Out
On A Limb / February 2006
The Living Room
Gardens are essentially additional rooms, outdoor rooms with physical, social and spiritual dimensions. Any garden can be a reflection of a woman’s spirit and on outgrowth of her interests as well as a place of reflection and an opportunity for personal growth. Each garden is as individual as each gardener. In choosing the where, how and what of her garden, a woman can be bold and adventurous or careful and precise. She can let herself go or keep herself together. She can organize chaos or orchestrate it. A quiet woman may plant loud garden. A delicate woman may choose the biggest, boldest blooms she can find.
A busy woman may require simplicity in her garden. An organized woman may welcome the wild disorder of a butterfly haven. A few casually placed pots may be all a woman needs to stay rooted.
The pure symmetry of classical gardens can be deeply satisfying, but for most gardeners, adding splashes and dashes of their own personality make it come alive. Ornamental elements like lamp posts, gazebos, bridges, paving designs, gateway entrances, benches or curving balustrades add character and definition. Garden art, whether traditional or whimsical, adds personality and panache.
Although the mathematical precision of a classical landscape design suggests an attempt at authority over nature, gardens are always a partnership, with the earth, the sun, and the sky. Gardeners celebrate the partnership representationally in flags that capture the air, in the ornate curves of a wrought iron gate, or in the running water of a fountain.
Historically, gardens were enclosed outdoor spaces, regardless of size, a walled-in area meant to protect cultivated plants, domesticated animals and people. But in ancient times, people also wanted to bring in the elements of their sacred groves, so they chose statuary to enliven their gardens. Traditional materials included natural stone, granite, cobbles, sandstone and antique limestone. Concrete and new polymer based materials can reproduce the look and feel of ancient design. Urns and sculptures intended for outdoor spaces provide character and add a sense of cohesion to the landscape. They can animate a setting.
Like any work of art, a beautiful garden can provide intellectual and spiritual rewards. There were strong religious aspects behind the earliest gardens, enclosed temple compounds in Ancient Egypt, and Mesopotamia, as well as religious enclosures in ancient Christian and Islamic gardens. It was especially true regarding Roman gardens where religion centered around the home and remains so in Chinese and Japanese meditative gardens. Gardeners have been expressing their spirit and their spiritual world in garden design for thousands of years.
The mathematical emphasis of classical Roman gardens started with the introduction of the new philosophical works by Plato, and more importantly by Pythagorus, who originated the thought that all things are mathematical. Plato’s works and Pythagorean theories were studied during the Renaissance. Garden designers began creating small worlds of ordered beauty. Balanced relationships and harmonious proportions remain essential to garden design.
Contemporary gardeners call on many of the same decorative accessories to complete their landscape. The garden statues, water features, pediments, finials and urns seamlessly integrated into a composition by Renaissance gardeners are easily assimilated into 21st century surroundings. Sculpted planters can provide transitional spots of green in paved areas. Though marble and granite may have been displaced by concrete and resin, and the electrical cords for the fountain may need to be hidden from view, the elegance and comfort of a well-appointed garden stands all tests of time.
From architectural terraced retaining walls to wildly overgrown strawberry pots, gardens bring more to the gardener than just flowers. The garden connection is an integral link for home and heart. PL, MG
Copyright © 2005-2006 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Femme Fair 2006
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