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.

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

Interesting Renaissance and Muslim gardens in Italy, Morocco and Spain.
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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_d%27Este

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.