Gardens around the world
- Topic in Gardening courses
Africa
- See also African keyhole gardens
A very nice garden in a South African township, made by school children. Gardens go in many sorts and it's always nice to pick up ideas from seeing how others did it.
Australia
Some amazing gardens are shown in this video. From 25:32 there's shown a garden in Melbourne, entirely created by a now 99-year old woman who spent some 80 years to do this.
All the visited gardens are amazing, and it's nice to meet the gardeners who created them.
A predominant theme is the relationship between the style of the English immigrants and the native people and flora. Sometimes they blend well together, sometimes it's more a culture clash. The gardens on this continent reflect the history of its people.
Bali
Pura Tamar Ayun is a Hindu Temple garden in Mengwi, Bali.[1]
Many domestic homes in Bali are compounds structured like temple grounds. Many plants are grown to provide for daily offerings to the gods. Other plants are grown for practical uses, such as promoting pregnancy and warding off mosquitoes.
India
In several religions, heaven or paradise is described as a garden. This video shows us several Muslim gardens, built as paradise gardens: The Taj Mahal garden and Akbar's Tomb. Both these gardens were built as an environment for deceased ones.
Hindu gardens are also built as paradises, but they are devoted to pleasure, and water takes a main role.
There are shown several other interesting gardens. I particularly liked Mr. Abraham's spice garden in Kerela in the South of India. In his garden he grows what's needed for food and medicine, fresh cardamom and turmeric root.
Very beautiful are the tea gardens in the south of India, which were once introduced by the English from China.
The last garden is a most amazing rock garden, entirely built secretly by one man out of trash only that he picked on his bicycle each day.
Information with the video: ""Monty sets off on a technicolour tour of India, taking in some of the most opulent and heavenly gardens in human history, including perhaps the most famous architectural garden in the world, the Taj Mahal. As he travels through the spectacular landscapes of tea country, arid plains and urban mayhem, Monty's quest to gain insight into India's own epic cultural journey leads him from the majestic tomb gardens of the Mughal emperors and the pleasure gardens of the Hindu Maharajahs, to the quaintly nostalgic heritage of the British tea planters and a unique rock and sculpture garden little known in the west.
Gardens:
16. Taj Mahal and the Mehtab Bagh, Agra
17. Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra
18. The Monsoon Palace Gardens, Deeg
19. Jal Mahal, Jaipur
20. Hindu Temple Shrine Garden, Jaipur
21. Mr Abraham's Spice Garden, Thekkady, Kerala
22. The Old Railway Garden, Munnar, Kerala
23. The Rock Garden, Chandigarh"
Mediterranean
The Villa d'Este is a villa in Tivoli, near Rome, Italy. It's an Italian Renaissance garden. It was commissioned by a cardinal, in the 16th century. Many fountains in this garden.[2]
Villa Adriana was built for Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century. Also located in Tivoli.[3]
The third garden shown is Elio's Vineyard, in Tivoli, but this time an organic garden. Villa Lante at Bagnaia is a renaissance garden.[4]
The Agdal Gardens (or Aguedal Gardens) are gardens of the Royal Palace in Morocco, built in the 12th century. Ca 400 hectares.[5] Also shown are private or secret gardens of Marrakesh in enclosed courtyards.
The Majorelle Garden in Marrakesh is known for its revolutionary use of (blue) colors.[6]
The Alhambra gardens in Granada, Spain are the oldest known Arabian gardens.[7]
Finally the video shows patios in Cordoba, and the Caruncho Garden in Madrid designed by landscape architect Fernando Caruncho.[8]
Mexico
Did you know that the 2,000-year old gardens of the Aztecs still exist? There are many hundreds of hectares of these gardens in Xochimiko[9], part of what is now Mexico City. In the time of the Aztecs these gardens were floating in a lake but by now they have become islands of very fertile soil. Crops grow in raised beds and are harvested six times a year.[10]
South America
Gardens in South America:
- See a garden in Brazil that shows as a huge abstract painting.
- The rain forest has a soil almost without nutrients.
- Terra preta - I've posted about terra preta before. It's a man-made soil where charcoal binds and keeps nutrients in the soil. In this video is shown a woman who still practices this according to a traditional inherited method.
- Argentina - Trees in Buenos Aires.
- Finally some interesting gardens in Chile.
References
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