Garden History – The Americas

The book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann, got me thinking about garden history in the Americas. Recall we last studied Renaissance gardens, which emerged in Italy in the late 1500s, and had an impact on garden design in Europe. Traditional western garden history after the Renaissance typically focuses on England and the events leading up to the Landscape Movement. But, what had been happening in America leading up to the same time period? I decided to depart temporarily from the traditional line of study, to see what I could find out. Instead of reaching for Christopher Thacker and The History of Gardens, I turned to other sources for information. This includes reading accounts by post-Columbian priests and adventurers, and writings by Penelope Hobhouse in The Story of Gardens; and taking a look at the archeology and culture of past and present North, Central, and South America.

In 1491 we learn that gardens in the early Americas did not survive, but we do have information from eye witness accounts and histories that indigenous Americans were creating beautiful gardens; cultivating plant species for beauty, food, and medicine; gardening in innovative ways, often in challenging terrains and climates; and terraforming the land to suit their needs through activities such as purposeful burns; large earth moving projects; and construction of aqua ducts and water basins.

Chinampas - picture from the Floating Object Database. Creative Commons License.

The chinampas (or floating gardens) of Lake Xochimilco in Mexico is a great example of gardening in the Americas. Around 1000 AD, indigenous peoples invented a gardening technique to increase food production. In shallow areas of the lake, they layered juniper branches, mud from the lake bottom, and soil, to create an elevated, or “floating" mat, on which to plant crops. Farmers continually added organic material, nutrient-rich mud from the lake bottom, and soil to build up the mat. Small trees and woven cages around the edges provided stability. Fish and fowl produced natural fertilizer, and water from the canals wicked into the soil like a drip irrigation system. A single bed could produce seven harvests a year. As the mats grew thicker, a series of canals developed between them providing a natural transportation system for moving crops to market. The Aztec government was using this practice when the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, and the practice continues on a limited basis today.

This is a great example of a self-sustaining system for producing crops for a large population center, and of New World resourcefulness and technical mastery in agriculture and food production. Chinampas are designated as a Xochimilco World Heritage Site.