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.See also subsistence gardening, the art and craft of growing plants, considered as a circumscribed form of individual agriculture.Though cultivation of plants for food long predates history, the earliest evidence for ornamental gardens is seen in Egyptian tomb paintings of the 1500s BC; they depict lotus ponds surrounded by rows of acacias and palms. The other ancient gardening tradition is of Persia: Darius the Great was said to have had a "paradise garden" and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were renowned as a Wonder of the World. Persian influences extended to post-Alexander's Greece: around 350 BC there were gardens at the Academy of Athens, and Theophrastus, who wrote on botany, was supposed to have inherited a garden from Aristotle. Epicurus also had a garden where he walked and taught, and bequeathed it to Hermarchus of Mytilene. Alciphron also mentions private gardens.The most influential ancient gardens in the western world were the Ptolemy's gardens at Alexandria and the gardening tradition brought to Rome by Lucullus. Wall paintings in Pompeii attest to elaborate development later, and the wealthiest of Romans built enormous gardens, many of whose ruins are still to be seen, such as at Hadrian's Villa.Byzantium and Moorish Spain kept garden traditions alive after the 4th century. By this time a separate gardening tradition had arisen in China, which was transmitted to Japan, where it developed into aristocratic miniature landscapes centered on ponds and separately into the severe Zen gardens of temples.In Europe, gardening revived in Languedoc and the Ile-de-France in the 13th century, and in the Italian villa gardens of the early Renaissance. French parterres developed at the end of the 16th century and reached high development under Andre le Notre. English landscape gardens opened a new perspective in the 18th century.The 19th century saw a welter of historical revivals and Romantic cottage-inspired gardening, as well as the rise of flower gardens, which became dominant in home gardening in the 20th century.20th century gardening expanded into city planning
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Garden Design as a Vocation
Garden design is the art and process of designing the layout and planting of domestic gardens and landscapes. Garden owners showed an increasing interest in garden design during the late twentieth century and there was also a significant expansion in the use of professional garden designers. Some garden owners have enough skill and experience to design their own gardens, but this is comparatively rare. Sissinghurst, one of the most admired gardens made in the twentieth century, was designed by its owners: Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West.Garden designers usually are trained in both design and in horticulture, and have an expert knowledge and experience of using plants. Garden designers are also concerned with the layout of hard landscape, such as paths, walls, water features, sitting areas and decking.HistoryThe theory of garden design and landscape architecture can be traced to Vitruvius. Though he had little to say specifically about the design of outdoor space, Vitruvius put forward the influential theory that the objectives for all design projects are: Commodity (utilitas), Firmness (firmitas) and Delight (venustas).Before the Renaissance, garden design was usually carried out by garden owners or by the professionals they employed (horticulturalists, architects, surveyors, sculptors etc). In China and Japan, gardens were often designed by scholars, artists, poets, painters and priests. In Europe, it seems likely that professional training for garden designers began in seventeenth century France. After the time of Le Notre it was accepted that both an artistic and a horticultural training were necessary. Various garden design courses were established in Europe during the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century many of them changed over to the teaching of landscape architecture. Towards the end of the twentieth century there was a re-emergence of university level education programmes in garden design.Traditionally, garden designs were set out on the ground. With Renaissance advances in plan drawing it became common for gardens to be designed on paper and transferred to the ground using surveying instruments, including tape measures and theodolites. With the invention of Computer Aided Design (CAD) towards the end of the twentieth century it is becoming increasingly common for garden designers to work on computer screens and then print paper plans which are issued to garden builders. A range of CAD programmes is used including vector drawing software, bitmap editing software, 3D modelling software and animation software. Some of these programmes are able to 'print' 3D models as well paper plans.Garden design coursesEducation in garden design has emerged from the older traditions of training in horticulture and architecture. Horticulturalists receive a technical education with a scientific underpinning. Garden designers require a knowledge of horticulture and building construction but also require the skills in art and design traditionally associated with architectural education. This is often provided with a Bauhaus type art foundation course in drawing, painting and 3D modelling. Since garden designers draw upon the historic legacy of garden design they also require knowledge of the history of gardens. A garden design education can be obtained via a 3 or 4 year university course or by shorter, intensive courses, often run by private colleges, with a duration of around 1 year.The Inchbald School of Design, in association with the University of Wales, offers an MA course in Garden Design. The University of Greenwich offers a Master of Arts in Garden Design and also an MA in Garden History. University College Falmouth also offers both BA(Hons) and MA courses in Garden Design. A number of part-time certificate and diploma courses are available at various private colleges in the UK, including Garden Design School and Merrist Wood College - both in Surrey.Developing a Garden DesignBefore the garden is actually built and planned, drawings would be helpful to formulate, express, and develop the sense of garden’s design. The schematic plan, which is the first drawing of the garden’s design, can be used to show the main proposed features and planting areas. It is a quick visualization that sets out the general and broad proposals for the garden. All subsequent drawings are usually based on this plan, so it should be considered important.