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.

Bali

Pura Tamar Ayun is a Hindu Temple garden in Mengwi, Bali.

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.

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. Villa Adriana was built for Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century. Also located in Tivoli. The third garden shown is Elio's Vineyard, in Tivoli, but this time an organic garden. Villa Lante at Bagnaia is a renaissance garden. The Agdal Gardens (or Aguedal Gardens) are gardens of the Royal Palace in Morocco, built in the 12th century. Ca 400 hectares. 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. The Alhambra gardens in Granada, Spain are the oldest known Arabian gardens. Finally the video shows patios in Cordoba, and the Caruncho Garden in Madrid designed by landscape architect Fernando Caruncho.

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, 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.

Luis Barragan was a Mexican modernist architect who also designed gardens. Look at three of his garden creations where you mainly see tops of trees, some bushes and lawns, and for the rest brightly colored high walls. He made creatively use of light to make serene environments.

This third video about gardens in Mexico leads us into the world of cacti. They can create amazing landscapes. Monty Don visits what's said to be the biggest tree in the world and is showing a modern botanical garden in Oaxaca.

See an exotic garden in the middle of the Mexican jungle. The place is Las Pozas, Xilitla, Northern Mexico. A surrealistic garden was created here by Edward James, a multimillionaire who spent much money on building ghostly concrete structures that seem to grow like the jungle does. The atmosphere is unworldly and fantastic. Even today, 50 employees are needed to maintain the garden.