Gardening Through The Ages
Posted: Monday, November 08, 2010
by Mark Bartley
It is possible to trace the appreciation of gardening in England back several centuries, with food production being the primary use of gardens until the Romans introduced ornamental gardening for those who could afford it. Gardening for the masses wasn't common until home ownership became more prevalent in the twentieth century. Before that time, landscaped ornamental gardens were the privilege of royalty and the noble classes with the gardens at Hampton Court in Surrey being a perfect example of the grandest schemes of the era. Country houses across the land were judged incomplete without walled gardens and sweeping lawns. A impressive as they were, many of these large gardens were destroyed during the 11 year Puritan period between 1649 and 1660 when England had no monarch following the execution of Charles I and Cromwell ruled as first Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.
In subsequent years the name of Lancelot "Capability" Brown came to the fore as England's most famous and prolific landscape gardener. Brown was responsible for the designs of over 150 gardens up and down the country including some impressive projects at residences like Bowood House in Wiltshire. The upper classes of the country seemed to be in constant competition with one another to create more and more extravagant schemes. All kinds of ambitious gardening designs were commissioned such as the Cascade at Chatsworth which also aimed to solve drainage issues on the estate and the diverting of a local river to create a brand new lake in the grounds of Blenheim Palace.
The designers of these grand gardening schemes often took their influences from Italian designs that included such features as fountains and wide walkways, stairways and grottos. These styles were also adopted across the channel in France with a fine example being the Chateau d'Anet, where today the large lawns and water features still remain. Just thirty miles to the east of Chateau d'Anet, while English garden designers were working on the projects at Hampton Court and Blenheim Palace, the French were busy creating perhaps their greatest gardening monument, the Gardens of Versailles, at the time the largest gardens in Europe. Huge budgets were spent in constructing these gardens for King Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King. The design of the gardens was devised specifically with the Chateau in mind and included symbolic sun designs, views to infinity and a positioning of buildings so that the sunlight shone and reflected directly into the Kings bedroom. Today visitors come from all over the world to experience the grandeur and splendour the French garden designers of the time managed to create.
Very few gardens of this grandeur have been created in Europe in recent years, with the wealth required to fund such developments largely being found in other parts of the world. Gardening in Europe is now much more a pastime for the masses, with home owners transforming the area around their homes with impressive designs and layouts.
Gardening these days is as much a regular pastime as it is a creative process with an end result. Just how much the English have embraced gardening is evident, not just from the many television programmes and magazines on the subject, but also from the huge number of retail garden centres in every major town or city and all the tidy and attractive gardens to be seen around the houses of the general population.
Mark has researched and reported on gardening for numerous publications. He has written advice guides on gardening and other related subjects.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I suppose Lancelot Capability Brown didn't have a whole lot of competition; still, that's an impressive portfolio for one man in those days.
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