Posts Tagged ‘France’
How Gardening Actually Evolved
In the modern times throughout the world, gardening is a pleasant hobby, a favorite way to express a skill and a form of art itself. The benefits that individuals and communities gain from gardening have been widely known and advocated.
Certainly, though, it didn’t start a few years ago. Let’s take a trip back in the earliest times as we trot the entire globe to discover the evolution of gardening.
Traces of interest in gardening can be found way back in the 1500 B.C., where ornamental gardens were found in tomb paintings in Egypt. The Egyptians fondness in lotus ponds, acacias and palms were prominent in the paintings. The Egyptian royalty is seen as among the most instrumental civilizations that contributed to the development of the concept of garden, essentially of garden design and actualization.
Glorious Gardens of the Delightful Loire Valley in France
The Loire Valley in France is a superb delight for garden enthusiasts. Not only can you admire the spectacular chateaux and sample fine French cuisine and great Loire valley wine, tourists can also marvel at some amazing gardens. The whole valley is now a world heritage site listed by UNESCO.
Chateau Villandry is a gem and a must see for any one with a vegetable patch in need of some inspiration. Chateau Chaumont on the banks of the Loire River holds a spectacular international garden festival every summer. Peony and rose lovers should visit the botanical gardens at Orchaise west of Blois.
Chateau Villandry owes its fame to the exceptional terraced gardens which sit on three levels and include a water garden, an ornamental garden and an ornamental kitchen garden. Eight gardeners work at Chateau Villandry full time, and plant about 60,000 vegetables and 45,000 plants in its gardens each year. Villandry is a dynamic place, the site of many activities such as the “Vegetable Garden Days” in September, the summer festival, special exhibits and workshops with the gardeners from the chateau.
The gardens at Chateau Villandry are an imaginative twentieth century re-creation of a 16th century renaissance castle garden. The moated Chateau dates from 1536 and had a formal garden in the eighteenth century. The existing garden dates from the years after 1906 when it was purchased by a Spaniard, Dr Joachim Carvallo.