Really, as a gardener we’ll find you looking to buy garden equipment made in the UK or perhaps marveling at that Bulldog garden spade — but bear in mind, only over centuries have we reached this level. Settlements were gardening thousands of years before the invention of the lawn rake or the garden hoe. Your recreation can trace its roots to the cradle of civilization itself. Ancient peoples created gardens for spirituality, for pleasure, and for practical reasons. The necessary grapes as well as other edible vegetation would mingle with pools for fish, being confined by stone walls. Some of the garden was allotted for other things, holy plants planted and cultivated for use in the temples. Priests, too, looked after other herbs on nearby land.
Assyrians, Persians and Babylonians combined water features, flowers, nuts, and vegetables with stunning architecture and fruits to create beautiful spaces. The Romans also went in for tranquil gardens, but the Greeks were another matter. They grew gardens strictly for food. In that era, spades and hoes were the recent labor savers that lawn rakes or forks would be for times to come — real differences even before you look at the kind of materials used. They made them out of bronze, copper, stone, iron. Everything was forced to a halt during the Middle Ages. Horticulture was no different, but even then, the monks and nuns practiced the old knowledge and techniques.
Little by little we returned to the hobby of designing gardens to enjoy. This trend went on up to the 1500s, at which point gardens became far more formal and precise. Some excellent representations include hedge mazes and knot gardens, drawn from intricate patterns.
Such rules aren’t still essential, meaning there’s really no reason to feel nervous — enjoy yourself, and don’t be embarrassed regarding searching for tips how to mend that bothersome garden spades handle or perusing some Water Feature reviews. “Capability” Brown and those like him looked at the conventions — so fixed now as to be effectively stagnant — and discarded those that detracted from their vision, blending a naturalistic outlook with appropriate statuary and other such accessories.
Yes, things have evolved over the generations, but gardens are still cultivated for the same reasons as our ancestors’. At the end of the day, they are still some of the most peaceful spaces in the world.
