As mankind evolved, and our need for perpetual wandering ceased, we began rooting ourselves to the land. As civilization progressed, so too did our cultivation of the ground. But more intriguing to me than agriculture—as growing food was an obvious necessity—was our desire to control nature solely for the purpose of creating something beautiful.
villa Taranto in Italy
Bamboo Gardens in Kyoto, Japan
Today a garden encompasses anything from a few sparse but strategically planted pansies or a small patch of herbs, to the gardens of Versailles. In the most formal of gardens, the work of these landscape architects can surely be considered forms of high art, nature itself their primary medium.
Many of these gardens are open to the public. These astonishing botanical spaces provide a certain kind of introspection and appreciation for man’s intersection with nature; a welcomed respite from our lives spent checking emails behind concrete walls.
the topiary garden at Levens Hall
a grand stairwell is covered in verdant plant life
undulating steel comprises the frame for this captivating vertical garden
Scotland’s famed ‘Garden of Cosmic Introspection’ by landscape architect and theorist Charles Jencks
Keukenhof Gardens – Netherlands
Wisteria tunnel at Kawachi gardens
“No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden.” – Hugh Johnson