Chapter One Lessons from the Past gardens have been an inextricable part of nearly every culture since the dawn of antiquity. All of our contemporary garden styles, whether aesthetic or utilitarian in nature, have evolved throughout the centuries by building on the designs and creativity of those who came before us. Every culture adds its own distinctive mark to this evolution, being influenced by new inventions, discoveries, and social attitudes. Most of us, however, are unaware of any part we might be playing in this continually unfolding story. Yet each spring, the much-anticipated and simple process of choosing plants and designing how our gardens will look links us to a rich, unbroken chain of horticultural history. GARDEN DESIGNS THROUGHOUT HISTORY Kitchen gardens have experienced their own distinctive evolution throughout the centuries. Without question, they have mainly served a very practical purpose for most people: to provide a bountiful harvest of fresh vegetables. But, with human nature being as it is, there has often been the desire to lift the basic vegetable garden to a level of beauty more characteristic of ornamental flower gardens. The inspiration necessary for creating our own unique kitchen gardens can be found throughout history: from the French kitchen gardens, or potagers , of the 16th and 17th centuries, to the informal cottage gardens of England. But the scope of influence on our garden designs need not be limited only to the kitchen gardens of the past. Instead, we can easily adapt, at least in part, any of the great ornamental garden designs for use in our landscapes. Naturally, the expansive tree-lined walkways, or allées , of Versailles would not translate into a backyard setting, but a simplified pattern based on one of the many beautiful parterres might. Today we have the wonderful opportunity to study a wide variety of gardens from throughout history and adapt them for use in our own kitchen gardens. Roman gardens Many of the great European garden designs have their roots in the patrician gardens of ancient Rome. Romans were originally farmers and traders with an identity linked firmly to the land. But as their empire grew, so did the aristocracy. To escape the increasingly crowded city, many of Rome's wealthier residents established villas by the sea or near the foothills of the Apennines. Their penchant for pleasure produced what may have been the first gardens grown exclusively for aesthetics instead of for food, medicine, or symbolic reasons. Pliny the Younger (62-113) was a wealthy Roman statesman who built several villas in the countryside near Rome. Through his letters we get an idea of the size and complexity of the gardens he established. They included expansive, geometrically shaped garden beds, ponds, fountains, borders of box and laurel, and animal-shaped topiaries. Pliny's letters give us a view of what was characteristic of many Roman villas of the time. Gardens became a source of pleasure and relaxation. They were treated as extensions of the home and were valued primarily for their beauty and ornamentation. This break from a more-utilitarian past laid the groundwork for many of the great gardens that followed. Medieval monastic gardens With the fall of the Roman Empire (approximately 500), Europe entered the Middle Ages, a period of relative stagnation and strict feudalism. The Middle Ages would last for approximately 1,000 years until the humanistic flame was rekindled at the beginning of the Renaissance. Monasteries were established throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and were crucial in preserving the sum of man's knowledge since ancient times. By carefully copying and maintaining old manuscripts, the monastic monks kept alive information that may have otherwise been lost, including Roman horticultural practices. The monks were self-sufficient, growing all their own medicinal herbs, fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Although segregated into separate parts, the herbs, fruits, vegetables, and flowers were generally grown together within one cloister, or enclosed, garden. The garden was typically a simple geometrical design, usually containing four sections: a physic garden for medicinal herbs; a combined orchard and vineyard; a vegetable garden consisting of square or rectangular beds (edged with boards or willow branches) that enabled the monks to maintain the beds from a network of paths, thus avoiding soil compaction; and a flower garden containing plants such as violets, Madonna lilies, and roses, which were grown for their fragrance and religious symbolism and were used to decorate the altar. Italian Renaissance gardens During the pre-Renaissance period in the 14th century, Europe was gradually awakening to a new age of humanistic thought. New trade and exploration, a resurgent interest in the arts and sciences preserved from ancient Greece and Rome, and greater freedom to explore new ideas and new ways of thinking were firmly taking root. Approaches to horticulture were also breaking free from the confinement of medieval cloister gardens. By the 16th century, Italian garden architects were creating beautiful new villas inspired by the Roman gardens of Pliny the Younger and others. Many of these grand estates were situated on steep hillsides, which took advantage of sweeping views and cool breezes. The steep terrain on which the villas were built also inspired elaborate, gravity-powered water features such as fountains, jets, basins, and waterfalls. In keeping with the rebirth of a more-humanistic philosophy, gardens were constructed once again for pleasure instead of for purely utilitarian purposes. Garden designers incorporated outdoor living spaces, or "rooms," as extensions of the villas. Multilevel terraces helped delineate separate areas, such as outdoor theaters, exercise cloisters, and dining terraces. A secluded garden, or giardino segreto , was usually adjacent to the villa and included flowers, herbs, and sometimes whimsical topiaries. This enclosed garden offered the owner of the villa a private retreat. While the main gardens typically contained decorative flowers, herbs, boxwood, and fruit and nut trees, vegetables were relegated to separate, more-utilitarian garden plots. Also reminiscent of the villas of ancient Rome was the inclusion of symmetry and simple geometric shapes into the garden landscape. Terraces were adorned with potted plants, parterres of clipped herbs and boxwood hedges, Roman-style statues, and well-manicured topiaries. With the age of exploration well underway, many new plant varieties were being discovered and collected from distant lands and brought back to Italy. The first botanical gardens were developed to make available these new species of plants for scientific study. And wealthy estate owners were quick to incorporate the colorful, new, and exotic flowers and bulbs into their geometrically designed boxwood parterres. The reemergence of grand garden design in Italy during the early Renaissance was not destined to remain only within the Italian border. The influence of these new Italian gardens spread quickly to England, Germany, Holland, Spain, and France, with each country adapting these designs to its own unique environment and topography. French formal gardens Perhaps nothing exemplifies the grand formal gardens of France during the "Age of Kings" more than Versailles, built in the second half of the 17th century. But the seed for this magnificent garden was sown more than 150 years earlier during the reign of Charles VIII (1483-1498), who brought in Italian artisans and craftsmen to work on the castle at Amboise. During the 16th century, the Italian Renaissance continued to influence the design of many grand chateaus, including Louis XII's castle at Blois and Francis I's castle at Fontainebleau. Many gardens during this period were a hybrid of styles bearing the lingering influence of medieval cloister gardens, the geometrically shaped parterres of Italian Renaissance gardens, and the many unique influences dictated by French culture and the country's terrain. The Chateau de Villandry is a good example of a 16th-century chateau. It was reconstructed during the first part of this century by Dr. Joachim Carvallo based on the engravings of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (1520-1585). Today, the nine squares of the spectacular kitchen garden comprise the lowest of three terraces. Similar to the monastic gardens of the Middle Ages, the vegetables are grown in blocks rather than in rows. Flower beds frame the large squares while rose bowers and central fountains further suggest the medieval influence. The middle terrace contains the "love garden," comprised of four large squares of flower-filled boxwood designs depicting four types of love: l'amour tendre (tender), l'amour tragique (tragic), l'amour volage (fickle), and l'amour folie (mad). Vineyards, orchards, and a reflecting pond are located on the uppermost terrace. By the 17th century, French garden architects were creating gardens that were uniquely French and breathtaking in scope. Claud Mollet, gardener to Henry IV and later to Louis XIII, took the Italian Renaissance concept of a simple geometric parterre and created the parterre de broderie , reminiscent of fine embroidery. Mollet used precisely clipped boxwood hedges to create intricate scrollwork patterns. Grass and crushed stone, sand, or earth of various colors filled the spaces between the boxwood hedges. Flowers were used in thin bands around the perimeter, framing the parterre. André Le Nôtre, commissioned by the Sun King, Louis XIV, to help design and build the gardens of Versailles, used the same style of parterres in this expansive 250-acre project. It took more than 40 years to complete and required the labor of several thousand men. Symmetry, linear perspective, and ornamentation were the hallmarks of French formality. Le Nôtre used all of these components to design and locate sweeping terraces, canals, tree-lined allées, ornate fountains, statues, and symmetrical parterres. Le Nôtre used the tall, architectural structure of clipped evergreens, as well as trees potted in tubs, as vertical counterpoints to the low-lying parterres. Because of the popularity of parterres, books were published containing parterre patterns to be used by aspiring gardeners. In Alexandre Le Blond's 1728 book Theory and Practice of Gardening , he suggested design ideas for parterres, including knots, clasps, cartouches, and flower and foliage motifs. During the 17th century, kitchen gardens were still segregated from the ornamental gardens of the chateaus and palaces. This was the case at Versailles. However, the king's kitchen garden was no less impressive. The area allocated for the royal fruit and vegetable garden was originally a swampy plot of land. It first had to be drained and filled with cartloads of soil and manure to improve the acreage before construction of the garden could begin. Jean de la Quintinie designed and helped build the 20-acre kitchen garden at Versailles between 1677 and 1683. The center was sunken and geometrically arranged into 16 raised beds. The perimeter was sectioned off into 29 separate walled gardens to create a warmer, more-protected environment for growing fruit trees. Like all the other ornamental trees at Versailles, they too were meticulously pruned and shaped into fancy espaliers. To protect vulnerable potted citrus trees during the cold winter months, an orangery was also built at Versailles. Orangeries generally had large windows on three sides and were heated with wood or coal. Unlike greenhouses and conservatories, orangeries had traditional roofs. Through the use of the orangery, walled gardens, and cold frames, la Quintinie provided the king with year-round crops. The style of French formality quickly spread throughout Europe. The Palace of Het Loo in the Netherlands is a good example. Constructed between 1685 and 1700, William of Orange and Mary Stewart used Het Loo as a hunting seat. William hired 24-year-old Daniel Marot, a French Huguenot and gifted designer and engraver, to design the magnificent parterres de broderie. English gardens At the beginning of the 16th century, knot gardens became popular in England. Closely paralleling similarly designed gardens in Italy at the time, these intricately woven knot gardens were formed from ribbons of rosemary, thyme, and hyssop (dwarf boxwood was used later in the 17th century). If the knot design was filled in with flowers, having no pathways within the garden, it was called a closed knot. If pathways of grass, stones, sand, or brick were incorporated as part of the design, it was called an open knot. Pattern books were also published for knot-garden designs, and these gardens remained popular for over 100 years. By the early 17th century, French formal designs were strongly influencing gardens in England. The garden at Wilton, designed by Isaac de Caus in 1615, had many French influences, including its parterre de broderie. And perhaps the best evidence of the continental influence were the gardens at Hampton Court during the reign of William and Mary. Here, the sway of the Mollet family was clearly evident in the goose-foot pattern, or patte d'oie , of tree-lined allées and the large parterre de broderie. But a new century was at hand, and the geometric grandeur that belonged to the 17th century was soon to be deposed. Early in the 18th century, during the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), the formal gardens of the past century were swept away by an overwhelming call for more natural-looking landscapes. Many writers made fun of popular topiaries. Joseph Addison, for instance, labeled them "vegetable sculptures." And the poet Alexander Pope mused, "A quickset hog, shot up into a porcupine, by being forgot a week in rainy weather." Many of the formal gardens of England were being refashioned by emerging landscape designers such as William Kent and Lancelot "Capability" Brown. The tight control and geometric vistas of Le Nôtre were replaced by soft contours and gentle curves. Straight allées were replaced by more-natural clusters of trees although still very purposefully planted to frame the landscape. This open and parklike style was to influence many of the great public parks and estates in America, including Central Park in New York City. Trade with the Orient also had a major impact on garden design during this period, as traders and missionaries brought back news of naturalistic gardens in Japan and China. In the 19th century, during the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), new discoveries inspired innovative designs for English gardens. Professional plant hunters traveled the world, collecting hundreds of new specimens of trees, shrubs, and annuals. Seedsmen and nurseries sprang up all over England to propagate, hybridize, and distribute these new specimens. Annuals, both newly discovered and those introduced in the 18th century, offered gardeners an array of colors. Vibrant flowers, including salvia, lobelia, zinnias, gazanias, pelargoniums, calceolarias, petunias, and verbenas, added to the excitement. Large blocks of these annuals were used to form flamboyant designs, such as concentric circles or ribbon borders resembling colorful carpets (hence the name "carpet bedding"). In the mid-1800s, sheet-glass manufacturing was invented, and greenhouses became very popular. The greenhouses enabled seedsmen, nurseries, and gardeners to raise tender annual species from around the world. As the glass became less expensive, greenhouses became more accessible to the middle class, allowing them to join in the frenzy of raising bedding plants. By the late 19th century, there was a movement once again toward an informal, natural style of gardening, with advocates such as William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll. The advocates of this movement viewed the carpet-bedding techniques of the mid-Victorian era as garish and far too busy, preferring a garden more closely tied to the classic English cottage garden. The cottage garden used hardy perennials in mixed borders to produce lasting color throughout the growing season. Unlike carpet bedding, perennial borders contained plants of varying heights, textures, and forms, and great attention was paid to harmonious color schemes. This style of gardening is still a major influence in many gardens throughout the world today. Historical Influences in Our Kitchen Garden At first, it may seem that Pliny the Younger's villa in Tuscany or Le Nôtre's plan for Versailles could have little or no relevance to a 20-ft. by 20-ft. square of garden soil lying just beyond the kitchen window. But these ancient plans and styles can be used to provide us with a wealth of inspiration and usable designs. For instance, we were able to incorporate many design aspects from historical gardens into our own kitchen gardens. The photos on these pages show some characteristics that our gardens share with those of the past. Copyright © 1999 Jan and Michael Gertley. All rights reserved.
