In landscape gardening an overall aesthetic effect is sought,
usually to enhance dwellings, public buildings, and monuments
and to integrate and beautify parks, playgrounds, and fairgrounds.
Formal landscaping involves artificial modifications of the terrain
and emphasizes balanced plantings and geometrical design; the
naturalistic style incorporates plantings with the natural scenery.
Ornamental gardening and landscape gardening are ancient arts.
The Egyptians built formal walled gardens, and the Mesopotamians
constructed private parks and terraced gardens—usually on
artificial mounds or supported by columns, as the Hanging Gardens
of Babylon. The Persians were especially skilled in using water
for decorative effects; the Moors carried Middle Eastern styles
to Spain. In the East the planting of sacred groves was spread
by the Buddhists from India to China and set a style there for
naturalistic gardens, in which the beauty of the natural scenery
was accentuated by distributing plants so as to allow them free
growth and set off their colors and fragrances to best advantage.
The Japanese adopted this principle and elaborated it into a distinct
style of highly disciplined arrangements of plants and their settings
with the object of achieving subtle beauty based on economy and
simplicity. The Japanese art of bonsai gave rise to the unique
miniature gardens and dish gardens. |
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