Garden historian Richard Aitken said: "Gardens have the power to save humanity." If you want to assess the adaptability of a society, take a look at its garden.

In the UK, there are only three things that cause traffic jams: the Queen Travels, the football team triumphs, and the Chelsea Flower Show open to the public. It shows the British love for gardening. The British attach great importance to garden design, and for those who are not social, the courtyard occupies an extremely important place in home life. They prefer a small living space, and the garden must not be small, and there are not a few private gardens that have existed for two or three hundred years.

The average lifetime expenditure of an Englishman on gardening is £3,<>, and these real money plants, gardens, gardening books, outdoor furniture and accessories enrich the second largest hobby of the British people (the first is sports). Even in London, where land is at a premium, the British do not forget to seriously decorate the balcony with plants. Behind those magnificent mansions, there are private gardens surrounded by fences and iron doors with the word "Private".

In Europe,

If you can't afford a house with a garden,

You can also rent a garden.

Many large cities in Germany are popular for renting gardens. In the city centre, where housing prices are high, having a private garden is a luxury. People who live in buildings in the city and do not have their own gardens often choose to rent a small garden on the outskirts of the city, plant some flowers or fruits and vegetables, experience the fun of farming, and taste the joy of harvest.

These suburban gardens are usually managed by a dedicated person, but on weekends, people come to the countryside as a family to plant flowers and plants in their small gardens, or invite friends and family to barbecue and party. The small garden is transformed from abandoned land around the city, which not only optimizes the urban climate, but also promotes communication among residents and allows children to contact nature. This is a very typical German form of leisure, originally called Armen Garten, now called Klein Garten in some places, and Schreber Garten.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the rapid development of industry led to the establishment of many factories in Europe, and a large number of people moved from towns to cities. Poverty is a serious problem due to low incomes. In order to alleviate poverty and maintain people's food and clothing, the government came up with the idea of setting aside an area to set up small vegetable gardens and distribute them to the poor, which is the origin of the name "poor people's garden".

According to data released by the Federation of German Garden Friends (BDG) in 2017, around 500 million people in Germany (out of a total population of more than 8200 million) rent around 100 million small gardens (not counting the large public green spaces outside the balconies of each apartment building). The highest density is found in Neubrandenburg, where on average one in five households rents a small garden. Berlin, the largest city, has 6,7 small gardens, the largest in the country. Most of these gardens are organized and managed by the Federation of German Garden Friends.

Today's "garden for the poor" is no longer a way for the poor to survive, but a way to enjoy life. Although the garden is small, the Germans take care of it unambiguously, grow vegetables and raise them carefully, and even set up a special law to regulate the rental and use of the garden. Today's city dwellers often take their families to their small garden on weekends to relax, or hold a birthday party for their children, a small garden, like an oasis in the city.

The name Schreibel Garden comes from a doctor from Leipzig: Moritz Schreibel. In order to promote the healthy growth of children, the doctor proposed to set up activity venues in the city to ensure that children can play outdoor sports. This idea was further developed after his death to provide a land for poor families with many children in the city to cultivate. Although Dr. Schreibel himself was not the creator of such gardens, they are still named after him in his honor.

Nowadays, more and more countries in Europe have begun to popularize this kind of poor people's garden, and more and more new immigrants have begun to join the ranks of small garden tenants. Renting a garden and growing some fruits and vegetables from your hometown can not only integrate into the local lifestyle, but also retain the memory of your hometown.

The garden is deliberately created to create a "casual" feeling,

is the hardest.

Hegel said: "The most thorough application of architectural principles to garden art is the French garden, which as usual approaches tall palaces, with trees planted in regular rows forming boulevards, neatly manicured, and walls made of neatly trimmed fences." "The earliest Europeans believed that gardens must be regularly combined and must be uniform to reflect the beauty of the garden." We should treat the garden like a mathematical formula. ”

The Versailles Gardens in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, are a classic European garden. The huge building is the commander of the garden, always standing at the beginning of the central axis that is very prominent in the garden. The entire garden is based on this building and forms the main axis. On the main axis of the garden, several secondary axes protrude, and wide boulevards, flower beds, canals, pools, fountains, sculptures, etc. are arranged. Open straight roads in the garden, forming small squares at the crossroads of the roads, dotted pools, fountains, sculptures or small buildings. The entire layout reflects a strict geometric pattern.

Every grass and tree in the garden is strictly cut into cones, spheres and cylinders, and lawns and flower beds are planned into diamonds, rectangles and circles. In short, meticulously cut according to geometric figures, and never allow natural growth of shapes. The surface of the water is confined to neat stone pools, which are often circular, square, rectangular or oval, and the pools are always arranged with figure sculptures and fountains. The pursuit of overall symmetry is at a glance.

German garden design is full of rationalism. The German character seems to have the temperament of a large forest: deep, introverted, steady and quiet. Goethe once said: Germans are very rational in terms of the individual, but the whole is often lost. Rationalism, speculation, rigor and order have become an important part of the German national spirit. From the Bauhaus school in the early 20th century to the later modernist movement, the power of German rationalism can be seen.

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Dumfries, southern Scotland, was built in 1990 by renowned architectural critic Charles Jencks. This garden is a classic combination of rationalism and modernism. As an important contemporary art theorist, writer and garden designer, Charles Jenks made full use of the natural topography of the garden, trimming the lawn into black holes, fractals and other patterns, showing the beauty of logic and mathematics.

German gardens are comprehensive and rational, rationally analyzed according to various needs and functions, designed in logical order, and the landscape is simple, reflecting clear concepts and thinking. The concise contrast of lines, shapes, and volumes, according to the established principles, cannot produce a warm and free scene, often showing strict logic and clear concepts. But this rationality reveals a simple nature, from the Black Forest people's love of nature, and there are more artificial traces expressed in the garden.

Later, the natural style of the oriental garden spread to Europe, and Europeans seemed to understand the "Zen" of the oriental garden. Many European royal families have begun to imitate the casual garden style of the East. However, this deliberate attempt to create a casual-looking feeling in the garden is the hardest. In Europe, the most famous private garden is Monet's. Monet's garden is located in the village of Poigny outside Paris and was built in the 1890s. Monet often gave daily instructions to the gardener in the garden, and what plants were planted in each corner were precisely designed and laid out by him. In 1893, he began planting Japanese flowers and plants on a large scale, including the most famous water lily pond. This seemingly random garden actually takes a lot of manpower to deliberately create a "casual" feeling. At its peak, Monet's Garden had a total of 7 gardeners.

From private gardens to public gardens,

The natural consciousness of urban people is awakening.

In the middle of the 18th century, the new art of gardening matured, dominating the natural wind. Gardens throughout England have changed their appearance, geometric patterns are gone, straight boulevards, green carvings, patterned altars, platforms and neatly built ponds are no more. The garden is like a natural pasture, dominated by meadows, old trees growing in natural form, and winding rivers and ponds. Other European countries have followed suit.

Cities are growing too fast today, especially in central business districts transformed from increasingly tall steel buildings. Suburban gardens are on the rise, and "people demand a city that has been designed, scientifically planned, where life will be a pleasure". The new garden suburb designed by Australian urban planning pioneer John F. Hennessy and architect John Sulman focuses on gardens. John Hennessy said, "Gardens are like jewels, enriching the environment of a family. ”

As a new immigrant country, Australia has always been considered a classless society, but the existence of class can still be seen in the gardens of different families. British colonization brought European horticulture to Australia. In the beginning, they brought precious plant varieties popular in Europe to Australia. Because Australia's climate is very different from Europe's, many flower varieties require a lot of money and effort to maintain to survive. As a result, families with delicate plants in their gardens tend to be more arrogant.

Later, people gradually found that shrubs that are not high-grade in the eyes of the British grow very vigorously in Australia, so why not try to take care of Australia's native plants, rather than go against the laws of nature? Australian botanist Mervyn Millet has advocated that Australian horticulture should be developed into native plants, saying: "We are not horticultural racists, we grow trees and shrubs because they are beautiful and well cared for, not because of whose origin is more noble." ”

Australian government legislation sets out rules between private garden neighbourhoods, as well as restrictions on vegetation, street trees, overhead power lines, and public interfaces in the public sector. During the Great Depression, garden maintenance was affected in different ways, and those at the top cut back on garden expenses. In order to boost the morale of the people, the Australian government funded those most affected during the Great Depression and guided the public to beautify or improve their living environment and alleviate suffering. Thus leaving a tangible landscape legacy – "in bad times, the garden seemed more prosperous than ever".

From the 17th century, the British opened the private gardens of the nobility as parks. It wasn't until the 20s that public gardens became popular in Australia. Australia has professional, trained staff who bring new garden experiences to citizens, actively promoting bush gardening and its attractions, and the bush area of Sydney's Taronga Zoo was completed at that time. Camping and caravan holidays are becoming increasingly popular in Australia, especially in places with wild flowers or near caves. More and more advanced horticulture is being studied as specimens.

The large urban park enhances the landscape experience of the city, and also relieves the artificial feeling of the city and the pressure of urban life. New York's Central Park is perhaps the most famous urban park in the United States and around the world, providing a relaxing environment for New York's stressful life. American landscape architect Olmsted coined the term "landscape architect" when he presided over the construction of New York's Central Park in 1858, while pioneering "landscape architecture." Olmsted expanded the scope of traditional landscape architecture from garden design to urban park systems to regional landscape planning. "Gardens should be a necessity of human life, not a luxury," he said. ”