GARDEN, a piece of ground properly laid out, cultivated and ornamented with a variety of plants, flowers, fruits, &c. See GARDENING.
Gardens are usually distinguished into flower garden, fruit garden, and kitchen garden: the first of which, being designed for pleasure and ornament, is to be placed in the most conspicuous part, that is, next to the back front of the house; and the two latter, being designed for use, should be placed less in sight. But though the fruit and kitchen gardens are here mentioned as two distinct gardens, yet they are now usually in one; and that with good reason, since they both require a good soil and exposure, and equally require to be placed out of the view of the house.
In the choice of a place proper for a garden, the most essential points to be considered are, the situation, the soil, the exposure, water, and prospect.
1st, As to the situation, it ought to be such a one
as is wholesome, and in a place neither too high nor too low; for if a garden be too high, it will be exposed to the winds, which are very prejudicial to trees; and if it be too low, the dampness, the vermine, and the venomous creatures that breed in ponds and marshy places, add much to their insalubrity. The most happy situation is on the side of a hill, especially if the slope be easy, and in a manner imperceptible; if a good deal of level ground be near the house; and if it abounds with springs of water: for, being sheltered from the fury of the winds and the violent heat of the sun, a temperate air will be there enjoyed; and the water that descends from the top of the hill, either from springs or rain, will not only supply fountains, canals, and cascades for ornament, but, when it has performed its office, will water the adjacent valleys, and, if it be not suffered to stagnate, will render them fertile and wholesome.
2dly, A good earth or soil is next to be considered; for it is scarce possible to make a fine garden in a bad soil. There are indeed ways to meliorate ground, but they are very expensive; and sometimes, when the expense has been bestowed of laying good earth three feet deep over the whole surface, a whole garden has been ruined, when the roots of the trees have come to reach the natural bottom. To judge of the quality of the soil, observe whether there be any heath, thistles, or such like weeds, growing spontaneously in it; for they are certain signs that the ground is poor. Or if there be large trees growing thereabouts, observe whether they grow crooked, ill-shaped, and grubby; and whether they are of a faded green, and full of moss, or infested with vermine: if this be the case, the place is to be rejected. But, on the contrary, if it be covered with good grass fit for pasture, you may then be encouraged to try the depth of the soil. To know this, dig holes in several places, six feet wide and four deep; and if you find three feet of good earth it will do very well, but less than two will not be sufficient. The quality of good ground, is neither to be stony nor too hard to work; neither too dry, too moist, nor too sandy and light; nor too strong and clayey, which is the worst of all for gardens.
3dly, The next requisite is water; the want of which is one of the greatest inconveniences that can attend a garden, and will bring a certain mortality upon whatever is planted in it, especially in the greater droughts that often happen in a hot and dry situation in summer; besides its usefulness in fine gardens for making fountains, canals, cascades, &c. which are the greatest ornaments of a garden.
4thly, The last thing to be considered is the prospect of a fine country; and though this is not so absolutely necessary as water, yet it is one of the most agreeable beauties of a fine garden: besides, if a garden be planted in a low place that has no kind of prospect, it will not only be disagreeable but unwholesome.
In the laying out and planting of gardens, the beauties of nature should always be studied; for the nearer a garden approaches to nature, the longer it will please. According to Mr Miller, the area of a handsome garden may take up 30 or 40 acres, but not more; and the following rules should be observed in the disposition of it. There ought always to be a descent of at least
three steps from the house to the gardens; this will render the house more dry and wholesome, and the prospect on entering the garden more extensive.—The first thing that ought to present itself to view should be an open lawn of grass, which ought to be considerably broader than the front of the buildings; and if the depth be one half more than the width, it will have a better effect: if on the sides of the lawn there are trees planted irregularly, by way of open groves, the regularity of the lawn will be broken, and the whole rendered more like nature. For the convenience of walking in damp weather, this lawn should be surrounded with a gravel walk, on the outside of which should be borders three or four feet wide for flowers: and from the back of these the prospect will be agreeably terminated by a slope of evergreen shrubs; which, however, should never be suffered to exclude agreeable prospects, or the view of handsome buildings. These walks may lead through the different plantations, gently winding about in an easy natural manner; which will be more agreeable than either those long straight walks, too frequently seen in gardens, or those serpentine windings that are twisted about into so many short turns as to render it difficult to walk in them; and as no garden can be pleasing where there is a want of shade and shelter, these walks should lead as soon as possible into plantations, where persons may walk in private, and be sheltered from the wind.
Narrow rivulets, if they have a constant stream, and are judiciously led about a garden, have a better effect than many of the large stagnating ponds or canals so frequently made in large gardens. When wildernesses are intended, they should not be cut into stars and other ridiculous figures, nor formed into mazes of labyrinths, which in a great design appear trilling.
In short, the several parts of a garden should be diversified; but in places where the eye takes in the whole at once, the two sides should be always the same. In the business of designs, the aim should be always at what is natural, great, and noble. The general disposition of a garden and of its parts ought to be accommodated to the different situations of the ground, to humour its inequalities, to proportion the number and sorts of trees and shrubs to each part, and to shut out from the view of the garden no objects that may become ornamental. But for a more extended view of this subject, see the article GARDENING.
A practical attention to a garden, is by some esteemed a degrading employment. It is true, indeed, that pastoral and agricultural manners, if we may form a judgment from the dignified descriptions of Virgil, are greatly degenerated. The employments of shepherds and husbandmen are now become mean and sordid. The work of the garden is usually left to a peasant. Nor is it unreasonable to assign the labour, which wearies without amusement, to those who are sufficiently amused by the prospect of their wages. But the operations of grafting, of inoculating, of pruning, of transplanting, are curious experiments in natural philosophy; and that they are pleasing as well as curious, those can testify who remember what they felt on seeing their attempts in the amusement of practical gardening attended with success. Among the employments suitable to old age, Cicero has enumerated the superintendence of a garden.
Garden. It requires no great exertion of mind or body; and its satisfactions are of that kind which please without violent agitation. Its beneficial influence on health is an additional reason for an attention to it at an age when infirmities abound.
In almost every description of the seats of the blessed, ideas of a garden seem to have predominated. The word Paradise itself is synonymous with garden. The fields of Elysium, that sweet region of poetry, are adorned with all that imagination can conceive to be delightful. Some of the most pleasing passages of Milton, are those in which he represents the happy pair engaged in cultivating their blissful abode. Poets have always been delighted with the beauties of a garden. Lucan is represented by Juvenal as reposing in his garden. Virgil's Georgics prove him to have been captivated with rural scenes; though, to the surprise of his readers, he has not assigned a book to the subject of a garden. Our Shenstone made it his study; but, with all his taste and fondness for it, he was not happy in it. The captivating scenes which he created at the Leasowes, afforded him, it is said, little pleasure in the absence of spectators. The truth is, he made the embellishment of his grounds, which should have been the amusement of his life, the business of it; and involved himself in such troubles, by the expences it occasioned, as necessarily excluded tranquil enjoyment.
It is the lot of few, in comparison, to possess territories like his, extensive, and sufficiently well adapted to constitute an ornamented farm. Still fewer are capable of supporting the expence of preserving it in good condition. But let not the rich suppose they have appropriated the pleasures of a garden. The possessor of an acre, or a smaller portion, may receive a real pleasure, from observing the progress of vegetation, even in a plantation of culinary plants. A very limited tract, properly attended to, will furnish ample employment for an individual. Nor let it be thought a mean care; for the same hand that raised the cedar, formed the hyssop on the wall. Even the orchard, cultivated solely for advantage, exhibits beauties unequalled in the shrubbery; nor can the greenhouse produce an appearance to exceed the blossom of the apple and the almond.