- What is a garden? The English word derives from the French Jargon and Teutonic roots of the
word “yard.” Meaning an enclosure, usually walled or fenced, in which the soil has been worked
for growing plants of various kinds.
- In Genesis, the Bible describes the first garden. Everyone has probably heard of the Garden of
Eden. In the second chapter the garden is described as being a place of plenty, full of trees that provided food for Adam and Eve. At that time the earth had not seen any rain, so God provided irrigation through rivers that sprung from under the ground.
- Gardens have often been a place to show off power and possessions. In the past some Emperors
of China, had lost their lives after bankrupting their country in pursuit of the grandest schemes, in other ways a garden can be a place of intimacy and ones own private sanctuary.
- The earliest gardens were built by the Sumerians around 3000 BC as hunting parks with the
idea of sport and food. Later in around 2500 BC the Egyptian gardens where built in a rectangular shape that was dictated by their irrigation methods. The Egyptian’s were an authority on the art of moving and channeling water from local sources to irrigate their gardens.
- By 1000 BC the Chinese where firmly grounded into creating the famous pleasure parks, and to
this day probably have the most beautiful landscaped gardens anywhere on the face of the earth. Chinese Emperors, Assyrian Kings, and medieval poets were absorbed by the idyllic nature of a gardens beauty.
- By 1500 AD Italian Renaissance Villas and gardens flourished. Not far behind, the French adapted to
Italian concepts and fused the new renaissance style into existing chateaus.
- Around 1700 AD the English started their serious landscape movement, and since then built and maintained large scale gardens throughout the country. The English often designed and built their gardens in a symmetrical fashion using straight lines, and they spend countless hours on the trimming and maintenance of such landscapes.
- In 1771 Thomas Jefferson introduced the informal style of landscape using new and unique concepts.
- By the end of World War I in 1918, Thomas Church proclaimed the “Gardens are for People,” and his designs in California put the garden at the heart of a new relaxed outdoor lifestyle.
- Since then in America and around the world people have gone to the extreme to build and create the most beautiful, and practical landscapes. This can be done using not only trees and shrubs, but also hardscapes such as arbors, fountains, statuary, walkways, and lighting.
- Gardening and landscapes satisfy all the senses and can be very therapeutic for the soul. They provide us with extreme beauty, and add to the look of our surroundings. Without landscaping and trees, our world would probably be a most dreary place to live.
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