, women still do not "have any distinct idea of what a flower-garden ought to be" (6). It is because of this that, "we seldom or never see them produce a satisfactory design for one, without the…