GARDENS AND SOCIETY

Gardens, Art and Society

Introduction

Gardens are designed environments shaped by plants, people, culture and history. They can provide food and medicine, create spaces for recreation and contemplation, support scientific study, and express ideas about beauty and nature.

They can also reveal the social circumstances in which they were created. The size of a garden may indicate access to land and labour; its design may reflect contemporary ideas about nature; its ownership may reveal patterns of wealth and authority; and its use may demonstrate changing attitudes towards public space.

Garden history is therefore not simply the study of planting styles. It is the study of the relationship between people, plants, land and society.

1. Gardens as Cultural Landscapes

A garden is a designed environment.

Its character is determined by decisions about:

• planting;
• buildings;
• paths;
• boundaries;
• water;
• landform;
• views;
• materials; and
• maintenance.

These decisions reflect the values of the people and societies that created them.

Different cultures and historical periods have developed contrasting approaches to the relationship between people and nature. Some gardens emphasise geometry and control, while others seek an appearance of informality or naturalness.

The garden therefore provides evidence of changing attitudes towards nature.

A garden can also have several functions simultaneously. A historic garden might produce food, provide medicinal plants, offer a place for religious contemplation and demonstrate the status of its owner.

The term cultural landscape is useful because it recognises that gardens are neither purely natural nor purely architectural. They are the result of continuing interaction between people and the environment.

2. Gardens in Art and Symbolism

Gardens have been represented extensively in painting, drawing, photography and literature.

Artists have used gardens to explore ideas including:

• beauty;
• paradise;
• mortality;
• domestic life;
• social identity;
• religion;
• nature; and
• memory.

The representation of a garden is not necessarily an objective record. Artists choose viewpoints, alter compositions and emphasise particular features.

Consequently, paintings can provide evidence for garden history but should normally be considered alongside plans, maps, photographs, written descriptions and surviving physical features (Historic England, 2026).

Gardens have also acquired symbolic meanings.

The hortus conclusus, or enclosed garden, became an important image within European Christian art, while the Garden of Eden became a powerful representation of paradise, innocence, temptation and loss.

These examples demonstrate that gardens can function at two levels: as physical landscapes and as cultural symbols.

3. Renaissance Gardens and the Formal Tradition

Renaissance garden design was strongly influenced by classical ideas concerning proportion, geometry, symmetry and perspective.

Gardens were increasingly integrated with architecture through:

• terraces;
• formal planting;
• fountains;
• sculpture;
• avenues; and
• carefully framed views.

The garden became an extension of the building.

Its geometry could create a sense of order and deliberate human intervention.

This formal tradition subsequently influenced European palace and estate gardens.

4. Versailles: Landscape and Monarchy

The gardens of Versailles provide an important example of the relationship between landscape design and political authority.

Developed during the reign of Louis XIV, the gardens were strongly associated with André Le Nôtre.

The landscape incorporated:

• formal parterres;
• avenues;
• fountains;
• sculpture;
• canals;
• woodland; and
• long views.

The enormous scale of the gardens required substantial land, labour, engineering and maintenance.

The landscape was therefore part of the wider visual and ceremonial culture of the French monarchy.

Versailles demonstrates how garden design can operate within a political system without the plants themselves having a political meaning. The significance lies in the relationship between landscape, architecture, ownership, resources and royal ceremony.

5. The English Landscape Garden

During the eighteenth century, British garden design developed towards a more naturalistic appearance.

William Kent and Lancelot “Capability” Brown were important figures in this development.

Brown’s landscapes commonly incorporated:

• sweeping lawns;
• groups of trees;
• lakes;
• woodland;
• buildings;
• carefully positioned views; and
• subtle changes in landform.

The apparent naturalness of these landscapes was highly designed.

Trees were planted strategically, lakes were created, landform was modified and views were carefully controlled.

Historic England’s research demonstrates the importance of planting, water, buildings and views in Brown’s landscapes (Historic England, 2017).

The eighteenth-century landscape garden therefore provides an important example of the difference between nature and the appearance of nature.

6. The Ha-ha and the Designed View

The ha-ha is a particularly effective example of eighteenth-century landscape design.

It provided a physical boundary to prevent livestock entering a particular area while maintaining an apparently uninterrupted view.

The feature combined practical land management with visual design.

It demonstrates how garden designers could conceal functional elements in order to preserve the intended appearance of the landscape.

The same principle applied more widely.

Trees, woodland, water and buildings could be positioned to create particular views.

The visitor did not simply see the landscape.

The visitor experienced a sequence of deliberately composed views.

7. Gardens, Urbanisation and Public Space

The Industrial Revolution transformed Britain’s towns and cities.

Rapid urban growth created increasing pressure on housing, sanitation and open space.

The development of public parks provided one response.

Public parks offered:

• recreation;
• exercise;
• social interaction;
• open space;
• contact with vegetation; and
• opportunities for civic activity.

The nineteenth-century parks movement was therefore connected with wider concerns about urban living and public wellbeing (Layton-Jones, 2014).

Birkenhead Park, opened in 1847, became an influential example of a publicly funded park designed for broad public access (Lee, 2024).

The development of public parks changed the social meaning of gardens and designed landscapes.

Green space was no longer exclusively associated with private estates.

8. Allotments and Productive Landscapes

The social history of horticulture also includes productive gardens.

Allotments provide individuals and communities with land for growing vegetables, fruit and flowers.

They can support:

• food production;
• recreation;
• physical activity;
• social interaction;
• horticultural knowledge.

An allotment differs from a private garden because it exists within a wider network of plots and gardeners.

It demonstrates that horticulture can provide social as well as material benefits.

During periods of national crisis, productive gardening can acquire an even wider significance.

During the Second World War, Britain’s Dig for Victory campaign encouraged people to grow food in gardens and allotments, connecting domestic horticulture with national food security.

9. Gardens, Empire and Global Horticulture

Modern horticulture has been shaped by the movement of plants, people and knowledge across the world.

Botanical gardens, nurseries and scientific institutions played important roles in collecting, classifying and cultivating plants.

The movement of plants contributed to:

• botanical science;
• horticultural development;
• plant breeding;
• commercial agriculture;
• ornamental horticulture.

However, this history is also connected with imperialism.

Plants were sometimes transferred through colonial networks and subsequently developed as commercially important crops.

The history of horticulture therefore requires questions about:

• plant origins;
• ownership;
• labour;
• land;
• economic benefit;
• scientific knowledge.

This does not diminish the scientific or horticultural achievements associated with plant collections. Rather, it places those achievements within their historical context.

10. Gardens and Political Expression

A useful historical framework

Type of control	What was controlled?	Example	Consequence
Enclosure	Who could use land	English Enclosure Acts	Common rights converted into defined holdings
Land allotment	Who received land	Dawes Act, USA	Communal tribal land divided into individual parcels
Agricultural regulation	What could be produced	Crop-specific regulations and agricultural tenancy rules	Land use directed towards particular purposes
Allotment tenancy	How a plot must be used	UK Allotments Acts and local rules	Tenants required to cultivate and maintain plots
Planning/zoning	Where food could be grown	US municipal zoning	Certain forms of agriculture restricted in residential areas
Restrictive covenants/HOAs	What residents could plant	US private development covenants	Front gardens, vegetables, livestock etc. may be restricted
Nuisance/public-health law	What could create a nuisance	Local ordinances	Farming or particular plants/animals can be restricted
Colonial/Indigenous land policy	Traditional land systems	Dawes Act and related US legislation	Communal ownership broken apart
Conservation controls	What can be planted or removed	Protected landscapes/species rules	Individual land use restricted for environmental reasons

Gardens can communicate political and social ideas through their ownership, design and use.

Historical examples include royal landscapes associated with monarchy and public parks associated with civic investment.

Modern examples can include:

• community gardens;
• memorial gardens;
• environmental gardens;
• public planting schemes;
• gardens designed around particular cultural identities.

A garden may communicate a political idea without containing an explicit political message.

For example, the decision to convert neglected land into a community garden can raise questions about:

• who controls urban space;
• who has access to land;
• who makes decisions about local environments.

Similarly, a memorial garden can express collective decisions about whose histories and memories are publicly represented.

Political interpretation should therefore be based on evidence concerning the garden’s history, ownership, funding, design and use.

11. Gardens and Environmental Change

Contemporary horticulture has introduced another dimension to the cultural role of gardens.

Gardeners increasingly consider:

• biodiversity;
• climate change;
• drought;
• flooding;
• water conservation;
• soil health;
• pollinator habitat;
• sustainable materials;
• peat-free growing.

A garden can consequently become a demonstration of environmental practice.

Examples include:

Wildlife gardens

Designed to provide food, shelter and habitat for animals and insects.

Rain gardens

Designed to intercept and manage surface water.

Drought-tolerant gardens

Designed to reduce dependence on irrigation.

Productive gardens

Designed to combine food production with environmental and social objectives.

These approaches demonstrate how contemporary garden design continues to respond to changing social priorities.

12. Gardens as Living Art

Garden design shares many principles with visual art:

• colour;
• form;
• texture;
• proportion;
• scale;
• rhythm;
• repetition;
• contrast;
• balance;
• composition.

However, gardens differ from static artworks because they are living systems.

Plants grow.

Trees change shape.

Flowers appear and disappear.

Weather alters the landscape.

Wildlife interacts with vegetation.

Gardeners continually modify the space.

A garden is therefore a form of living art.

Its composition is never completely fixed.

13. Gardens as Historical Evidence

Historic gardens often contain evidence from several periods.

A single landscape may contain:

• ancient trees;
• later planting;
• historic walls;
• modified ponds;
• old paths;
• garden buildings;
• archaeological remains.

The present appearance of a garden is therefore not necessarily an accurate representation of its original design.

Garden historians use multiple sources to reconstruct change, including:

• maps;
• plans;
• paintings;
• photographs;
• estate records;
• plant lists;
• written descriptions;
• archaeological evidence;
• surviving landscape features.

Historic England recommends combining documentary and physical evidence when investigating historic landscapes (Historic England, 2026).

A garden can therefore be studied as a historical document.

14. How to Read a Garden

When analysing a garden, it is useful to consider five questions.

1. Physical

What can be observed?

Consider plants, buildings, paths, boundaries, water and landform.

2. Historical

When was the garden created, and how has it changed?

3. Social

Who created, maintained and used it?

4. Economic

What resources were required to establish and maintain it?

5. Cultural and political

What values, beliefs or ideas does the garden communicate?

These questions provide a framework for analysing both historic and contemporary gardens.

15. Why Garden History Matters to Horticulture

Garden history provides horticulturists with a greater understanding of the landscapes they manage and create.

Historical knowledge can inform:

• restoration;
• conservation;
• planting design;
• heritage horticulture;
• interpretation;
• landscape management;
• plant selection.

It also encourages horticulturists to consider the wider consequences of design decisions.

A garden should not be evaluated only by its appearance.

Its purpose, history, environmental impact, accessibility and cultural significance may be equally important.

Understanding these factors allows horticulture to be considered as both a practical discipline and a cultural practice.

Conclusion

The history of gardens demonstrates the changing relationship between people, plants and land.

Gardens have provided food and medicine, expressed religious beliefs, demonstrated wealth, supported scientific research, provided public recreation and created spaces for communities.

They have also reflected changing ideas about nature.

The formal gardens of the Renaissance emphasised geometry and order. Versailles demonstrated the relationship between landscape and monarchy. The English landscape garden created carefully constructed images of naturalness. Public parks responded to the social conditions of industrial cities. Allotments connected horticulture with food production and community. Contemporary gardens increasingly respond to biodiversity and climate change.

The garden is therefore simultaneously a horticultural space, cultural landscape, social resource and historical record.

To study a garden properly is to study not only its plants but also the people, ideas, resources and circumstances that shaped it.

Key Learning Points

1. Gardens are cultural landscapes created through interaction between people and the environment.
2. Garden design reflects changing attitudes towards nature.
3. Gardens have played important roles in art and cultural symbolism.
4. Renaissance gardens developed highly ordered relationships between architecture and landscape.
5. Versailles demonstrates the relationship between garden design, resources and monarchy.
6. The English landscape garden created deliberately naturalistic landscapes.
7. Public parks developed partly in response to urbanisation and industrialisation.
8. Allotments demonstrate the productive and social functions of horticulture.
9. Plant movement and botanical collecting are connected with global and imperial histories.
10. Gardens can communicate social, environmental and political ideas.
11. Gardens are living artworks that change over time.
12. Historic gardens should be interpreted using multiple forms of evidence.
13. Garden history provides important context for contemporary horticultural practice.

Further Study

Select a historic garden, public park, allotment site or contemporary designed landscape.

Investigate:

• its date of creation;
• its designer;
• its original purpose;
• its ownership;
• its users;
• its important plants and features;
• historical changes;
• its current function;
• its cultural significance.

Use at least three different types of evidence, such as a historic map, photograph, painting, written source or physical observation.

Produce an illustrated report answering:

“What does this garden reveal about the society and period in which it was created?”

References

Historic England (2017) Place-making: The art of Capability Brown. London: Historic England.

Historic England (2019) The English Landscape Garden: A survey. Swindon: Historic England.

Historic England (2026) Garden History: Methods to understand the history of gardens and park landscapes. Swindon: Historic England.

Historic England (2026) Designed Landscapes. Swindon: Historic England.

Layton-Jones, K. (2014) National Review of Research Priorities for Urban Parks, Designed Landscapes and Open Spaces. Research Report 4/2014. Swindon: Historic England.

Layton-Jones, K. (2016) History of Public Park Funding and Management (1820–2010). Research Report 20/2016. Swindon: Historic England.

Lee, R. (2024) Birkenhead Park: The People’s Garden and an English Masterpiece. Swindon: Historic England.

Rutherford, S. and Evans, C. (2018) Capability Brown’s Plans: A Reference Catalogue for Researchers. Research Report 5/2018. Swindon: Historic England.

Rutherford, S. and Evans, C. (2019) Capability Brown’s Drawings: A Reference Catalogue of Drawings by Brown or his Office. Research Report 64/2019. Swindon: Historic England.