Temple Garlands & Country Gardens — the Gardener’s Proud History
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010When you start looking to buy garden forks UK or marveling at your gardeners’ heaven hedgetrimmers, keep in mind that gardening wasn’t always filled with garden tools and streamlined machines. Rakes and secateurs are comparatively recent adaptations, but as you’re aware, the concept of gardens is as old as Man. This hobby traces its roots back to the cradle of civilization itself. Gardens in those days were created for spirituality, for practical reasons, and we mustn’t leave out pleasure. The critical grapes and other food-bearing plants would mingle with pools for fish, being surrounded by stone walls. While admittedly they ate most of this some plants were nurtured to honor certain gods. Temple officers, too, tended to certain plants on the surrounding land. Assyrians, Persians and Babylonians combined fruits, nuts, water features, and vegetables with flowers and stunning architecture to create glorious spaces. The Romans also thoroughly delighted in tranquil gardens, though the Greeks did not. They tended farmland solely to eat.
While we grant you they would not have used forks or lawn rakes, these tribes had devised a number of basic contrivances and garden aids which were the prototypes of the hoes and spades gardeners rely on today. They made them out of iron, stone, bronze, copper. Progress was abruptly stopped under the pressure of the Dark Ages. Horticulture suffered, but even then, the Church kept the old knowledge alive, ready to be called on.
Little by little we discovered again the pastime of engineering flower gardens for pleasure. Guidelines began to evolve, a formalized system dictating how the garden should finally turn out. Several great representations can be found as knot gardens, which were inspired by complex patterns and textures. Rules like these aren’t still essential, so there’s ultimately nothing to worry about — have fun, and don’t be embarrassed about musing on how to get rid of that troublesome garden spades handle or leafing through some lawn rake review. William Kent and those like him took the rules — so set now that they were effectively frozen — and ignored any that obstructed their vision, blending a natural outlook with carefully selected statues and similar accessories. Granted, things have changed over the years, but gardens are still loved for similar reasons to our forebears’. There’s no way you’ll find a more picturesque place to be than a garden.