Gardening's art The word "gardening" means the set of processes for the creation and maintenance of a garden.
I begin this report by telling the story of the garden.
In the beginning the garden had a religious connotation as a place of encounter with the gods, or as a final destination.
The Eden, the earthly garden, is the place were every kind of tree grows and the friendly nature offers plenty of fruit.
In ancient Persia the word "paradise" means fenced park where only deserving people could have access.
The ancient Egyptians built their gardens surronded by walls to create a cool environment against the african scorching heat.
The date palm, the lotus flower and papyrus were born as religious symbols and became ornamental plants.
The gardens of the ancient Greeks were, instead, public meeting place to stroll and to enter into social relationships.
Conversely, the Greek houses usually didn't have private gardens.
The ancient Romans didn't have real gardens but they favored farmland.
However, the Romans created, in the rich residential villas, the gardens with evergreen trees (bosso, cipresso, leccio) pruned in the shape of animals, deities, geometric figures, and they called this kind's art "opus topiarium".
During the Middle Ages, the gardens survided the barbarism in the monasteries.
The monks cultivated especially medicinal herbs in flower beds called "Garden of Simple".
Renaissance gardens favored the architectural and geometric forms, and within the gardens were always fountains, water games and wide boulevards. You can visit this garden's type in Villa d'Este (Tivoli).
Around 1600 became very famous French gardens called "Parterre".
The style of the garden "parterre" is centered on symmetry and use of decorative trees, statues, fountains and great prospects that are lost in the natural forest.
Around the Royal Palace of Caserta was created a French garden.
In the 17th century was created the English Garden (Landscape gardening) in opposition to the French ones.
The English garden combines natural and artificial elements including caves, streams, trees, brushes, pagodas, arbors, temples and ruins.
The English garden would be integrated into the landscape, so the gardeners dug a ditch in the bottom of the garden, so that there was not really a visible border.
The garden which borders on the landscape through a ditch is called "ha ha."
In the " Landscape gardening " the term "ha ha" indicates the wonder generated by the discovery of the invisible border between garden and surronding landscape.
If you want to see this garden you have to go to "Stowe Garden"in Buckinghamshire (N-E of Oxford).
In 1900 became a necessity to put great parks within cities.
Public administrators have realized that natural areas and public gardens are beneficial to the health of citizens.
Large public parks were designed as a natural landscape with small lakes, woods, clearings, winding paths uphill and downhill.
An example of this type of park is "Birkenhead park" in Liverpool.
The aesthetic beauty of natural landscape, born with "Landscape gardening" led to their protection and the creation of protected natural parks. The first natural park, "Yellowstone" was born in 1872 in Wyoming.
The history of the gardens concludes with the description of the gardens of Japan called "Zen garden".
The “Zen garden” was influenced by religion.
The Zen garden is a dry garden, most often composed only of sand and stones, but may also contain some vegetable and a small pond. It is a garden that reflects the zen art features, based on stillness, silence, spontaneous nature, simplicity and essentiality; all attributes that promote inner search and meditation.
The world's most beautiful Zen garden is located in Matsue in Japan, in the museum of modern art of Adachi.
It is possible to visit a Japanese garden in Rome, at the Japanese Cultural Institute.
Now that you know the history of gardens, try creating your own garden.
It isn't easy create an artistic garden.
However, plant care teaches many things.
The gardener needs to know every plant's species that he want to use.
Moreover he must know the growth and development of plants and flowers.
For example he doesn't put a hight plant in front of a low ones.
The gardener must choose plants suited to create a harmonious and colorful place.
The gardener has to know all the forms of life because some flowers, such as lilac, attract butterflies and other plants, such as geraniums, repel mosquitoes.
In any case, the gardener has to follow the course of nature and to plant seasonal flowers for a garden always in bloom in every season.
The garden design is a practice that involves the knowledge of botany and architecture.
If you don’t want to make too much effort you can create a natural garden.
In the natural garden, plants are free to grow as nature intended, without too many extraneous and coercive interventions.
If you want to visit a natural garden go to “Casoncello gardens” in the village of Loiano (BO).
Now there are even therapeutic gardens.
Contact with a variety of plants and flowers carefully chosen stimulates sight, smell, touch, this awakens the senses, and with them the memories and emotions.
The scent of flowers, good or bad, remains the most indelible in the memory.
The fragrance of flowers has therapeutic properties.
For example the smell of lilac (Syringa vulgaris) leads to calm, reflection, and helps in the study.
The scent of jasmine (Jasminum officinale), however, stimulates sexuality.
Also the mood can be influenced by the colors of a garden.
The warm colors: yellow (as Helianthus annuus), orange (as Calendula officinalis), red (as Begonia) are used to stimulate and accentuate mental vitality; the cool colors: white (as Convallaria majalis), blue (as Viola odorata), pink (as Rosa canina), induce peace, relaxation and meditation, while green is a harmonious balance of color. .