The story of landscaping it doesn’t start with a pencil or a hose, but with fire. Prehistoric «planners» used flames to clear space, prevent wildfires and encourage plant growth.
400,000 years later, as early as the 18th century, wealthy landowners hired people like “ornamental hermits” to your extensive gardens. For them, a garden was a symbol of wealth and exclusivityand the presence of a real hermit gave a touch of wildness and romance to that increasingly cultivated land – while also drawing attention to the extent of the garden.
Somewhere in the meantime, landscaping moved from rudimentary agriculture to become a refined art. But it is only in the last century that rising incomes, free time and suburban living have made the garden a common feature of Western homes.
In theory, we have 400,000 years of inspiration to factor into our garden design. But the truth is that the first detailed garden plans only appeared around 1400 BC, in Ancient Egypt.
Even so, there is much to consider when carrying out our landscaping project. Therefore, the HouseholdQuotes identified 10 key eras in the evolution of garden design – and visualized them as a series of detailed 3D renderings to help you design your space. Rest assured, no flamethrowers are needed! Check out:
1400 BC: Domestic Garden (Ancient Egyptian Era)
O egyptian garden of antiquity is inspired by the oldest known garden plan in the world: a painting of the walls of a nobleman in the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep II. However, as sophisticated as it is, the plan is probably a style that has developed over years or even centuries.
The Egyptian garden was an oasis. It provided shade and carefully ordered natural beauty in a barren land. But it was also a spiritual refuge, dotted with symbolic patterns and trees, including frankincense and fig trees.
The bold geometry of the Egyptian garden emphasized both practicality and aesthetics. In addition to pleasure, gardens were cultivated to provide for the raw ingredients of everyday life – from herbs and spices to papyrus and palm trees that offered shade and fruit.
The water features were precisely positioned to help with irrigation.
400 BC to 550 AD: Greco-Roman Courtyard (Classical Era)
The walled cities of ancient Greece and Rome left little space for gardens – only the wealthy had space for one. small courtyard in the center of your home. The covered portico around the edge of the garden is called the peristyle and provides shelter between walls. The Ionic columns that form the colonnade are inspired by those of House of Colored Capitals from Pompeii.
Greek and Roman architects designed these urban gardens to escapism and entertainment. They defined dining areas and used statues and sophisticated fountains to impress visitors. In addition to to offer privacythe high walls regulated the climate for year round use.
Although it doesn’t seem like it, not everything was all rock and water. Herb and flower beds boasted roses, violets, saffron, thyme, marigolds and daffodils, offering fresh scents and colors – although these areas were also enhanced with statues and water fountains.
500 BC to AD 1700: Chahar Bagh/Garden of Pleasure (Indo-Persian Era)
“The chahar bagh was more than a pleasure garden,” said Aghacon IV in a 2003 speech. landscape geometryits octagonal or rectangular pools, its selection of favorite plants and trees, it was an attempt to create a transcendent perfection – a glimpse of heaven on earth”.
According to quran, paradise will be a place of flowing and incorruptible waters, flowers and fruit trees. On Earth, the Chahar Bagh garden celebrated the natural beauty at the same time that recognized the imperfections of life. Still, designers used to divide the garden’s four quadrants with flowing water to represent the four rivers of paradise.
An inclined underground tunnel called Qanat it was used to irrigate gardens in arid regions, while carpets embroidered with flowers enhanced areas where nothing grew. In the verdant areas, roses were prominent, supported by bulb flowers, violets, poppies and flowering shrubs.
The pavilion on the central axis emphasizes the symmetry and the crafts of the garden. The influence of Persian garden design is still felt today, through Islamic traditions and then across Greece, thanks to the impressions made on Alexander the Great when he invaded and conquered the region.
1000 to 1450: City Garden (Medieval Era)
As the medieval city developed, there was still room for city dwellers to cultivate a garden. A food insecurity continuum has made “home gardens” common. Meanwhile, doctors prescribed the scent of flowers to ward off the plague and recommended walks in the garden for the mental health. Therefore, ornamental gardens flourished only in hospitals and wealthy homes.
Another fundamental difference between the regular gardens of the city and those of the rich was the enclosure. While the poorest gardens were often at the side of the street, the richest gardens were safely closed – following the example of the monastery and castle gardens from which they drew inspiration.
Still inspired by the Renaissance in Italy, European gardens were designed with greater regularity of form, adopting symmetrical rows and quadrants.
O garden as a status symbol flourished, as well as the superiority among horticulturists who sought finer and rarer flowers for their ornamental gardens. Roses, lilies and violets became commonplace.
When the tulip arrived in Europe, speculation about the value of the bulbs led to “tulip mania” and – perhaps – the “first big financial bubble”. One Dutch gardener even designed a network of carefully placed mirrors to give the impression of a larger collection (and therefore greater richness).
Early 1600s: Garden of Knots (Tudor Era)
Tudor designers wove Medieval and Renaissance influences from Italy in impressively complex gardens. The garden of knots began in medieval times as a practical way to divide vegetable gardens with interlocking patterns herbal. Under Henry VIII and later Elizabeth I, the hedge became an ornamental feature to be admired in its own right.
The knotty hedges of ornamental gardens often plunged into the “junctions” to give the impression that they actually intertwined. This can be hard work, but once established, these fences are relatively low maintenance. Gardeners could fill the cavities between the nodes with extravagant herbs and flowers: flowers, carnations, violets, marigolds and roses were popular in Tudor times.
The Tudor gardens were major attractions. A knot garden may have been just one feature of a network of walled garden types, including labyrinths and fish tanks.
This type of garden works best when visitors can get an aerial view. Elizabethan designers preferred a snail montageconsisting of a sloping path that spiraled up to a pavilion or place to sit.
1600: Jardin à la Française/French Formal Garden
You Gardens of Versaille are one of the few “international celebrities” in the world of gardening – and they exemplify the type of French formal garden whose enormous influence in 17th-century Europe continues to reverberate today.
Versaille and its contemporaries were state-of-the-art horticultural products that required enormous labor effort. The Versaille tree itself still needs to be replanted once a century.
But all that doesn’t put the style out of reach for the average 21st century gardener. Versailles is an expansion of the garden unit known as parterre: a formal garden divided into patterns by gravel, hedge and flower beds.
Those with the time and imagination can scale back the style and replace elements with features that require less maintenance. In addition to richly scented plants including lavender and rosemary, the formal French garden can feature trees such as beech, chestnut and linden.
A english variation from Jardin à la Française was inspired by embroidery patterns. This parterre à l’anglaise transplanted French garden patterns onto a lawn, softening the effect and delivering a spectrum of floral colors. Water features and statues are popular in all variations.
Early 1800s: Gardenesque style (Georgia)
The celebrated garden designer John Claudius Loudon conceived the gardenesque style as high artwhich, at the same time, took responsibility for the project away from the architects and passed it on to the gardeners.
Loudon proclaimed that “any creation, to be recognized as a work of art, must be such that it can never be mistaken for a work of nature” – and yet, his gardening philosophy required that plants be allowed to express their natural uniqueness.
Trees in a garden-esque landscaping should be segregated by type, but the arrangement should not be geometric or repetitive. In addition, the flora must be exposed by pleasure and education, without being “quaint” (or kitsch, as we would say today). In short, the gardenesque style is beset by contradictions.
Loudon’s solution to these contradictions? Firstly, importing exotic flowers that fully celebrate nature while being unnatural (and therefore artistic) in an English garden. And, secondly, planning the design in a “hidden” framework of irregular geometric shapes of grouped species.
The result was a wraparound and dramatic garden. Unfortunately, the principles of the gardenesque style are difficult to replicate, as they involve swapping out even local grasses for exotic ones and creating ponds and large boulders that look artificial, replacing the surrounding vegetation wholesale.
1800s: Early American period – Pioneer kitchen garden
Aesthetics were the last thing on the minds of pioneering kitchen gardeners. Like invaders from a strange land, the vegetable garden it was a vital source of sustenance. The garden was then designed with a focus on efficiency: close to the door for access and security, with perimeter paths for harvesting rather than admiring the flowerbeds. The fences kept the scavengers out.
But there was beauty in that economy. Herbs they were planted closer to the house, with onions and cabbages grown at a distance. Patterns emerged where seasonal vegetables were grown close together to avoid disturbing perennials that could be left alone.
Taking a cue from Native American tradition, the settlers…