LivingGreen Gardening.
The first gardens were created some 8,000 years ago, in south-western
Asia, when humans began to abandon the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle
for a more settled way of life, growing crops on a regular basis. When
the descendants of these people migrated to the flood plains of the
Middle Eastern rivers, they established extensive irrigation systems,
allowing food production to increase. With surplus production,
horticulture developed beyond the purely utilitarian - exotic plant
species were brought in from foreign lands, wild varieties were
transformed into domesticated cultivars grown for interest and pleasure,
and the first hunting parks were laid out. Gardens became places of
enjoyment and gardening and agriculture began to move apart, with the
division remaining in place to this day.
Of course, the mixed cultivation of food plants and ornamentals has always taken place on a small scale. In particular, the potager-style garden, which combines herbs, vegetables, flowers and fruit trees in formal, geometric beds aims to be both productive and pleasing to the eye. This form of garden originated in France during the middle ages but there are now many fine examples of it throughout the world, including some modern interpretations.
Photograph by Manfred Heyde (2007) of the world's most famous vegetable garden, the jardin potager at the sixteenth century Chateau Villandry, France. The potager is made up of nine geometric parterres, each totally unique, filled with vegetables and bright annuals and immaculately tended in a precision grid. The potager was designed by Dr Joachin Carvallo when he bought the dilapidated chateau in l906. They are not historically accurate, but are a mixture a mixture of Mediaeval and Renaissance gardening ideas, ornamented with Italianate detail. ......More
