This reading was a bit difficult to understand. From what I did understood was that a garden is an artwork. Something I found interesting from this reading is that "all landscape paintings does a kind of gardening". The author sees gardens as an enhancement of nature, not actually nature. Another thing that interested me was how the author said that these gardens are the most faithful imitations of Eden, I find that beautiful.
I thought gardeners were pretty much artists because of their technique and skill of the sculptured bushes and the way the plants are cut and taken cared of. In this reading he says they can become artists if they have a well thought out plan and an enough subject to imitate. I agree when Toby says "to enjoy it we must walk around it" and that actually reminded me of when we have critiques. In order to understand the artwork or enjoy it we must get close to it and walk around it if we can. Plants are expressed and they mean something, nature is practically like poetry. Gardens have meaning even if you just see nature it all has meaning and the vegetation is symbolic. Which leads me to say a garden is like a second home attached to your house.
When you write, "I thought gardeners were pretty much artists because of their technique and skill of the sculptured bushes and the way the plants are cut and taken cared of. In this reading he says they can become artists if they have a well thought out plan and an enough subject to imitate," I am reminded of the Ivins reading on Ornament, and his discussion about the relationship between design and craftsmanship.
ReplyDeleteActually, Harbison says that "a garden connected to a house can be a second home."