Garden and Landscape Articles

In essence, a garden is an enclosed outdoor place. But the space can have a range of uses (see note on garden types) and the boundary (wall, fence, hedge, canal etc) can have serve a range of objectives: protection (from animals, people, winds etc), demarcation (of ownership, privacy, sacredness), ornamentation, support etc.

The notes and articles in this section are about different types of garden, different styles of garden design, gardens in different parts of the world and the history and theory of landscape architecture. The 200+ articles and notes on this website are organized in the following groups:- 

Theory articles 

• Landscape Theory - the practice, philosophy, art, science and technology of landscape architecture
• Robert Holden Archive - landscape architecture articles by Robert Holden
• Diagrams of  historic styles of garden design - diagrams showing the evolution garden design styles in the West
• Garden types and styles - notes on the primary Garden Types (eg the beer garden and the rose garden)
• Sacred Space - places made under the influence of religions and beliefs
• Guide to Design Theory - notes for garden design students and landscape architecture students
• Garden conservation theorists - from our guide to Historic Garden Conservation
• Gardening with ideas - notes on the role of ideas in garden and landscape design

History articles

• European garden history - misc notes on gardens and garden designers in Europe
• East Asian garden history - garden history of China and Japan
• South Asian Gardens - garden history of the Indian Subcontinent
• West Asian Gardens - garden history of the Middle East region, including Egypt, Turkey, Arabia, Persia, Turkestan and North India
• American garden history - including J C Loudon's 1834 History of American gardens and a historic article on US landscape architecture in the 1920s
• World Garden History - a Timeline and notes on the World Origin of gardens