October 11, 2005
Nature in Paradise
If I have my etymology right, the place we call paradise--a biblical resting place or epitomy of all that is beautiful and peaceful--is from the Greek word for park or pleasure ground which the Greeks borrowed from the Persians' pairidaeza or an enclosure with walls. The question is, how did we get from paradise being a nice spot behind a wall (with a secure gate no doubt) to it being a pristine natural landscape untouched by human endeavor? Well, to the appearance of a natural landscape significantly rearranged by garden designers with the intention of merely improving nature. Ok. Nature 9.2.1 (without the bugs).
The fact is, our very concept of nature as a benevolent entity worthy of our protection owes much to the history of English gardens - and their designers. What in the middle ages had been geometrical arrangements of mostly useful plants with some pretty things thrown in gradually became a canvas for the estate designers of the rich and powerful bent on showing off. So ensued the picturesque and romantic pleasure gardens of the 18th and 19th century. Now we just had to have topiary, grottos, picturesque sheep (and attendant shepherdesses), hahas, mounts, fake ruins, artificial lakes, mowed lawns, gravel paths, glass houses, large urns, rock piles, standard roses, and perennial flower borders.This is pretty much the origin of latter day front lawns, ceramic gnomes, hybrid tea rose bushes, lily ponds, square hedges, round camellia bushes, ivy balls, and Cottage Gardens.
It was also English garden designers that invented the garden as a natural landscape or "park" where trees and shrubbery were artfully arranged to resemble something like nature but not. Nature itself became the decorative theme and the trees and flowers the garden's art objects. It did not take very long for the next phase, botanical collecting and display, to infect a new generation of gardeners with insatiable appetites for new and exotic plants from the soon-to-be discovered corners of the globe.
Walking the gardens of Kew brings this odd history to life: the meandering paths, clipped hedges, massive flower beds, glass houses crammed with exotic wonders, ponds, freshets, alpine crevices, towers, urns, bowers, and behemoth tree specimens all carefully displayed as natural elements of an entirely invented landscape. The strange thing is, I am not sure I will ever see Nature quite the same.
