Post 10

The garden style that resonated the most with me was the Roman gardens. The Roman gardens were beautiful, often peristyle gardens that were usually a place of relaxation for Romans. I love the concept and ideas of Roman gardens and have spent a total of 2 months in Italy and I loved the gardens I have encountered during my travels. I have studied Italian Renaissance art as well and there are many parallels in each art form as well as the gardens are portrayed a lot in the painting and artworks.

Another reason I love the Roman gardens is due to the idea of "Otium."I believe we all need to have time to think and reflect on life and the arts in gardens. This is a proactive way to spend your leisurely time and to promote relaxation. I also believe it was this philosophy that helped attribute to their rich culture. The Roman garden was not only a place for relaxation but it was also a place of learning. Many of the gardens had murals and statues that represented religious teachings as well as brought in an artistic element to the garden. The statues were usually Greek and represented a mythological figure. These statues were also a good way to show different art forms and styles around the world.

The romans also used other garden features besides statues such as water features and trellises. These add extra artistic elements, which only added to the beauty of these gardens. The gardens usually consisted of garden bed, which were filled with flowers from the region and surround by trimmed bushes. The combination of garden and culture along with religion and not to mention the aesthetically pleasing quality of the gardens are what resonated the strongest with me personally.

If you want to learn more about Roman gardens visit: http://www.lifeinitaly.com/garden/roman-garden.asp

Sources 

http://romacitizens.blogspot.com/2011/04/subura-community-gardens-now-free.html

http://imgarcade.com/1/ancient-roman-gardens/

http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/archaeologist-kathryn-gleason-on-roman-gardens/

http://bonvoyage-travelling.blogspot.com/2013/02/villa-borghese-gardens-rome-italy.html

Post 9

Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens were two brilliant minds and gardeners who came together to form a partnership that would largely influence the arts and crafts movement. This movement came about out of a need to stray from traditional Victorian style gardening as well as from the industrialized London lifestyle. This approach was naturalistic combined with a high level of craftsmanship.

            Jekyll grew up in London and it was this childhood home that inspired her to start designing gardens. Jekyll was also trained professionally as a painter and because of this she had an understanding of how colors were suppose to play together. This allowed her to excel in combining colors and plants in painting like ways.

            Edwin Lutyens, like Jekyll, grew up around his passion. He was always sketching and drawing the landscape around his home. This passion grew into a business and he became one of the most well-known and greatest British architects. The pair took both of their talents and collaborated them to create outstanding gardens.

            Their gardens inspired a whole new generation of gardens. When they designed together they did it only for a specific locations. Their gardens usually contain certain content like rectangular flower borders and drifts. Jekyll was particularly fond of an herbaceous border and is accredited for its popularity.

            One of their most well known collaborations was the Hestercombe house. This house was known for it’s bold patterned layout and the flower details. The garden uses contrast and patterns as well as a water garden and a pergola to created a harmony of wild and tame, structured and natural and is a great representation of the arts and crafts garden.

For more information please visit : http://www.the-secretgardens.co.uk/lutyens-jekyll/

Picture 1: http://www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk/edwin-lutyens-house 

Picture 2: http://www.tustinlandscaping.com/16.html

Picture 3: http://jimtheobscuredotcom.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/munstead-plan1.jpg

Picture 4: http://blogmedia.designpublic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/gjtwo.jpg
Picture 5: http://ookaboo.com/o/pictures/picture/13341964/The_Great_plat_in_Hestercombe_Gardens_de

Blog Post 8

With the Victorian villa garden came about the new idea of art and nature coexisting in contrast to art competing against nature. Most parks were adorned by terraces and formal feature; in the Victorian gardens the gardens were adorned with geometry and curves.

            The Victorian garden was centered around showing education, wealth, possessions fashion and taste. Shrubs were formed as a formal element as well as emperor foundation and conservatory/glasshouse shown as a star feature. The conservatory allowed for exotic plants to grown and gave rise to the demand of exotic plants/flowers from all over the world.

            In addition to the formal features of the gardens were the features of informal. The informal gardens consisted of trees scatter about a curved rivers as well as the quintessential rockwork. Rockwork is the arrangement of rocks into an artistic element. The elements were supposed to mimic something that could’ve come about from nature but instead were man made. This concept of nature touched by man, but it not being obvious, was the beauty of the informal gardens. 

            The Victorian gardens were privately owned gardens that had employed a gardener to shape and design the garden in the above stated style. The commonalities between the villa gardens are what stringed them together, as well as the Victorian style. These commonalities consisted of a formal garden close to the house, formal features such as flower bedding, sculptures and parterres. The farther away from the house one wandered the garden turned more informal as described above.

            Inspirations for these gardens came from all over the gardening world. The gardens grew from the formal inherited gardens, such as Capability Browns. A good example of this is the Chatsworth gardens. In the Chatsworth gardens formal and informal gardens came together as one.

For more information visit: http://www.chatsworth.org/attractions-and-events/garden

Picture 1 and 4: http://www.bigginhall.co.uk/chatsworth-c42.html

Picture 2: http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/XB171403/Making-repairs-to-the-Great-Conservatory-at-Chatsworth?img=7&search=19th+Century+building

Picture 3: https://vision.eng.shu.ac.uk/mmvl/viewfinder/image_chatsworth_garden.html

Picture 5: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/564849978234566824/