What is a Garden? (1)

Posted on January 12, 2017 by johnvic8

In my ebook Guess What’s in my Garden! I included a chapter that tries to answer the question: What is a Garden? Please understand that I am not a vegetable gardener. Rather, my gardens have been created around trees, shrubs, perennials, vines and the occasional annual. Depending on ones perspective, different answers present themselves.

Here is one perspective from the article.

“A garden is an outdoor art gallery. Every bed, every border, every pot is a natural painting, combining space, form, texture, and color, a reflection of our creativity. It is open or enclosed, formal or informal, wild or contained, native or exotic, defined or haphazard, themed or eclectic. It is a living expression of our unique personalities and taste.”

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Heirloom peonies and siberian iris

I plan to make this a regular Thursday offering for a few weeks to share other perspectives from that chapter. I would welcome your thoughts.

About johnvic8

John Viccellio retired after 24 years in the U. S. Navy and began to dig into gardening when he could finally land in one place. He completed the Master Gardener course in 1992 and has since designed and constructed two of his own gardens. He wrote a monthly garden column for ten years and was a regular contributor to Carolina Gardener magazine. John published his first book, Guess What's in My Garden!, in 2014. He lives in a retirement community in Matthews, NC.
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8 Responses to What is a Garden? (1)

  1. colonialist says:
    January 12, 2017 at 3:54 pm

    I like your definition, which does not limit the garden to selections of plants. Indeed (although not my fancy) it is possible to create a striking garden without any growing things whatsoever.

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  2. Christina says:
    January 13, 2017 at 2:40 am

    I attended a symposium of Spanish and Italian garden designers who were dealing with historic gardens and they posed the same question. The phase we came up with is “A garden is an outside space designed for the enjoyment of its owner (patron) and is invited guests”. This works for any size garden and for any level of society so I like it a lot. Some gardeners aren’t artists and their choices aren’t artistic but their space would still be a garden.

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  3. johnvic8 says:
    January 13, 2017 at 9:49 am

    Thanks for sharing, Christina. In a sense, your phrase can be boiled down to “It’s what I want and I’ll call it a garden.” 🙂

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  4. anne leueen says:
    January 14, 2017 at 12:56 pm

    I look forward to more on the garden. I used to be an avid gardener when I lived in England but on moving to Canada I found the climate and small children a challenge. Now the children are grown but the climate remains more or less the same. And now horses have taken up the passion in my life. So I will enjoy a “virtual” garden experience with you.

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