History of Gardening

Question 1

What are the two kinds of gardens?

Answer 1

1. Vegetable gardens (functional)

2. Pleasure gardens (small private, or large public)

Question 2

What were the 3 main types of gardens in Egypt?

Answer 2

1. Temple gardens along the Nile
2. Villa gardens of the wealthy and pharaohs
3. Small middle class gardens

Question 3

What did the ponds look like in Egyptian villa gardens?

Answer 3

Square or T-shaped with fish in them

Question 4

What plants could you find in Egyptian villa gardens?

Answer 4

Vines (grapes), dates, palms, figs and corn flowers

Question 5

Did the poor have pleasure gardens in Egypt?

Answer 5

No :(

Question 6

What is the most famous gardens in Assyria and Persia?

Answer 6

Hanging gardens of Babylon

Question 7

Who built the Hanging gardens of Babylon and for who?

Answer 7

King Nebuchannezzar for his wife… lucky lady

Or by Prince Cyrus for his lover (also lucky)

Question 8

What is the Assyrian word for garden?

Answer 8

Pardes

-English translates to Paradise

Question 9

What makes the Hanging gardens of Babylon special?

Answer 9

Four garden terraces each 75ft high and an amphitheatre

Question 10

How did Assyrian gardens celebrate military victories?

Answer 10

Planted parks with trees

Question 11

What did Persian gardens look like?

Answer 11

Square ponds with exactly four rivulets flowing from them, represented the 4 major rivers on earth (that they knew of)

Question 12

Where did Greeks get their garden style from?

Answer 12

Persia

Question 13

Who did Roman gardens copy?

Answer 13

Copied the Greeks but made them better

Question 14

What did the Romans innovate for their gardens?

Answer 14

Hunting parks, lawns, topiary and first theme parks

Question 15

What is Emperor Hadrians Tivoli Gardens?

Answer 15

First theme park outside of Rome with replicas of famous buildings, swimming baths, sandy beaches, herb gardens and Roman gardens

Question 16

What plants could be found in Roman gardens?

Answer 16

Roses, cypresses, grapevines, figs and cherries (+sometimes herb gardens)

Question 17

What were Spanish gardens like?

Answer 17

Persian gardens and were very sensual

Question 18

What made Spanish gardens so sensual?

Answer 18

Orange blossoms and scented night flowering plants

Question 19

What carried on Roman herb garden traditions?

Answer 19

Monasteries in France and Italy (became very geometric and elaborate)

Question 20

What did Pliny say about gardening?

Answer 20

“A house should be built on a slope with fine views” how vague

Question 21

What did renaissance landscape designers introduce?

Answer 21

Mounds, straight lines of sight, statuary, joke fountains and mazes (Hampton court)

Question 22

Where did the hedge maze originate from?

Answer 22

Theseus and the Minotaur

Turf mazes

Question 23

How did joke fountains work?

Answer 23

Metal trees that would shower people when they admired them! haha it’s a weeping willow

Question 24

Where does most English garden terminology originate from?

Answer 24

Military terms

Question 25

What were summer houses (gazebos) originally built for?

Answer 25

To be lookouts at the edge of the property

Question 26

What is a ‘ha-ha’?

Answer 26

A sunken fence

Question 27

Where were two places that used the ‘ha-ha’ effectively?

Answer 27

Rousham and Blenheim

Question 28

What is the ideal style of gardens now?

Answer 28

Natural look - imitate and improve nature

Question 29

Who started the idea of the wild garden?

Answer 29

William Robinson (1909)