22 The Riviera Reporter Issue 146: August/September 2011

Gardeners’ notes by James Hartley of the English Garden Centre

Gardening through the ages

I’ve got to admit that I was never a great fan of history at school, having been put off at an early age. It just never quite gripped me in a way the other forward-looking sub-jects did, and sadly I always found it slightly irrelevant in the modern world I found myself in. Strange then that years later, hav-ing passed through higher education and having spent years working in my chosen profession, I should develop an interest in this later in life. Perhaps it is the develop-ment of an understanding that the four thousand or so years that represents human civilisation provide a rich background against which everything we do today is referenced, regardless of the activity. Far from being irrelevant, a good appreciation of what has gone before only adds depth and relevance to what happens today by pro-viding a context and a frame of reference. More than ever we find ourselves designing gardens, especially the larger projects, and dedicating whole sections of our thinking to making sure that the design respects the context within which it is positioned. This ensures that the proposed design is faithful to the local area (this doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be the same as those around it but there is usually something to be gained by at least referencing the predominant local style), the local architecture and any previ-ous installation on the land. Interestingly, we find that by defining a project’s place in relation to what has gone before adds a layer of authenticity and durability to the design that cannot be achieved in any other way. In addition, respecting this authenticity in a garden tends to help avoid falling into the trap of designing elements that follow

“trends” – these things tend to change with passing fashions and will quickly make a project look dated.

Green fingered monksThrough the ages various civilisations

dabbled with horticulture, from the ancient Greeks to the Egyptians and the Persians. Things really took off though with the medi-eval European monks, who in the West were really the first to properly elevate the culti-vation of plants from the simple utilitarian purpose as provision of food and medicine to include an element of the aesthetic – clas-sically this is the case of form following function. While the monks had great use for the produce that the many trees and shrubs could provide, it was their enlightened understanding that the very same plants could serve a higher purpose of enriching their environment and as a consequence providing places to reflect and facilitate spirituality that led to the advancement of “gardens” as we understand them today. Indeed, looking back, the degree of sophis-tication of the monks is quite astonishing, with their gardens including ornate herb plantations, sophisticated orchards, water features and irrigation. They even pioneered the first real use of grass and turf as we know it today, with the creation of raised grassy banks that they called “turf seats”– some-thing you would not be surprised to see in a Chelsea flower show garden and which you would be forgiven for believing was fresh and new. Classically the monasteries were closed in for protection and they used these gardens to become largely self-sufficient – both in terms of produce but also to maintain a quality in their immediate environment. The monks saw their gardens therefore as a connection between spiritual and earthly matters, and as a result, believed that time

spent in them working and reflecting pro-vided a path to God. Throughout the Middle Ages, from the 12th to the 15th centuries, many European cities were also enclosed for their protection, and saw citizens imitating the monks on a wider scale with the use of small gardens as much for their functional as their aesthetic value: kitchen gardens went public! While these medieval gardens could be considered primitive compared to the renaissance that would soon start in Italy, they lay the foundation to what went next, and many of their features were car-ried forward and their influence can be seen in garden design to this day.

Exciting timesThe 15th century then saw an explo-

sion that would rock the world of landscape gardening to its core and change the face of it forever, influencing to some extent just about every garden and landscape gardener right into modern times. The seismic event that took place was in Italy – the emergence of the Italian renaissance garden. Unlike anything that had gone before, these gar-dens were inspired almost completely by the classical notions of order and beauty, and were driven on by the voracious appetite of wealthy family’s who saw these gardens as showpiece displays of their wealth and power. As the years passed and the style developed, this evolved into making the gardens even grander, larger and more sym-metrical in an effort to show dominance over nature and to publicly project the sta-tus of the owner. They also started filling them with exciting features such as grottoes, fountains, water organs, statues, tricks of the eye and other such ornery designed to thrill and impress visitors. This culminated in the creation of several majestic and highly influ-ential landscape works of which quite a few are well preserved and still open to visitors, such as Villa d’Este (Le Centro Fontane, pictured), Villa Medici, Sacro Bosco and the Boboli gardens. Finally this drew to a close in the 16th century (due in no small part to the quite horrific cost of their installation which in modern times would be almost unimaginable), but these gardens remain some of the finest in the world and continue to influence modern ornamental horticulture to this day. Certainly anyone who has even the slightest interest in gardens should try to visit at least a few of these locations, as they do not disappoint, and the evolution through these two hundred years saw some of the most exciting horticultural developments in our history.

Last wordI think one just has to understand that

while the “here and now” garden designs of today can seem like all that matters, the very same “now” is tomorrow’s history; and taking this into account today ensures that the design will have meaning, relevance and above all, aesthetic durability for tomorrow, and the day after that. J.H. n