Examples of Garden Types and Styles

I. Gardens of Antiquity

Early Domestic Garden
The origin of domestic gardens lies
beyond the reach of recorded history.
Yet the oldest pictorial records of
domestic gardens from Ancient Egypt
show them to have been similar to
modern domestic gardens with areas
for relaxation, eating, childrens play,
and growing edible plants. This
illustration is from an Egyptian tomb
painting (around 15
th
century BC).
Private homes, like temples, were
rectangular enclosures bounded by
high walls. They contained fruit trees,
flowers, vegetables, pools (here a
fish pond), potted plants, vine-clad
pergolas, and places to sit and relax.



Palace Garden
This is a view of the ruins of the
ancient palace of King
Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon
(around 500 BC) as seen from
Procession Street in Iraq. The
inner temple was linked to the
outer gardens by tree-lined
avenues with sphinxes and
statues. The main avenue led
through a series of processional
gates to the main temple. Palace
compounds also held sacred
lakes, pools, statues, shrines, and flower and vegetable gardens.
Egyptian Sanctuary
Before the great pyramids, ancient
Egyptian kings left monuments to
themselves: fortress-like
sanctuaries enclosed by mud-brick
walls. Inside these mortuary
complexes, people presumably
gathered to worship and
perpetuate the memory of their
departed ruler. This is a modern
reconstruction of an Egyptian
Sanctuary with its surrounding
avenues and trees. In the center is
the ancient Egyptian temple of Koptos, dating from around 1600 BC.

Greek Court
This is a courtyard at Monemvasia, a beautiful
Medieval Greek town completely hidden behind
an enormous outcrop of rock. It is situated on a
hill overlooking the ocean. Since Greece is hilly,
there was little space for private gardens. Only
the rich could afford gardens. The front courts
were paved, but the ladies quarters were also
adorned with trees and potted plants.







Sacred Grove
In Homeric times, sacred
groves were mentioned more
often than private gardens.
As the seat of worship, a
grove was surrounded by
trees. Between the altar and
a spring, there was often a
sacred tree. When the
Greeks moved from the
countryside into defensible
walled cities, sacred groves
took on a wider social role
and could be used safely during times of peace. Later, the sacred grove became a
public place with specialized enclosures, seats, pools, rooms for philosophers,
courtyards for exercise, and other activities, as in Platos Academy in Athens.

Hunting Park
As cities and farms grew and
evolved, kings began to yearn
for places where wild plants
and animals could live and be
hunted. This idea began in
Mesopotamia and Persia.
Hunting parks belonged to the
kings and nobles, and were
used to teach young men the
arts of riding horses and
driving chariots, as well as
places to take exercise and
appreciate nature. They are
the origin of todays National
Parks.



Roman Court
Wealthy city-
dwellers had walled
courtyards for
outdoor eating,
entertaining, and
growing plants. The
atrium in the
center of the
dwelling provided
fresh air, rainwater,
and a pathway to
the street outside.
The peristyle was
a colonnaded area
used as an outdoor living and dining room, with access to the inner rooms. It contained
pools, shrubs, statues, fountains, and a small shrine. The xytus was a small
horticultural space for growing flowers and vegetables, and might contain a water
feature, statues, and a pavilion. This is a restored Roman Court in Pompeii.

Roman Villa
Villas originated in Greece and
reached their peak in the
Roman Empire. This is the
inner Peristyle at the Getty Villa
in Malibu, reconstructed from an
ancient villa in Herculaneum.
Besides the elements of a
Roman Court, villas might
contain a sacred grove, temple
garden, and a hunting park.

II. Medieval Gardens

Paradise Garden
The Paradise Garden evolved
from the ancient Persian walled
compound. It was the primary form
of Islamic garden from the Middle
Ages to the present day. It always
has a rectangular layout, often
divided into quarters by a main
canal and a transverse canal,
thought to represent the four rivers
of Paradise in Genesis. In the
East, it became the forerunner of the Islamic garden, such as the Taj Mahal in Agra and
the Taj Garden in Lahore, shown here. The finest example in Europe is the Alhambra in
Spain.

Mosque Court
This is the courtyard of the Sheikh
Lotf Allah Mosque - one of the
architectural masterpieces of
Safavid Iranian architecture,
standing on the eastern side of
Naghsh-i Jahan Square, Isfahan,
Iran. It was begun in about 1603
under the auspices of Shah
Abbas and completed in 1619.
The Shaykh Lutfallah Mosque has
no minarets as it was a private
mosque used by the Safavid royal family members, presumably they did not need to be
called to prayer. Mosques always contain a water feature for washing prior to prayer.
Cloister Garth
The word cloister means enclosed.
Often, cloisters had colonnades like
the Greek and Roman peristyle courts
from which they derive. They were
contemplative spaces in monasteries,
used for walking and reading. A
typical cloister, like this one from Cuxa
Cloister in France (now at the
Cloisters in New York) is a square
courtyard surrounded by a covered
walk. The perennial borders are a
modern addition. Most Medieval cloisters only contained close-scythed grass.

Castle Gardens
In the early Middle Ages, castle gardens were small enclosures inside the outer
fortification or bailey. No examples of the purported Gardens of Love with their flowery
lawns and turf seats survive today. Inner gardens contained raised beds of medicinal
and kitchen herbs along the stout walls. Outside the castle walls, gardens and orchards
provided fruits and vegetables, while hunting parks provided meat.

III. Renaissance Gardens

Early Renaissance Style
The Renaissance garden
developed by stages from the
medieval castle garden,
when relative peace reigned
and space became available
for the design of ornamental
gardens. Square and
rectangular garden carpets
were laid out so that their
unity, order, and regularity
could be viewed from the upper windows of the dwelling. One of the few surviving early
Renaissance gardens is next to the Medici hunting lodge of Il Trebbio. This hunting
lodge was remodeled around 1451 by Michelangelo, and the garden probably dates
from the same period. The garden is detached from the hunting lodge and consists of a
walled rectangular enclosure.

High Renaissance Style
The Italian architect Alberti advised
owners of the high Renaissance
gardens to look outward, physically and
intellectually, rather than inward, as in
the fortified castle gardens. The
organizing principle of high
Renaissance gardens was first
demonstrated by Bramante. He used a
central axis to control the layout of
house and garden, integrating a series
of rectangular enclosures with terraces
at different levels. Alcoves, niches, fountains, and statuary were added for decoration.
Villa Madama, designed by Raphael and shown here, was the first villa to be built
outside of Rome.

Mannerist Style
In the late Renaissance, designers became
attracted by surprise, novelty, and illusion.
Gardens were furnished with dramatic features
and used for outdoor parties and theatrical
performances. Dramatic sites were chosen and
embellished with exotic sculpture. Gardens
became even more geometrical, based on
circles and squares. Streams and cascades
flowed through the gardens. This is the grand
cascade at Villa Farnese in Caprarola, Italy.




Early Baroque Style
Early Baroque art is associated with the Counter-Reformation and a desire to re-
establish the authority of the Catholic Church and the power of the princes. Gardens
became symbols of power of the nobles and clergy. The Baroque style began with the
projection of axes beyond the boundaries of the enclosed Renaissance gardens. An
enthusiasm for the discoveries of geometry, optics and perspective influenced the style.
The results were dramatic, as seen in this photo of Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, Italy.
High Baroque Style
Baroque gardens were for
show. High society
gathered to admire and
participate in their
theatricality. The designs
were Cartesian, with
avenues reaching to draw
the surrounding landscape
into the composition.
Characteristic features were
a centrally positioned
building, elaborate
parterres, fountains, basins,
and canals. Garden architecture included sculpture, fountains, cascades, plantings,
and other features. Command of water was essential, as seen in this photo of Peterhof
in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Rococo Style
While Baroque Gardens in
Italy and Russia utilized
mountain streams to feed
their fountains and cascades,
the late Baroque style in
France and Germany tended
to follow the Rococo style,
which was lighter and airier
than the heavy Baroque style.
A good example is the private
residence of Archbishop
Clemens Augustus in Bruhl,
Germany with its flat, curving
boxwood parterres and its
circular reflecting pools.
IV. Naturalistic Gardens

Forest Style
Meanwhile, in England, the idea
of the garden as a rural retreat
grew popular in deliberate
contrast to the high Baroque
style with its elaborate parterres
and strict geometry. English
country gentry shunned courtly
life and retreated to estates in
the countryside, as shown in this
painting of Cirencester Park in
the Cotswolds. The boundary of
the property was often a low retaining wall with views of the surrounding countryside.

Augustan Gardens
During the era known as the English Landscape
Revolution, estate owners started to look back
to the classical origins of western culture. The
first landscape gardens in England were
inspired by visions of the Roman landscape in
the time of the Emperor Augustus, as well as
paintings of the Arcadian landscape by Poussin
and Claude. William Kent was one of the first
professional designers to give physical form to
this vision, as seen at Stourhead in this photo.
Serpentine Style
This was known as the garden style of the
Enlightenment. Its classic features were a
lawn sweeping to the house front, circular
clumps of plantings, a serpentine lake, an
encircling tree belt, and a perimeter
carriage drive. The name Serpentine
refers to the use of free-flowing curves.
The primary designer of the times was
Lancelot Capability Brown, who
developed a personal style based on his
idea of the capabilities of the particular
terrain. The artificial lake with it stone
bridge at Blenheim Palace is a good
example.


Picturesque Style

Enthusiasm for the wildness and
irregularity of unadorned nature was the
driving force behind this style of garden
layout. The aim was to create parks for
the enjoyment of an artistically composed
representation of the natural world, and
they became places for collecting exotic
plants from far-off lands. By the end of
the 18
th
century, advocates of this new
style were criticizing the Serpentine Style
for being too wild and shaggy. The blend
of the natural and the man-made is
evident in this view of the Royal Botanic
Gardens at Kew.
Landscape Style
The Landscape Style, espoused by
Humphry Repton, included a rectilinear
garden area near the house, a
serpentine park for grazing farm
animals and growing forest trees, and a
wild and irregular background that was
not used by the owner and was
conceived as a place for wild nature.
Many of the earlier serpentine layouts
were converted to the landscape style
by providing a terrace near the house.
The house was often at the center of
the estate with a transition in each direction. This photo of Harewood House in Leeds,
Yorkshire, was taken from the front garden. It is a good example of how the pendulum
of landscape design swung from formal to naturalistic and back again.

Mixed Style
This is an eclectic style that
led to the excesses of
Victorian gardens, with their
owners penchant for
collecting American, Chinese,
Japanese, and Italian plants
and artifacts. It was the
collection as a whole that was
valued, rather than the design
of the grounds. An excellent
example is the Biltmore
Estate, which looks rather like
a French chateau sited on a
huge estate, with naturalistic
plantings downhill from the house and a rose garden and conservatory in the back.
V. Modern and Postmodern Gardens
Arts and Crafts Style
Most of the grand estates
of the late 19
th
century
were designed with
gardens in the formal
Beaux-Arts style,
popularized by
landscape designers
trained in Paris. But
again, the pendulum
swung in favor of
naturalistic garden
design, when American
artists and designers came to dislike styles borrowed from other countries and historical
periods. The Arts and Crafts Style, originating in 1890, was the first style where the
owner was a significant contributor to the gardens maintenance. Designers drew
inspiration from the fine arts, using good plants, fine building materials, and traditional
crafts. Among the most famous of these gardens is Sissinghurst Castle.

Abstract Style
The Abstract Style, like
the Modern Movement in
architecture, grew out of
the Arts and Crafts
Movement. The lines of
the machine age became
apparent, with 20
th

century garden designs
inspired by the shapes
and patterns of abstract
art. The rectilinear geometry of Mondrian influenced the design of walls, and the
curvilinear geometry of paving and planting were influenced by Mir and others. Also
known as the Donnell Garden, in Sonoma, El Novillero is a fine example of the
curvilinear abstract style, designed by Thomas Church in the California style.

Postmodern Style

Postmodern ideas
encourage garden
owners to
deconstruct their
preconceptions and
think in fresh ways.
Rectangles clash with
circles and are
intersected by
haphazard diagonals,
as in a Russian
constructivist
painting. Steel and
concrete structures
are painted in bright colors. Glass and other reflective surfaces help create illusions
and startling visual effects. Here is a small postmodern city garden in San Francisco by
Topher Delaney.


The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
is a thirty acre private garden in the
Borders area of Scotland created
by architect and architectural critic
Charles Jencks. This postmodern
garden is a joining of terrestrial
nature with fundamental concepts
of modern physics - particle theory,
quantum mechanics, string theory,
complexity theory, and the like.
This combination of astro-turf and
aluminum patterns represents
Jencks vision of a neutron star
radiating energy into outer space.

VI. Non-Western Gardens
Tropical Gardens
Tropical gardens are found in the
regions between the Tropics of
Cancer and Capricorn such as India,
Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand,
Indonesia, and Bali. They reflect the
culture of their civilization. Shade and
water are important, while plants have
symbolic meaning and gardens are
considered to be peopled by guardian
spirits. Although it is a contemporary
garden, this courtyard in the Bali Hyatt
includes indigenous elements such as
thatched rooftops, a shaded verandah, a Balinese lantern, and a lily pond.

Chinese Gardens
A garden in China is not an expanse of green
with incidental buildings, but rather an area in
which buildings surround arrangements of rocks,
plants and water; without these buildings, the
Chinese garden is not a garden. The
architectural elements themselves are decorative
and structure how one views the scenery. Good
views are many and intimate in scale, in contrast
with the sweeping vistas and mathematically
ordered plantings of European gardens of the
same period. The enclosure of the entire
compound by walls or other natural barriers
marks this area off as a special precinct for
private enjoyment. Here is one view of the
Portland Oregon Chinese Garden a Scholars
Garden.
Japanese Gardens
When we enter a Japanese
garden, the desired effect is to
realize a sense of peace,
harmony, and tranquility, and to
experience the feeling of being a
part of nature. In a deep sense,
the Japanese garden is a living
reflection of the long history and
traditional culture of Japan.
Influenced by Shinto, Buddhist,
and Taoist philosophies, there is
always something more in these
compositions of stone, water, and
plants than meets the eye. Here is a photo of the Japanese Garden at Denver Botanic
Gardens a Strolling Garden. Three of the essential elements used to create a
Japanese garden are stone, the "bones" of the landscape; water, the life-giving force;
and plants, the tapestry of the four seasons.

Zen Gardens
The Japanese rock gardens
(karesansui) or dry landscape
gardens, often called Zen
gardens were influenced mainly by
Zen Buddhism and can be found at
Zen temples of meditation.
Karesansui gardens can be
extremely abstract and represent
(miniature) landscapes also called
mind-scapes. This Buddhist
preferred way to express cosmic
beauty in worldly environments is
inextricable from Zen Buddhism.
Here is a photo of Shitenno-ji Hondo garden a Zen garden in Japan.


VII. 21
st
Century Garden Designs
21
st
Century garden design spans the good, the bad, and the ugly from specialty
gardens to roof gardens, outdoor living areas, and environmental education gardens.

The Cocktail Garden
This is a very 21
st

Century garden a
collection of herbs
and blooms used to
make exotic drinks.
The notion of a
cocktail garden
comes from cocktail
chefs like Phillipe
Gouze, of Blue Hill at
Stone Farms
(located in Pocantico
Hills, New York designs courtesy of Food and Wine magazine) in whose creative
hands otherwise ordinary booze is dressed up to become a stand-alone star.

Designs for cocktail gardens are
reminiscent of designs for veggie
or herb gardens such as knot
gardens or circular gardens
around a center feature (above).
Cocktail gardens could also be
planted as a crazy quilt in a
naturalistic, flowing pattern (at left).
Just as violets, anise hyssop
(anise-flavored herb), verbena,
and other herbs have been used as flavors for liqueurs and vodka, so, one can grow
cilantro, chervil, lemon thyme, lemon verbena, chocolate mint, Johnny-Jump-ups,
nasturtiums, or Thai basil to flavor exotic cocktails like Mojitos.



The Outdoor Living Area
Suburban outdoor living
area design focuses on
developing an indoor-to-
outdoor transition by
repeating the architectural
materials in the landscape,
giving the living area a sense
of place. An outgrowth of
20
th
Century patios, these
new designs include built-in
seating, planter walls, water
features, a fireplace, and an
outdoor kitchen. Perimeter
plantings provide a touch of
greenery, while trees,
awnings, or trellis structures
provide much-needed shade. Here is an integrated plan from Colorado Homes and
Lifestyles magazine with decorative plants, stone walls, and terraces.

The Roof Garden
Urban redevelopment in Denver
provides downtown residents with an
opportunity to design creative gardens
on their terraces or rooftops. Here is a
fine example of a modern roof garden
replete with a deck, raised planter
beds with grasses, tall plants, and
even a water feature. The important
issue to remember with roof gardens
is that these structures are heavy, and
adequate structural support is
essential.




The Container Garden
Container gardens are ubiquitous in apartments with balconies and townhomes with
porches and patios. When designing a container garden, remember the elements of
garden style: the overall theme and layout, lines and forms, sizes and shapes, colors
and textures, and other features of artistic design. Here are two examples.

A Non-Example Poor Design
At the left is the result when a homeowner
doesnt follow the principles of landscape
design that we cover in this course. What
mistakes do you see here? (Think scale,
proportion, texture, rhythm, plant choice,
etc.) The local HOA even cited the owner
with a covenant violation letter!

An Example of Good Design
On the porch at the right, we see an interesting array
of unmatched pots with plants that thrive in our semi-
arid environment. The copper and hand-thrown
pottery planters blend well with the natural stucco
walls. Looking at the plant arrangement on the stone
patio, ones eye is naturally led toward the borrowed
scenery of the surrounding foothills. This is an
excellent example of the use of rhythm in design.
The plantings provide an interesting mix of shapes
and textures from the spiky leaves of the agave and
the drooping leaves of the grass, to the lacy fronds of
the upright plant and the Xeric blooms along the wall.
This is Colorado ambiance on a small scale!


The Environmental Education Garden
With the current emphasis on ecology and the environment, many older botanical
gardens have been updated, while new ones have been built using the latest
technologies. These gardens serve as
conservation centers for rare and endangered
species and as educational resources for
students and the general public. Some, like
Kew Gardens in London, have seed banks
associated with them.
A fine example is the Queen Sirikit Garden in
Chiang Mai, Thailand. The updated garden has
eight display glasshouses and several
conservatories containing a myriad of
indigenous and other exotic plants, dedicated
in 2001 by Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. Along
the gardens four main trails one can see many
of Thailand's flowers, trees, plants and herbs in
their natural habitat, such as the flowering fines
shown at the left.

The grandest of the new
gardens is the Eden Project,
located in an old mining
area in Cornwall, England.
It's essentially a large
twenty-first century
botanical garden, but the
British describe it as a
Living Theater of Plants
and People. To the right,
you can see the Humid
Tropics Biome and the
Warm Temperate Biome.
There are also plans for a
semi-arid biome. The Education Resource Center opened in September 2005.