Manito Park in the Fall

One of the highlights of our visit to Spokane, was visiting Manito Park to see its gardens in the fall. My mother-in-law loved to walk her dog in Manito Park, and the two of them spent hours walking and enjoying the gardens. Recall posts from our visit back in 2012: Manito Park – Duncan Garden and Nishinomiya Japanese Garden.

Rose Hill

The rose garden was in full bloom, and magnificent. I'm not a huge fan of roses (we have never lived in a place where roses do well), but was amazed at the beauty as we approached the hill. The big, well drained, sunny slope is the perfect place for roses. I loved the colors and fragrances of the blooming roses, all of which are well-labeled, well-tended, and thrived.

The arbor at the base of Rose Hill

Small gazebo beyond yellow roses

When we visited in spring and in early summer in 2012, everything was dormant and cut back, and I decided not to report. What a contrast with the beautiful sight that greeted us in fall. If the rose garden ever sells clippings or starters, this would be the place to purchase them. Following are a few of my favorites – just look at those colors and the variety (who knows, I might become a rose devotee one of these years)!

Pink tipped	Deep pink
Pale yellow	White

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Duncan Gardens

The Duncan Garden was also magnificent with its bedding plants still in bloom. This is high intensity gardening, reminiscent of the Victorian era when exotic plants from all over the world were cultivated in green houses, and then planted seasonally in private and public gardens.

Duncan Gardens

I enjoyed seeing the color combinations and vibrant colors in this classical European Renaissance style garden. What I had previously seen in the early summer was merely the bones of the garden – all green lawn, sculpted trees, gazebo, and newly planted beds (see Manito Park - Highlights of Duncan Garden). With the bedding plants in full flower, I could see the complete garden design.

Central planter

Bedding plants

The Gaiser Conservatory and its greenhouses overlook the sunken garden. The original conservatory was built in 1912, and redesigned, modernized, enlarged, and rebuilt in 1974. The dome includes a waterfall, pond, and large tropical plants. Many of the bedding plants are started in the greenhouses. 

Ferris Perennial Garden

When we visited the Ferris Perennial garden in 2012, not much was going on. The beds were well marked, and plants looked healthy, but this time was another story. Many of the plants were still blooming, and others were transitioning from beautiful flowering plants, to seeds and seed pods. Golden grasses swayed and rustled in the breeze, and some deciduous trees had started their fall display of red and yellow.

Joel E. Ferris Perennial Garden

Perennial garden in late September

Golden light and fall colors

The golden afternoon light illuminated the plants. We enjoyed strolling through the garden beds, and sitting on the various benches to relish the garden around us.

Nishinomiya Japanese Garden

We also revisited the Nishinomiya Japanese Garden, but learned that photography is no longer allowed. This is unfortunate for those who cannot visit the garden or who like to document great garden design, but we enjoyed our stroll through the grounds, and appreciated the beauty of fall colors against the green-on-green design.

Stourhead

According to Penelope Hobhouse, writing in The Story of Gardening, the landscape garden’s grassy meadows, serpentine lakes, gently contoured hills, and artfully arranged clumps of trees seem the very model of Englishness, and almost “indistinguishable from the ‘real’ countryside.” Indeed, the great English landscape gardens and parks that remain today—such as Stowe, Stourhead, and many others—do resemble natural countryside.

Stourhead in Wiltshire, England is a prime example of an eighteenth century garden inspired by landscape paintings. Henry Hoare I (1705 - 85) designed the landscape and worked on it from 1745 to 73. He was inspired by landscape paintings, and by Vergil’s epic poem Aeneid (Book III), which tells of the journey of Aeneas, Rome’s founder. Hoare created a lake, and developed a peripheral walk in which “incidents” are revealed from the poem. As one walks around the lake, views of nature and eye catchers appear across the lake, invoking scenes from the poem.

Stourhead Bridge with the Pantheon in the distance (Photo by Lechona)

The eye catchers are both classical and gothic—a temple, a grotto, a pantheon, a bridge, an abbey, and so forth. The surrounding landscape includes a dense wood of dark conifers from northwest America, and a collection of rhododendrons and laurels. Christopher Thacker observes in The History of Gardens, that the design remains little changed, except for the addition of ornamental and exotic trees and shrubs in the nineteenth century. A visitor to Stourhead today sees a mature landscape that resembles natural country side.

Elements of the Landscape Movement

During the landscape movement, the highly manicured, formal gardens of the Renaissance softened into more naturalistic gardens. This was an evolutionary process, that occurred over the course of one hundred years, yet several basic design elements emerged.

Temple of Ancient Virtue at Stowe Landscape Gardens in Buckingham, England (photo by mym)

Penelope Hobhouse (The Story of Gardening) and Christopher Thacker (The History of Gardens) identify these basic design elements:

• House-to-borrowed view – the garden flowed seamlessly and uninterrupted from the house to the distant landscape. Landscapers went to great lengths to create these living pictures, sometimes moving whole villages, creating lakes, or excavating hillsides.
• The Ha-ha – a sunken wall and ditch created a kind of inverted fence, for keeping grazing animals and wild creatures out of the garden, but in the landscape picture. This enabled the area around the house, the park, and the distant country side to become one sweeping vista.
• Serpentine lines – the rigid lines of the Renaissance and formal gardens softened. Serpentine lakes and curving streams replaced geometric fountains and ponds. Contoured land masses and natural looking valleys that emulated nature became the ideal.
• Trees and plants – forests and copse of trees silhouetted against the sky replaced the topiary of the formal garden. Shrubs, meadows and lawns replaced flower gardens and flower beds. The shrubs and trees coming from the Americas were sought after and integrated into the landscape.
• The Eye Catcher – architectural or natural objects that created a focal point were integrated into the landscape. Temples, obelisks, bridges, pagodas, grottos, and ruins were used, often marking stages in a circuit walk. As the viewer followed a winding path or road, these eye catchers were revealed. Sometimes the objects told a story, like the political commentary of Stowe gardens in Buckingham; or represented a classical ideal, like the Stourhead gardens in Wiltshire, England.

The Grotto at Painshill Park in Surrey, England (photo by Amandajm)

 

These elements worked together to form a landscape that appeared as though it was simply part of nature. The landscapes were replicas of the ideal, and often indistinguishable from nature itself.

Garden History – Landscape Movement

Back to Europe for more garden history (recall when last in Europe, we studied Renaissance and formal gardens of the seventeenth century, both on the continent and in England). Fast forward to the eighteenth century, and to the emergence of the landscape movement. For sources, I’m using The History of Gardens, by Christopher Thacker, and The Story of Gardening, by Penelope Hobhouse.

Gardeners in England adopted some elements of the Renaissance and formal gardens, but they resisted full scale adoption. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, authors began to question the tightly clipped and manicured formal gardens, and to rediscover classical Roman ideas, which emphasized nature and retreat to bucolic country life. They were intrigued by the writings of Father Matteo Ripa (1682 – 1746), who described the gardens he observed during his 13 years in China; and were inspired by paintings of the Italian countryside by artists such as Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665) and Claude Lorraine (1600 – 1682).

In 1719, the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) wrote to a friend “when laying out a garden, one should consider the genius of the place”; and in a poem described “all gardening is landscape painting…just like a landscape hung up”. They were also entranced with plant discoveries that were pouring in from the Americas, and from all over the world.

Pastoral Landscape, by Claude Lorrain (1648)

From these influences, a new garden style emerged. The landscape movement did not take hold at once, it was influenced by several generations of gardeners, each improving on the work of predecessors. Hobhouse identifies three main phases:

• Phase 1 (1720 - 1740s): Charles Bridgeman and William Kent (influenced by Pope), mixed formal and informal styles, provided views to the country side, and incorporated temples, pavilions and various buildings in the garden design.
• Phase 2 (1750 – 1780s): Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and his followers created landscapes that emulated nature. The green garden flowed uninterrupted from the house to the distant landscape. The garden was often indistinguishable from nature (nature was “edited” to achieve this).
• Phase 3 (1780 – 1810s): critics of the tame garden parks called for a wilder, more naturalist approach. They designed landscapes that incorporated beauty (elements that are smooth, regular, delicate, and harmonious), and the sublime (elements that also move us aesthetically, but are rough, gloomy, violent, and gigantic, such a volcanoes, storms, cataracts, and primitive beauty). As Hobhouse  describes “genuine romantic wildness typified by asymmetry, distant moors or mountains, rushing torrents, and crumbling ruins”.

Under these influences, the English landscape garden became indistinguishable from the real country side.

Sir Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks (1743 – 1820) was a key player in the movement of plants in the 1700s. He was born in London, England to wealthy parents, and developed an interest in botany when he was 14. He collected local plant specimens, and learned all he could from the local women who collected herbs. He was sent to Oxford for formal schooling. Bank’s father died in 1761 when he was 18. At 21 Banks inherited great wealth, but determined to put it to good use in pursuit of his interests.

Joseph Banks (photograph of a painting by Joshua Reynolds)

While at Oxford, Banks met Linnaeus apostle Daniel Carl Solander, who had been sent to London in 1760 to catalog the garden of Peter Collinson, and then accepted an assistant’s post at the British Museum. Banks and Solander became friends and colleagues. Instead of taking “The Grand Tour of Europe” that was popular with young men of his class, Banks went on a fishery protection patrol in Newfoundland and Labrador, and collected live and dried plant specimens.

Solander introduced Banks to the scientific community in London. At the age of 23, Banks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Banks promoted the idea of accompanying Captain James Cook on his first voyage of geographical and scientific exploration, and joined the expedition as chief naturalist at the age of 25. He funded additional artists, botanists, and scientists to join, including Solander. Between 1768 and 1771 the HMS Endeavor visited Africa, South America, New Zealand, Australia, and Tahiti. They made many scientific discoveries, and collected many plant specimens.

Banksia ericifolia native to Australia

Upon return to London in 1771, Banks became President of the Royal Society, and worked with King George III to expand Kew Gardens. Through his influence and means, Banks sent botanists and collectors all over the world; commissioned botanical artists; corresponded with scientists and botanists; and added to the collections at Kew Gardens and the British Museum. His plant and geographical knowledge enabled him to consult on many projects, including the ideas to transport breadfruit to the West Indies on the HMS Bounty, and establish a penal colony at Botany Bay in Australia. Banks knew many influential people of his day, including Ben Franklin in America, and Carl Linnaeus in Sweden. He is honored with a genus of plants named after him, Banksia.

Garden History – Plants on the Move

This year I’m taking a side trip from the usual course of garden history study. Earlier this year we focused on gardens of the Americas to learn more about how gardens were developing independently in the New World (see Garden History – The Americas). In parallel, we have been learning more about several of the Linnaeus apostles, who were sent out in the 1700s to spread the word about the new taxonomy promoted by Carl Linnaeus, and to collect plant specimens from all over the world (see The Linnaeus Apostles). Now we are focusing on gardening history through the lens of “plants on the move”, using a chapter from Penelope Hobhouse’s book, The Story of Gardening.

Ships transported seeds, dried plant specimens, and live seedlings all over the world.

According to Hobhouse, in Chapter 6, “Plants on the Move: Botanists, Collectors, and Artists”, in the wake of the Renaissance there was a shift in the relationship between people and plants. New professions and avocations were born, and everyone became enamored with plants. Explorers collected them, botanists studied them, artists depicted them, nurserymen propagated and sold them, entrepreneurs looked for ways to profit from them, physicians employed their healing properties, and enthusiasts grew them. With advances in printing, books and prints became more readily available so information spread quickly. Hobhouse cites three major plant sources in this era:

• Old World and Levant – collectors became enamored with bulbs and plants from the Mediterranean and the Levant (an old term for Turkey).  European plant collectors in the 1600s became enthralled with tulip bulbs, which become a commodity for a short time (“Tulip Mania”). The bubble burst, but the interest in bulbs and plants remained. 
• The Americas – the trees and shrubs discovered in North America were also in high demand. The American botanist John Bertram of Philadelphia collaborated with European distributors to exchange plants and seeds. Carl Linnaeus praised Bertram as a botanist, and our Linnaeus apostle, Pehr Kalm, worked with Bertram – see Pehr Kalm in North America). According to Hobhouse, a more naturalistic gardening movement was emerging in the early 1700s, and the plants from America were ideal for this style.
• Exotics – collectors were sent out by botanical gardens and private enthusiast to collect plants from all over the world, including Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, and the tropics. These exotics were embraced and grown in gardens and hot houses far from their native climates. 

Hobhouse writes from a Western perspective, especially the English point of view, but Britain was a key player in the botanical exchange. It is good to keep in mind that plant exchanges have taken place all through history. Consider the Silk Road linking East and West; cultural exchanges between countries, such as Japan and China, and France and Russia; and migrations of people groups. These were all opportunities for plant movement, but the post-Renaissance era of exploration, colonization, and quest for economic gain coupled with advances in technology, accelerated the movement of plants across the globe like never before in history.

Renaissance Gardens in England

In England, the reaction to the Renaissance style of landscaping was a little different. There was great interest in the new style and its concepts, but there wasn’t the rush to replace existing gardens as elsewhere in Europe. Perhaps, as Penelope Hobhouse  (The Story of Gardens) points out, the practical English mind resisted all that pruning and maintenance!

Elements of Renaissance gardens were adopted, such as terraces, statuary, fountains, grottoes, and waterways. But these elements were used to summon the Italian idea, not replace the existing Tudor and Jacobean gardens. Italian ideas were integrated with the traditional medieval style, which continued on in England, with its heraldic symbols, viewing mounts, fountains, beds of scented flowers, and knot gardens. A few Renaissance and Baroque gardens were developed, adapted to the English climate and terrain, such as the renovation of Wilton House in 1631. Many of these gardens were destroyed during the English Civil War (1642 – 1651).

The formal French garden was introduced into Britain with the renovation of Hampton Court in 1689. The Renaissance influence is evident, but without the grand scale or sense of conquering nature. 



Hampton Court Palace - sunken garden with medieval and Renaissance influences.
Photo by Michal "Cronwood" Babilas.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

 Christopher Thacker (The History of Gardens) observes that in Britain during this time, a few independent minded gardeners on small estates were developing ideas that would change things in gardening. In future posts, we’ll learn more about the important Landscape Movement.

Renaissance Gardens in France

In France, the countryside was flatter and more densely wooded than in Italy. Extensive hardwood forests were interrupted periodically with small villages and farms. Both Christopher Thacker (The History of Gardens) and Penelope Hobhouse (The Story of Gardens) observe that France had a hostile relationship with nature. Nature was feared, rather than enjoyed. (In retrospect, there are quite a few Fairy Tales with a foreboding forest involved; I wonder how many of them are of French origin!)



Chateau de Villandry - the parterres form intricate patterns, best viewed from above.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Attribution Share Alike license
(author, Jean-Christophe BENOIST)

France embraced the Renaissance style of landscaping, and developed its own distinctive style as early as 1600. The French style sought to overcome and subdue nature, rather than exist in harmony with it. Landscaping was done on a huge scale. Often whole landscapes were brought in subjection – forests were cleared, or wide swaths were cut through the trees to form an axis from the garden to the horizon line. Trees and bushes were clipped and pruned into fantastical and architectural shapes of all sizes.

Palace of Versailles - the orangery and a series of parterres, best viewed from above.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Attribution Share Alike license
(author, Mbcmf217)
 

A main focus of the formal French garden was the parterre – typically a series of low hedges and flowers formed into complex symmetrical patterns and designs. These patterns were called parterre de broderi, and resembled the rich embroidery used in French brocades. Parterres were designed to be viewed from above, typically from a particular place in the main house to the dictates of the owner. The garden was not just for beauty and pleasure, but to demonstrate the power of man over nature. Only those with great wealth, such as kings and nobleman, could maintain this style of gardening.

Garden History – Renaissance Europe

The Renaissance garden continued to evolve, and began to spread across Europe. Books about Italian gardens were published, prompting Northern Europeans to visit Italian gardens and bring home new ideas. Monarchs and the wealthy embraced the new style of gardening, and often employed Italian gardeners. Through this exchange, the Italian Renaissance garden spread from Italy into the rest of Europe, especially France, England, and the Low Countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg).

The Renaissance garden continued to evolve under the influence of the Baroque period (from about 1600 until 1750). For gardens, Baroque characteristics included:

• Manipulation of space using curved forms, forced perspective, and optical illusions
• Monumental scale in landscaping, and grand treatment of elevation using fountains and stairways
• Axial organization, such as axes that radiated outward from a central focal point or a long axis that ran from the formal garden to a distant focal point through wild, forested regions
• Spatial elements, such as straight avenues of trees (allees)

Palace Het Loo, in Apeldoorn, Holland – photo by JE at UWO (2002).

 

The Renaissance garden also evolved culturally. Christopher Thacker (The History of Gardens) observes that medieval gardens continued as they were in Europe (foursquare enclosures, regularly divided with raised beds, and tunnels and arbors made of trellis work), but were combined with the exuberance, enjoyment, and extravagant display of the Renaissance garden. Penelope Hobhouse notes in The Story of Gardening that the Italian principles had to be adapted to the local topography, climate, and architecture. The resulting European Renaissance gardens were a hybrid of Italian style and ideas, and local conditions and practicality.

Italian Villas and Their Gardens

This classic book about Italian gardens was written by Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937), illustrated by Maxfield Parrish (1870 - 1966), and published in 1904. Wharton wrote several American classics, such as The Decoration of Houses (non-fiction), and Ethan Frome (fiction, and required high school reading for people of a certain age); Parrish was a popular American illustrator with a distinctive style; he painted “The Pied Piper” mural, which hung behind the Palace Hotel bar for a century in San Francisco. A sumptuous edition of Italian Villas and Their Gardens was republished in 2007 by The Mount Press, complete with the original illustrations and photos.

The book includes a list of illustrations with notations, an introduction, and information about the villas, organized by regions, including Florence, Siena, Rome and near-Rome, Genoa, Lombardy, and Venetia. The 2007 edition includes an introduction by John Dixon Hunt, providing context for the subject of "Italian Garden Magic".

I love the "across time" nature of this book. It encompasses Wharton, visiting ancient gardens in her day, and Parrish visiting and painting gardens for the book early in his career (he was trying to break into landscape painting, according to Coy Ludwig in his book, Maxfield Parrish). Italian Villas and Their Gardens is often cited in modern gardening books; Christopher Thacker refers to it in "The Renaissance Garden in Italy" chapter of The History of Gardens. Wharton’s writing is descriptive, and conveys she has visited the gardens she describes. I recommend Italian Villas and Their Gardens to anyone interested in garden history, the Renaissance, and art!

The Villa d'Este

The Villa d’Este is located in Tivoli, Italy, and is an example of a Renaissance garden. The villa and garden were begun before 1540 by the Cardinal Bishop of Cordova, and then became the property of Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este when he was appointed Governor of Tivoli by Pope Julius III. The villa and garden were designed by architect Pirro Ligorio (1520 – 83), and built from 1550 – 1580. The villa and garden are built on a hill, and the design follows many of Leone Batista Alberti’s classical ideas about the site and layout of a garden. The garden is designed for the visitor to enter from the base; to ascend the slope, encountering delights along the way; and to arrive at the top of the hill to be surprised by the panoramic view of the Tivoli country side with long views to Rome.

Christopher Thacker, in The History of Gardens, writes that the garden’s prime feature is its exuberant use of water. A natural stream was diverted to flow from the top of the hill; and to power the water attractions as it descends, using pressure-based hydraulics. Attractions include the Ovato fountain; the terrace of the Hundred Fountains; the Organ fountain; the many-breasted Diana of the Ephesians fountain; water works that emit musical or animal sounds; and water features that surprise, squirt, or drench the unsuspecting visitor. Some of the hydraulics was based on writings in Pneumatica, by Hero of Alexandria.

Edith Wharton, in Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1904), describes the overall design: “…the gardens were meant to be, as it were, an organ on which the water played. The result is extraordinarily romantic and beautiful, and the versatility with which the stream is used, the varying effects won from it, bear witness to the imaginative feeling of the designer.” However, she further writes that the overall affect was tawdry and grotesque compared with other Renaissance examples. Even today, this extravagant use of water seems over-the-top; but it is important to keep in mind the historical importance – use of classical knowledge, science, and theater in the garden.

Elements of the Italian Renaissance Garden

The Renaissance period was a rebirth of thought and culture, and had its impact on Italian gardens. The resurging interest in ancient Rome included architecture, mechanics, hydraulics, botany, and natural history. Many of the old texts, maintained in monasteries and centers of learning over the long centuries of the Dark Ages, made the knowledge available. Some elements of Renaissance gardens, summarized from The History of Gardens by Christopher Thacker:

• Renaissance style – the architectural style was characterized by symmetry, proportion, geometry, and the regularity of parts, based on classical Roman principles. These architectural elements were mirrored in garden hardscaping, through terraces, porticoes, columns, arches, and other forms.
• Site selection – the site was used to its best advantage. Sun, light, air, breezes, shade, and views were incorporated in the garden design. Since many villas and their gardens were built on slopes and hills, the garden site could be viewed from outside the property, and the surrounding view and garden could be enjoyed from inside the garden.
• Unified design – the villa and the garden complemented each other, and were designed as a unified whole. Garden frescoes were painted inside the villa, bringing the garden inside; courtyards and terraces became outdoor rooms, extending the villa to the outside.
• Walls and courtyards – coming out of the Medieval period, gardens walls were still used for security and privacy, but with the villa and garden built on a slope, the garden was viewable from within and without the walls. Outside courtyards, often covered with arbors or shade structures, provided a place for exercise, recreation, and outside living.
• Pleasure garden – the garden was meant to be enjoyed, used for strolling, contemplation, retreat, and refuge from the hot Mediterranean sun. This is a marked difference from the “useful” gardens of Medieval times.
• Surprise and fantasy – the garden was meant to be discovered, to surprise and delight its visitors. This might take the form of unexpected views, shady glades, topiary, grottoes, statues, ruins, and arbors. Fountains and waterworks were implemented, often squirting the unsuspecting visitor or emitting the sounds of birds or animals; many of these based on pneumatic designs recorded by Hero of Alexandria (20 – 62 AD).
• Plants and trees – bushes were clipped into fantastical shapes and box hedges clipped into geometric patterns or mazes. Trees were coveted for their shade, including yew and cypress. Fruit trees, flowers, and vegetables were grown, and exotic plants were starting to be imported from other lands.

Look for some of these elements in these photos from the Villa Lante in Bagnaia.


Villa Lante - gardens in Bagnaia.
Photo by Roby Ferrari.

Villa Lante - part of the formal gardens.
Photo by Brookie.



Garden History – Renaissance Italy

For more garden history, we turn to the Renaissance gardens of Italy, which grew out of the rediscovery of ancient Roman ideals and knowledge after nearly 1000 years of the Dark Ages. Again I am using Christopher Thacker’s The History of Gardens for my reference, and Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and Their Gardens. The Renaissance period is typically categorized in three main periods: early Renaissance (1400 – 1500), High Renaissance (1500 - 1525), and Late Renaissance or Mannerism (1520 – 1600).

According to Thacker, there are no surviving gardens of the early Renaissance period. Gardens from this transitional period were still influenced by the poverty and difficulties of the Medieval period. Written documents describe idealized gardens, rather than existing ones, but do show the ideas that would influence later garden design.

• On the Art of Building in Ten Books by Leone Battista Alberti (1404 – 1472) – describes garden design and use, drawing on architectural principles from the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (circa 80 – 15 BC), the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 AD), and magistrate Pliny the Younger (61 – 112 AD).
•  Strife of Love in a Dream by Poliphilo, published by the monk Francesco Colonna in 1499 – a romance describing the adventures of Poliphile looking for his love, Polia. Many of the scenes in the story were later translated into gardens, such as Boboli Gardens.

One Hundred Fountains at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Italy (near Rome).
Photographed by Adrian Pingstone in June 2007 and placed in the public domain.

Many fine examples of Italian Renaissance gardens from the later periods still exist in Italy today, and classic Renaissance gardens have inspired gardens around the world. The Renaissance garden is designed to complement the villa and its structures, and vice versa; incorporate classic ideas about form and proportion, including geometric elements and symmetry; take advantage of the natural site; incorporate distant views and borrowed scenery; and to be used for enjoyment, reflection, contemplation, and pleasure. It is both formal and inviting, incorporating unexpected elements, including water treatments, fountains, grottoes, views, and vistas. Later, in the High Renaissance, gardens were used to demonstrate power.

The Cloisters Medieval Garden

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are no surviving European Medieval gardens, and little documentation about them. In New York City, we have The Cloisters, which is a composite of at least five different ancient European cloisters, on the banks of the Hudson in Fort Tryon Park. The Cloisters is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and dedicated to the scholarly study of Medieval Europe.

Cloister refers to a covered walkway that surrounds a quadrangle, usually in a religious institution. Typically there is a wall on one side of the walkway, and a colonnade on the other opening into the quadrangle, which is frequently a garden. This cloister, or “closed place”, is the heart of the medieval European garden. The Cloisters includes three such gardens:

• The Cuxa Cloister and Gardens – consists of crossed paths and a central fountain, in which both medieval and modern plant species are grown.
• The Bonnefont Cloister and Garden – an herb garden that contains more than 250 plant species grown in the middle ages. Hardscaping elements include a central well head, raised beds, and wattle fences (woven of strips of willow or hazel).
• The Trie Cloister and Garden – a garden planted with medieval species that mimic the “millefleurs” background of tapestries, such as the Unicorn series that is housed at the Cloisters.

Learn more about The Cloisters, the medieval collection, and the gardens: http://youtu.be/tiYENYz_v4s 



John D. Rockefeller Jr. provided funds for the building and purchasing land for the Cloisters, as well as across the river, with the stipulation that it not be developed to keep the feeling of an ancient monastery. Building pieces were purchased in Europe from a variety of sources, and the architect Charles Collens incorporated them into a unified whole. The Cloisters houses the George Grey Barnard medieval collection. The Cloisters opened in 1938. Learn more: http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters

Elements of the Medieval Garden

Life in the middle ages was difficult for most people, and gardening was a practical necessity. Plants were grown for their usefulness, with fruits, vegetables, and healing plants as the main focus. Some flowers, typically selected for their religious symbolism, were grown to decorate church sanctuaries. Some elements of the medieval garden, summarized from Christopher Thacker’s The History of Gardens and augmented by Penelope Hobhouse in The Story of Gardening:

• Square, enclosed garden – the square or rectangle garden comes from the shape of the cloister. A wall encloses the garden for protection and privacy. It also has religious symbolism; in paintings, the Virgin Mary is often depicted in a walled garden. Garden beds within the walls are often square or rectangular as well, with paths between them. According to Thacker, this basic layout forms the basis later for all formal gardens in Europe (reinforced by exposure to the Persian four-square garden design).
• Hedges and trellises – for the prosperous, walls were built of stone; for others, walls took the form of hedges of bushes or trees, or fences woven of willow or hazel strips. Trellises and arbors were also woven and provided shade, protection, and a structure for climbing plants.
• Water fountain – a water source was required for irrigation, and seen as a symbolic fount of life. Sometimes a fish pond was maintained for harvesting fresh fish.
• Raised beds – raised beds provided planting areas with good drainage. The height of the beds varies in depictions, which may indicate there was an awareness that lower beds worked for drier soil, and higher beds were required for moist soil.
• Orchards and vines – fruiting trees and grapes were grown where the climate allowed. Bees were often kept as well, providing honey (and pollination).
• Plants – produce and herb gardens were often separated from healing plants. In monasteries, the healing plants were often grown close to the infirmary.
• Flowery mead – many depictions show the ground covered with small flowers and grasses, in sort of a ground covering.

Look for some of these elements in the demonstration herb garden at Stafford Castle in England.

Herb Garden, Stafford Castle - spring color and a profusion of scents in the replica medieval herb garden at Stafford Castle. Copyright Simon Huguet and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

 

Garden History – Medieval Gardens

It’s time for more garden history, this time looking at Medieval European gardens. I’ve been using Christopher Thacker’s classic text The History of Gardens for my research, and comparing notes with The Story of Gardening by the British gardener, Penelope Hobhouse. The Medieval period—also called the Dark Ages—extends from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5^th century to the 15^th century. The thousand year period is typically categorized into three main periods – early (476-1000), High (1000-1300), and late middle ages (1300-1453). Out of this period of decline, illiteracy, upheaval, war, power struggles, The Plague, and establishment of the Christian church, Western culture was born.

There are no surviving gardens, and few written documents about medieval gardens and gardening. Information has been pieced together from literature, illustrated prayer books, art and tapestries, records of monastic life, and a few documents. It is unclear whether these documents represent reality, or an idealization. Three key documents include:

• A monastery proposal found in St. Gall in Switzerland, with a garden plan that includes herbs and medicinal plants (820 AD).
• The regulations for administering towns in Charlemagne’s empire, with a list plants and fruit trees that must be grown, called Capitulare de villis vel curtis imperii (795).
• A Latin poem about a “little garden”, with first-hand knowledge of the pleasure of work, the plants, and the produce, called Liber de cultura hortorum, by monk Walafrid Strabo (809-49).

Piecing together the information, scholars believe that early medieval gardens were “useful” – centering around produce, orchards, and healing plants. Only later did medieval gardens start to include elements of the pleasure garden – beauty for its own sake. Monasteries often had access to ancient Latin texts, making them havens for learning and technology. Monks grew their own food and healing plants, using ancient farming techniques adapted to their respective climates. The healing knowledge and plants benefited both travelers and the surrounding community. Monks also grew flowers to decorate the church; some flowers represented religious themes, such as the rose representing Mary or the blood of martyrs, and the lily representing purity of faith. In this video, observe the art for gardening evidence:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lM86cmbYZeQ