History of gardening

This entry concerns the history of ornamental gardening considered as an amenity of civilized life, as a vehicle for style, for conspicuous show and even an expression of philosophy.

The historical development of garden styles

Ancient Near East

• Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Assyrian hunting parks and Persian paradise gardens

• Assyrian/Persian paradise garden or enclosed hunting-orchard.

Egyptian temple courts

• Royalty, most likely that found in Egypt, was probably also very instrumental in the development of the garden, much as royalty and the privileged classes throughout the centuries have continued to influence the design and actualization of gardens.

Hellenistic and Roman gardens

• Hellenistic gardens.
• Roman gardens had many characteristics in common with contemporary gardens. The garden was a place of peace and tranquility, a refuge from urban life, and was invested with religious and symbolic meanings. Ornamental horticulture became highly developed during the development of Roman civilisation. The administrators of the Roman Empire (c.100 BC - AD 500) actively exchanged information on agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, hydraulics, and botany. Seeds and plants were widely shared. The Gardens of Lucullus (Horti Lucullani) on the Pincian Hill on the edge of Rome introduced the Persian garden to Europe, about 60 BC.

Islamic gardens

• Byzantine/Turkish gardens.
• The developed Persian garden, which evolved into the Mughal gardens of India.
• Islamic Spanish gardens.

Chinese and Japanese gardens

• 'Hill-and-Pond' gardens of China and Japan.
• Zen garden of Japan.

Polish gardens

The leading European historian and designer of gardens, Gerard Ciołek (1909-1966), analysed and discussed several hundreds of notable parks and gardens of Poland (Ciołek 1954, 1978). These include:

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• Mediaeval gardens
• Kartuzy, Mogiła and Oliwa
• Renaissance gardens
• Branice, Jędrzejów, Łobzów, Łowicz, Wawel Castle (Kraków), Wiśnicz, Wola Justowska, and Zamość.
• Baroque (17th c.) gardens
• Krasiczyn, Krzyżtopór, Nieborów, Royal Castle (Warszawa), Rzeszów, Tyniec, Wawel Castle (Kraków), Wilanów (Warszawa), Wiśniowiec, Wysock, and Zwierzyniec (Kraków).
• Baroque (18th c.) gardens
• Białystok, Brühl Park (Warszawa), Łancut, Nieborów, Saski Park (Warszawa) Oliwa, Otwock Wielki, Puławy, Radzyń Podlaski, Royal Castle (Warszawa), Sokółka, Wilanów (Warszawa), Ujazdów (Warszawa).
• Landscape (18/19th c.) gardens
• Alexandria (Siedlce), Arkadia, Królikarnia (Warszawa), Łancut, Łazienki (Warszawa), Mokotów (Warszawa), Montelupi Park (Kraków), Powązki (Warszawa), Puławy, Saski Park (Warszawa), and Szczekociny.
• Romantic (19th c.) gardens
• Jabłonna, Krasiczyn, Łancut, Modlnica, Natolin, Planty Park (Kraków), Puławy, Saski Park (Lublin), and Wilanów (Warszawa).

Renaissance gardens

• Medieval enclosed garden of northern Europe Hortus inclusus.
• The Italian Renaissance inspired a revolution in gardening. Renaissance gardens were full of scenes from ancient mythology and other learned allusions. Water during this time was especially symbolic: it was associated with fertility and the abundance of nature.

Italian gardens

• Terraced Italian garden of the Renaissance.

French gardens

• Baroque French gardens of Andre le Notre and followers.

Anglo-Dutch gardens

• English Landscape garden and its imitators, called 'English gardens.'

Landscape gardens

Romantic gardens

Picturesque gardens

'Gardenesque' gardens

The 'Gardenesque' style of English garden design evolved during the 1820's from Humphrey Repton's Picturesque or 'Mixed' style, largely under the impetus of J. C. Loudon, who invented the term.

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In a Gardenesque plan, all the trees, shrubs and other plants are positioned and managed in such a way that the character of each plant can be displayed to its full potential. With the spread of botany as a suitable avocation for the enlightened, the Gardenesque tended to emphasize botanical curiosities and a collector's approach. New plant material that would have seemed bizarre and alien in earlier gardening found settings: Pampas grass from Argentina and Monkey-puzzle trees. Winding paths linked scattered plantings. The Gardenesque approach involved the creation of small-scale landscapes, dotted with features and vignettes, to promote beauty of detail, variety and mystery, sometimes to the detriment of coherence. Artificial mounds helped to stage groupings of shrubs, and island beds became prominent features.

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Pattern gardens: revived parterres

"Wild" gardens and herbaceous borders

The books of William Robinson describing his own "wild" gardening at Gravetye Manor, Sussex, and the sentimental picture of a rosy, idealized "cottage garden" of the kind pictured by Kate Greenaway, which had scarcely existed historically, both influenced the development of the mixed herbaceous borders that were advocated by Gertrude Jekyll from the 1890s. Her plantings, which mixed shrubs with perennial and annual plants and bulbs in deep beds within more formal structures of terraces and stairs designed by Edwin Lutyens, set the model for high-style, high-maintenance gardening until the Second World War. Vita Sackville-West's garden at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent is the most famous and influential garden of this last blossoming of romantic style, publicized by the gardener's own gardening column in The Observer. In the last quarter of the 20th century, less structured Wildlife gardening emphasized the ecological framework of similar gardens using native plants.

Related Topics:
William Robinson - Kate Greenaway - Gertrude Jekyll - Edwin Lutyens - Vita Sackville-West - Sissinghurst Castle - The Observer - Wildlife gardening - Ecological

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Modern gardens

• Romantic idealized English cottage garden.
• Contemporary gardens.