The History of Gardens

  Medieval Gardens  Medieval gardening was the chief method of providing food for households, but also encompassed orchards, cemeteries and pleasure gardens. Knowledge of Medieval gardens in the Middle Ages comes through archaeology, surviving textual documentation, and surviving artworks such as paintings, tapestry and illumination. The early Middle Ages brings a snapshot of the European gardening situation at the time of Charlemagne with the survival of three important documentations, being the Capitulare of Charlemagne, Walafrid Strabo's poem Hortulus, and the Plan of St Gall which depicts three garden areas and lists what was grown. Monasteries and Manor Houses of the medieval period Monastic gardens provided medicine and food for the monks and for the local community. Herbs were cultivated in the ‘physic garden’ composed of well-ordered rectangular beds, while orchards, fishponds and dovecotes ensured there would be food for all. The secluded garden, or  ‘Hortus Conclusus’, was associated with the Virgin Mary in the monastery garden but in royal palaces and manor houses it represented a garden of earthly delights. Hortus conclusus is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". "The word 'garden' is at root the same as the word 'yard'. Enclosed within wattle fences, raised beds were filled with scented flowers and herbs. Trellis arbours ensured privacy and provided shade while the sound of fountains and bird song filled the air. The garden plan of Canterbury Cathedral in about 1160 showed a herbarium in an infirmary cloister. Christianity had an important role to play and most gardens were part of monasteries. The monastery cloister would provide open, green space surrounded by covered walks, usually with a well or fountain at the centre. Monks would use them for walking, reading and as places of quiet contemplation. (Below, The Cloisters, MET Museum) Plants were grown for medicinal and culinary uses more than ornamental purposes. Fruit trees were commonly grown outside of the garden in orchards. Other trees were grown as part of forests or woodland. Many of the flowers used in monasteries had religious symbolism. For example, violas represented the humility of the Virgin Mary, while carnations, which were introduced from Spain the in 1470s, represented the incarnation. White roses were associated with the Virgin Mary; red ones were linked with the blood of Christ or the Christian martyrs. Several native roses were available in medieval times, including Rosa gallica var. officinalis (the Apothecary's rose) and Rosa alba (the white rose of York). Many of these flowers would be grown to decorate the altar. Features in a medieval garden included flowery meads, turf seats and seated arbours. Turf benches were among the most distinctive features of medieval gardens, and are depicted in many paintings and tapestries. Such benches may be rectangular, circular, L-shaped, or U-shaped; the U-shaped type is known as an exedra. Regardless of their shape, the benches were usually constructed with low-walled frames made out of brick, wood, stone, or wattle (woven willow). The frames were then filled with soil and the surfaces were topped with turf. Turf seats were placed in the middle of the garden or against one of its walls, and were sometimes incorporated into the enclosure. Arbors or trellises were sometimes built into the seat to provide shade and shelter, while circular benches were constructed around single trees. Rarely have entire gardens survived from this period but individual elements, such as dovecotes and fishponds have withstood the test of time and can be found in Medieval gardens. Medieval thatched cottage Alfriston Clergy House, at East Sussex. Medieval Gardens and the Arts Medieval gardens were often written about in literature, drawn in architecture, or painted in art. One example of this is Chaucer’s Canterbury tales, here the garden plays a dominant role in the stories love triangle. Chaucer also describes ‘Madder Red’: No mader, welde, or wood no litestre
Ne knew; the flees was of his former hewe;
Ne flesh ne wiste offence of egge or spere.
No coyn ne knew man which was fals or trewe,
No ship yet karf the wawes grene and blewe,
No marchaunt yit ne fette outlandish ware. —Geoffrey Chaucer, The Former Age, ll. 17–22 (Dean Court, Dorset)