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| April 2010 |
| Billie Silvey |
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| The Poetry Of Gardens |
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| Last year, the Culver Palms Church of Christ held a rummage sale in its parking lot. We cleaned out our houses and brought unused items to raise money for our benevolence fund. The Recession was just beginning, and our resources were strained. In just one day, we raised the money we needed to replenish the fund, sent a shipment of summer clothes to Uganda, and donated a small truckload of leftovers to the Salvation Army.
It was a chance to meet our neighbors and work together sorting, displaying and selling the items. It was also a chance to pick up things we could use. I bought some colored T-shirts, some children’s videos, and some books that just looked interesting. At those prices, you could afford to try things out. One of the books I purchased that day was called The Poetics of Gardens. Written by Charles W. Moore, William J. Mitchell and William Turnbull, Jr., it features photos, diagrams and drawings of gardens of various styles all over the world. Published in 1988 by MIT Press, it shows how the elements of a garden—water, trees, flowers, rocks, sunlight and shadow—are balanced and contrasted to create spaces of beauty and peace. Natural landscapes, the authors point out, may be beautiful in themselves, but until the elements have been selected and organized, they do not become a garden. There are basically two types of gardens: the first is the formal garden where each element is balanced with another, where the garden is divided (often by hedges or paths) into geometric forms with a taller element in the middle echoing the same form opposite. French gardens are examples of this type, and they are based on the prototypical walled Persian Paradise garden. |
| The second type is the informal garden, where the elements may be just as carefully chosen, but are arranged asymmetrically and selected to mimic nature itself. Japanese and English gardens are examples of this type, based on the prototypical Chinese gardens. Paths are curved and vistas discovered as you walk through the miniature landscape.
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| Whether stark or lush, each type of garden has a beauty all its own. Here are seven more specific styles of gardens: |
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| 1) Rose Gardens. Rose gardens are generally of an English Victorian style, with plots of roses, trellises or arbors for vining roses, and Greek or Gothic statues, paths and benches for enjoying the view.
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| 2) Rock Gardens. Rock gardens feature various sizes and types of stones with plants growing among, between and over them. Rock gardens can appear more natural than other, more formally arranged gardens. |
| 3) French Gardens. French gardens are among the more formal gardens, with geometric layouts and a perfect balance of elements. Many French gardens have hedge mazes and topiaries, plants trimmed into the shapes of animals or forms never found in nature. |
| 4) Japanese Gardens. Japanese gardens feature rocks, water, lanterns, bridges or stepping stones. They may include a small structure, like a teahouse, with views of the rest of the garden. |
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| 5) Desert Gardens. Desert gardens include various cacti and other plants native to dry environments around the world. |
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| 6) Zen Gardens. Zen gardens incorporate raked sand and stones and are places for peace and meditation. |
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| 7) Tropical Gardens. Tropical gardens include water and vining, brightly-colored jungle-type plants. |