History of gardening

Corner in the gardens of the Generalife, Granada

Naranjal, in the palace of Versailles.

The history of gardening can be considered as the aesthetic expression of beauty through art and nature, a display of taste and style of civilized life, the expression of an individual philosophy or cultural and sometimes a demonstration of status or national pride in private or public landscapes.

Historical development

Although the cultivation of plants for food dates back millennia, the earliest evidence of ornamental gardens is found in Egyptian tomb paintings from 1500 BC. C., in which ponds with lotus flowers are represented surrounded by rows of acacias and palm trees. Persia also has its own ancient gardening tradition: Darius the Great is said to have possessed a “paradisiacal garden” and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which Nebuchadnezzar II ordered built, became known as one of the seven wonders of the world.

The influence spread to post-Alexandrian Greece, where around AD 350. C. there were gardens in the Academy of Athens, although the concept of the Greek garden was more religious than recreational, so they preferred long avenues planted with trees, interspersed with statues, over projected gardens. Theophrastus, who wrote on botany, is believed to have inherited a garden from Aristotle. Epicurus also owned a garden, where he walked and taught his teachings and which he bequeathed to Hermarcus of Mytilene. Alcifrón also mentions private gardens.

The most outstanding ancient gardens in the Western world were those of Ptolemy, in Alexandria, and the fondness for this practice was brought to Rome by Lucullus. The frescoes in Pompeii testify to its later and elaborate development and the wealthiest Romans built immense gardens with fountains, hedges and rockeries in their villas, many of whose ruins can still be seen, such as Hadrian's Villa.

After the IV century, Byzantium and the Arabs in Spain kept the practice of gardening alive. The Islamic concept of the garden is the earthly representation of the paradise that the Koran promises to its faithful: the central axis are fountains or long ditches through which water flows through spouts, flanked by fruit trees. The gardens of the Alhambra and the Generalife in Granada and the Patio de los Naranjos in the Mosque of Córdoba are two examples of this type of garden.
Around this same time, the art of gardening had also emerged in China, but with a very different conception: the vision of a garden as a place of isolation and contemplation of the natural elements, earth and water. Fundamental principles in Taoism. In Japan they developed with their own style, creating minimalist landscapes called taukiyama as aristocratic and, in parallel, as austere Zen gardens in temples, the hiraniwa; although both types incorporated elements of Chinese gardens.

In the 13th century, gardening revived in Europe in Languedoc and the Île-de-France and at the beginning of the Renaissance emerged the Italian-style gardens where, to the detriment of the flowers, shrub species such as boxwood and myrtle were sculpted in various shapes. In the 16th century the Spanish Crown built the first public spaces, gardens or wooded parks for walking and carriage rides. horses, in the form of avenues with fountains, benches and monuments, among the first and oldest preserved is the Alameda de Hércules in Seville (1574). In France at the end of the century XVII French flower beds developed, reaching their peak with André Le Nôtre. This architect, based on the Italian style, imposed a conception of the garden in which he creates open spaces with stylized flower beds with pronounced geometric shapes. The French royal residences of Saint Cloud, Marly and Versalles are clear examples of this style and the gardens of Aranjuez and La Granja de San Ildefonso would be the Spanish exponent if they had not been altered by the Mediterranean tradition maintained by the Arabs in Spain, stated in a greater sobriety than the Spanish kings imposed, with more intimate spaces, with latticework, patios and hedges, which is a more appropriate adaptation to the dry and hot climate of the Castilian plateau.
English landscape gardens emerged with a new perspective in the 18th century, the anticipation of Romanticism was reflected in them returning to the forms where small wooded areas with flower beds and caves under artificial hills mixed in apparent anarchy, creating games of light and shadow that enveloped them with a fantastic and melancholic character.
The turbulent 19th century brought a plethora of historical revivals along with the romantic country-style gardening, mosaic, which was about creating drawings of varied designs with flowers and plants and Spanish modernism, which arises only in Catalonia represented by the architect Antoni Gaudí.
The 20th century introduced gardening into city planning.

Historical Gardeners

Reconstruction of the Roman garden of the House of Vettii in Pompeii.

The following names, in approximate chronological order, contributed to the history of the gardens as both botanical explorers, designers, gardeners or writers.

• Teofrasto
• Lúculo
• Tiberius
• Plinio el Viejo (Como, Italy year 23 d. C. - Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, on August 25, 79).
• Columela (Gades, - Tarento, ca. 70 d. C.).
• Pacello da Mercogliano
• John Tradescant
• Jerónimo de Algora
• Carolus Clusius
• André Le Nôtre
• George London
• William Kent
• Giovanni Battista Ferrari
• Lancelot "Capability" Brown
• A. J. Downing
• Frederick Law Olmsted
• Gertrude Jekyll
• Nellie Beatrice Osborn
• Beatrix Farrand
• Kate Sessions
• Rose Standish Nichols
• Roberto Burle Marx
• Vita Sackville-West
• Russell Page
• Luis Barragán
• Antoni Gaudí
• Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier
• Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí
• Pietro Porcinai
• Masanobu Fukuoka
• Gilles Clément

Garden writers from the 17th and 18th centuries

• Gregorio de los Ríos, Iardines Agriculture, which deals with the way they are to breed, govern, and preserve the plants, and all other things that are required for this. Zaragoza, by Carlos de Lavayen, and Juan de Larumbe: at the expense of Hernando de Espinal..., 1604.
• Gabriel Alonso de Herrera, General agricultural book of the countryside /côposed by Alonso de Herrera. Wakeer, which deals with the great fertility, wealth, cheap, weapons and rubbers that Spain used to have and the cause of damage, and lack, with the remedy sufficient /composed by Iuan de Arrieta. Summary of the book intitulated Discourses of the bread and uino of the Iesus Child / composed by Diego Gutierrez de Salinas... Nueuo art to raise silk... / composed by Gonçalo de las Casas. Breue treatise of the cultiuacion and cure of the hives, and assimesmo the orderanças of the hives / composed by Luis Mendez de Torres. Agriculture of iardines... / composed by Gregorio de los Ríos. Madrid:Domingo Gonçalez..., 1619.
• Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie, Traité du jardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art. Paris, Chez Michel Vanlochom,1638.
• Pierre Charles Louis Besnier, Le Jardinier botaniste ou la Maniere de cultivativer toutes sorts de plantes, fleurs, arbres & arbrisseaux, avec leur usage en médecine:ensemble toutes les plantes étrangeres qui peuvent être propres pour l'embellissement des jardins. Paris, chez Claude Prudhomme... 1705.
• Pierre Le Lorain de Vallemont, Curiositez de la nature et de l'art sur la végétation ou L'Agriculture et le gardenage dans leur perfection:oú l'on voit le secret de la multiplication du blé " les moyens d'augmenter considerablement le revenu des biens de la campagne: de nouvelles découvertes pour grossir, multiplier " embellir les fruits. Paris, par la Societés, 1711.
• Louis Liger, Le Jardinier fleuriste, ou La culture universelle des fleurs, arbres, arbustes, arbrisseaux servant à l'embellissement des jardins;Contenant plusieurs parterres sur des desseins nouveaux, forestts, boulingrins, sallons, " autres ornemenchers de jardin ". Paris, Chez Claude Prudhomme, 1717.
• François Gentil, Le gardenier solitaire, ou dialogues entre un curieux et un jardinier solitaire:contenant la méthode de faire et de cultivativer un jardin fruitier et potager, et plusieurs expériences nouvelles: avec des réflexions sur la culture des arbres. Avignonchez Louis Chambeau, 1759.
• Antoine Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, La theorie et la pratique du jardinage, ou l'on traite a fond des beaus jardins appellés communément les jardins de plaisance et de propreté avec les pratiques de géometrie nécessaires pour tracer sur le terrein toutes sortes de figures et Un traité d'hidraulique convenable aux jardins. Paris, chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1760.
• Thomas Francoise Grace. Jardinier portatif, ou la culture des quatre classes de jardins. Rouen, chez la Veuve de Pierre Dumesnil, chez Labbey, 1781.
• Pierre Le Lorain de Vallemont Curiosities of nature and art on vegetation or agriculture and gardening in its perfection. Madrid, in the office of Benito Cano,1786.
• Roger Schabol La pratique du jardinage. Lyon, Chez Robert et Gauthier,1797.
• José Antonio Sampil, Gardener instructed or Physical treatise of vegetation and pruning of fruit trees, extracted from the best observations on agriculture made by Dumhamel, Bonet Buffon and others. Madrid, at the Benito Cano Office, 1798.
• William Mason, The english garden (1772).
• Joseph Addison, at the SpectatorJune 25, 1712.
• René-Louis de Girardin, De la composition des paysages (1777).

19th century gardening treatises

• John Claudius Loudon (1783 in Cambuslang, Scotland - 1843), The Encyclopedia of Gardening 1822.
• Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865), Flower Garden, and Calendar of Gardening Operations 1850; The Gardeners' Chronicle since 1841-.
• William Robinson (1838-1935), The Gardener's Chronicleof 1866; Gleanings from French Gardens1868; The Parks, Gardens, " Promenades of Paris1869; Alpine Flowers for Gardens1870;The Wild Garden1870; magazine The Garden since 1871;The English Flower Garden1883; Gravetye Manor, or Twenty Years of the Work round an old Manor House (1911).

Twentieth century gardening treatises

• Russell Page (Lincolnshire, 1906–1985), The Education of a Gardener (1962).
• William Goldring (1854 - 1919), The Garden (Dir.); Woods and Forest (Dir.)
• William Dallimore The pruning of trees and shrubs: Being a description of the methods practised in the Royal Botanic GardensKew. Ed. Dulau, 1927.
• René-Louis de Girardin, De la composition des paysage

Historic Public Gardens

Spain

• Alhambra, Granada
• Generalife, Granada
• Jardines del Retiro de Madrid
• The Farm of San Ildefonso (Segovia)
• Jardines de Aranjuez (Madrid)
• Alameda de Hércules de Sevilla (1574)
• Alameda de San Pablo de Écija (Sevilla) (1578)(destr.)
• Paseo del Prado / Paseo de Recoletos / Salón del Prado, Madrid (1763)
• Floridablanca Garden, Murcia (1786)
• Parque del Campo Grande, Valladolid (1787)

Italy

• Alameda del perimeter murario Lucca (ha. 1590)
• Alameda of the Forum Valley, Rome (1656) (destr.)
• Alamedas south of the Wall Aureliana Rome (ha. 1658) (destr.)

France

• Avenida de los Campos Eliseos, Paris (1640)
• Alameda del Cours Mirabeau, Aix-en-Provence (1649-1658)
• Alameda de Chamars Besançon (1653)
• Alameda al Noroeste del perimeter murario, Paris 1670 (destr.)
• Colombiere Park, Dijon (1672)
• Plaza de los Vosgos, Paris (1682)

England

• Alameda de Moorfields, London (1605) (destr.)
• Hyde Park, London (1728). Origin: Private Royal Garden of Kensington Gardens

Germany

• Unter den Linden, Berlin (1647)Origen: Real private urban park

Denmark

• Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen (1690)

Mexico

• Alameda Central, Mexico (1592)

Peru

• Alameda de los Descalzos, Lima (1611)

United States

• Central Park, New York (1853)

Historic Private Gardens

Jardin du roi.

England

• Chatsworth House
• Manor Hidcote Garden
• Stourhead House
• Stowe House
• Fountains Abbey
• Sissinghurst Castle

United States

• Dumbarton Oaks

France

• Palace of Fontainebleau
• Ermenonville
• Marly-le-Roi
• Giverny
• Palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte
• Versailles
• Villandry Castle

Iraq

• Babylonian pendant gardens

Spain

• Alhambra
• Jardines del Retiro de Madrid
• The Farm of San Ildefonso (Segovia)
• Villa Renacentista El Bosque de Béjar (Salamanca)
• Palace of Sotofermoso, Abbey (Cáceres)

Portugal

• Bussaco (Portugal)

Italy

• Bomarzo Monster Park
• Villa de Este
• Villa de Adriano

Netherlands

• Het Loo Palace