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
Garden. 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 infalubrity. 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 garden; 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 building; 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 flagrating 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 trifling.
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 laid. 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.
Hanging Gardens. In antiquity, gardens raised on arches by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, in order to gratify his wife Amytis, daughter of Assyges king of Media. Quintus Curtius makes them equal in height to the walls of the city, viz. 50 feet. They contained a square of 400 feet on every side, and were carried up into the air in several terraces laid above one another, and the ascent from terrace to terrace was by stairs 10 feet wide. The arches sustaining the whole pile were raised above one another, and it was strengthened by a wall, surrounding it on every side, of 22 feet in thickness. The floors of each of the terraces were laid in the following manner; on the top of the arches were first laid large flat stones 16 feet long and 4 broad, and over them was a layer of reeds
mixed with a great quantity of bitumen, over which were two rows of bricks closely cemented together by plaster, and over all were laid thick sheets of lead; and lastly, upon the lead was laid the mould of the garden. The mould or earth was of such a depth as to admit the largest trees to take root and grow; and it was covered with various kinds of trees, plants, and flowers. In the upper terrace there was an aqueduct or engine, whereby water was drawn up out of the river for watering the whole garden.
Floating Gardens. We are informed by the abbé Clavigero in his History of Mexico, that when the Mexicans were brought under subjection to the Colhuah and Tepanecan nations, and confined to the miserable little islands in the lake of Mexico, they ceased for some years to cultivate the land, because they had none, until necessity and industry together taught them to form moveable fields and gardens, which floated on the waters of the lake. The method which they pursued to make these, and which they still practice, is extremely simple. They plait and twist willows and roots of marsh plants or other materials together, which are light, but capable of supporting the earth of the garden firmly united. Upon this foundation they lay the light bushes which float on the lake; and over all, the mud and dirt which they draw up from the bottom of the same lake. Their regular figure is quadrangular; their length and breadth various: but generally they are about eight perches long, and not more than three in breadth, and have less than a foot of elevation above the surface of the water. These were the first fields which the Mexicans owned after the foundation of Mexico; there they first cultivated the maize, great pepper, and other plants necessary for their support. In progress of time, as those fields grew numerous from the industry of the people, there were among them gardens of flowers and odoriferous plants, which were employed in the worship of their gods, and served for the recreation of the nobles. At present they cultivate flowers and every sort of garden herbs upon them. Every day of the year, at sunrise, innumerable vessels loaded with various kinds of flowers and herbs, which are cultivated in those gardens, are seen arriving by the canals, at the great market place of that capital. All plants thrive there surprisingly; the mud of the lake is an extremely fertile soil, and requires no water from the clouds. In the largest gardens there is commonly a little tree, and even a little hut to shelter the cultivator and defend him from rain or the sun. When the owner of a garden, or the Chinampa as he is usually called, wishes to change his situation, to remove from a disagreeable neighbour, or to come nearer to his own family, he gets into his little vessel, and by his own strength alone, if the garden is small, or with the assistance of others if it is large, he tows it after him, and conducts it wherever he pleases with the little tree and hut upon it. That part of the lake where those floating gardens are, is a place of infinite recreation, where the senses receive the highest possible gratification.