This dissertation focuses on the career of one of the founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects: Warren Henry Manning (1860-1938). It uses texts that Manning published about gardening, his garden commissions, and the reception of his garden work to explain: (i) how Manning parleyed his horticultural expertise into the design of gardens, (ii) what professional identity he crafted for himself, and (iii) how garden-making ultimately failed to satisfy his professional ambitions. In doing so, it situates Manning’s work in a historical continuum, and it identifies certain inhibitions that seem to pervade his professional practice. The significance of these inhibitions is explained by transposing cognitive models that have been developed for works of literary fiction to the context of landscape architecture.