there have been two central traditions
in European gardening each one
associated with a great european nation
the first originated in 17th century
France and became known as the shudder a
la francaise
or formal French garden the most sublime
example of this school of gardening is
to be found in the Chateau of vulovic
aunt which is about 50 kilometers
southeast of Paris it was laid out in
the late 1650s by Andre Leonora
the most important figure in the history
of the French garden and the son of the
gardener of louis xiii the idea was to
arrange everything around symmetry
flattening the existing natural
landscape so as to create perfect
arrangements of borders flowerbeds and
reflecting pools a grand perspective a
thousand five hundred meters long
extended from the foot of the Chateau to
the endpoint a statue of hercules the
alleyways were decorated at regular
intervals by statues basins fountains
and carefully sculpted topiaries it was
in an extremely logical precise
unyielding way perfect another
masterpiece of french gardening was then
constructed at Versailles also by aunt
Eleanor here too
there was astonishing symmetry and a
will to bend the unruliness of nature to
the designs of man the french gardening
tradition achieved enormous popularity
and was widely copied in far more modest
homes across europe for a century at
least but the dominance eventually gave
way to a new theory of gardening that
developed in England in the 18th century
and was known as the Giada a long layers
or English garden the central figure in
this tradition was capability Brown a
gardener of genius responsible for a
hundred and seventy gardens up and down
the United Kingdom including Petworth in
West Sussex Chatsworth and Derbyshire
Burwood in Wiltshire and Blenheim Palace
in Oxfordshire the Shahadah along layers
couldn’t have been more different from
the
a la francaise in the english tradition
everything was about working with rather
than flattening natural features the
wildness of nature wasn’t the enemy it
was the starting point which the skilled
English gardener would enhance and work
with a good English garden relished the
raw impulses of nature it was about
accommodating and delighting in nature
even though this was nature that was
tampered with in order to get it to look
just that bit more natural the English
garden usually included a lake sweeps of
gently rolling lawns and groves of trees
the English tradition reigned supreme
for a century at least these are two
historical traditions of gardening but
they are also along the way two modes of
being the French style is about a
confident rationalism and willpower this
is how we might feel when we want to
change the world through thought and
planning the English tradition is about
accommodating ourselves to what already
exists bending with what is they’re
trying to make them most of what we’ve
been given and to see its beauty and its
charm it looks like a battle but ideally
we need the two attitudes the French and
the English in our lives in order to
call upon them in diverse situations
each of us is probably a bit biased
towards one or the other and could
benefit from seeking out the distinctive
wisdom of either the French or the
English style the opposition of the to
gardening styles is stark but in truth
we need integration da da da la fois
says and the Rada along Clare’s rational
willpower and acceptance of nature there
are in fact a few places that do show
the two integrated like sissing hers
garden in Kent which borrows from both
traditions this shows us the model of
how an ideal individual might be someone
with a French and an English garden side
to their nature ready to call upon
either faculty depending on the occasion
that would be interesting gardening and why psychology
in European gardening each one
associated with a great european nation
the first originated in 17th century
France and became known as the shudder a
la francaise
or formal French garden the most sublime
example of this school of gardening is
to be found in the Chateau of vulovic
aunt which is about 50 kilometers
southeast of Paris it was laid out in
the late 1650s by Andre Leonora
the most important figure in the history
of the French garden and the son of the
gardener of louis xiii the idea was to
arrange everything around symmetry
flattening the existing natural
landscape so as to create perfect
arrangements of borders flowerbeds and
reflecting pools a grand perspective a
thousand five hundred meters long
extended from the foot of the Chateau to
the endpoint a statue of hercules the
alleyways were decorated at regular
intervals by statues basins fountains
and carefully sculpted topiaries it was
in an extremely logical precise
unyielding way perfect another
masterpiece of french gardening was then
constructed at Versailles also by aunt
Eleanor here too
there was astonishing symmetry and a
will to bend the unruliness of nature to
the designs of man the french gardening
tradition achieved enormous popularity
and was widely copied in far more modest
homes across europe for a century at
least but the dominance eventually gave
way to a new theory of gardening that
developed in England in the 18th century
and was known as the Giada a long layers
or English garden the central figure in
this tradition was capability Brown a
gardener of genius responsible for a
hundred and seventy gardens up and down
the United Kingdom including Petworth in
West Sussex Chatsworth and Derbyshire
Burwood in Wiltshire and Blenheim Palace
in Oxfordshire the Shahadah along layers
couldn’t have been more different from
the
a la francaise in the english tradition
everything was about working with rather
than flattening natural features the
wildness of nature wasn’t the enemy it
was the starting point which the skilled
English gardener would enhance and work
with a good English garden relished the
raw impulses of nature it was about
accommodating and delighting in nature
even though this was nature that was
tampered with in order to get it to look
just that bit more natural the English
garden usually included a lake sweeps of
gently rolling lawns and groves of trees
the English tradition reigned supreme
for a century at least these are two
historical traditions of gardening but
they are also along the way two modes of
being the French style is about a
confident rationalism and willpower this
is how we might feel when we want to
change the world through thought and
planning the English tradition is about
accommodating ourselves to what already
exists bending with what is they’re
trying to make them most of what we’ve
been given and to see its beauty and its
charm it looks like a battle but ideally
we need the two attitudes the French and
the English in our lives in order to
call upon them in diverse situations
each of us is probably a bit biased
towards one or the other and could
benefit from seeking out the distinctive
wisdom of either the French or the
English style the opposition of the to
gardening styles is stark but in truth
we need integration da da da la fois
says and the Rada along Clare’s rational
willpower and acceptance of nature there
are in fact a few places that do show
the two integrated like sissing hers
garden in Kent which borrows from both
traditions this shows us the model of
how an ideal individual might be someone
with a French and an English garden side
to their nature ready to call upon
either faculty depending on the occasion
that would be interesting gardening and why psychology
Please follow and like us: