Period Horticulture

1. Period Horticulture Green Across the Ages

2. Overview • Creating a New World • New Crops • The Roman Empire • Subsistence Farming • Monastic Communities • Taming the Land • New Styles • The East • The Silk Road • Take Aways

3. Creating a New World • The shift from Hunter/Gather to Agrarian Society created the basis of the Middle Ages • Communities grew in size • Centralized religion and culture • Growth of the state from clans/tribes • Domestication of plants from wild foraging to crops • Growing crops allowed for specialization within society

4. Tribal societies such as the Egyptians moved from nomadic hunter-gathers to stationary agrarian societies.

5. New Crops • Farmers experimented with previously natural species to create stable crops and species that would shape the society • Rice • Tobacco • Cocoa • First steps in actual horticulture and advanced land use • New crops shaped many aspects of life

6. The shift to an agrarian society not only shaped culture, religion, and community but also the land itself. Forests were cleared, land tilled, and rivers/lakes moved and shaped.

7. Crops were used for barter of goods that a community or individual did not have direct access to. • This drove the need for competitive crops, bigger yields, and specialized sub- species. • Competition for barter later grew into community competitions for fruit, vegetables, and other garden goods.

8. The Roman Empire • Land ownership and farming were key components to Roman citizenry/aristocracy. • Breadth of Roman Empire produced many crops that were transplanted into other regions. • Aristocracy was praised by the quality of farm and produce/crops.

9. The veneration of farming and agriculture could be seen in the Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses such as Bacchus and Ceres. • Images of the “citizen farmer” can be seen in frescos and statues.

10. Subsistence Farming • Feudal system highly dependant on horticulture and the crops supplied by serfs/peasants • Serfs choose largest and best crops to replant • Harvests would flow from serf farmers up to noble lords • Christian monks experimented with plants to create new sub-species • Lords and ladies began to grow flower and herb gardens for medicines and enjoyment

11. Pruning and training vines, from an English copy of the Utrecht Psalter, 1000.

12. Monastic Communities • Monastic orders became large landowners including crops, vineyards, and orchards • Concentration in monasteries moved away from subsistence farming and land used to support knights • New crops drove advances in winemaking, distilling, and cooking

13. French illumination (1325) shows the detailed construction of monastic grapevines trellises, frequently renewed at great expense. Trellises are distinct from the tunnel arbors and pergolas built in noble pleasure gardens with ornamental vines. Monks and nobles both shaped plants, trees, and vines for both consumption and pleasure.

14. Taming the land • The clearing of forests increased to make room for cultivated orchards • Nobles further expanded pleasure gardens to include trees and shrubbery • Villas in harsher areas began to follow nobles • Added private gardens • Shaped plants to topiaries and visually appealing shapes

15. Jacopo de’ Barbari’s map of 1500 marks suburban villas on the Giudecca at Venice. The ornamental gardens of the two largest houses, one with a loggia, show the medieval system of small beds combined with the simplest form of ornamental fencing.

16. Gardening • Pleasure gardens expanded with gardeners serving royals and burgeoning middle class • Nobles increased and expanded the use of lands for formal gardens • Hedge mazes • Language of flowers • New species and sub-species • Peasants and lower classes competed with fruits and vegetables

17. While most medieval gardens no longer exists, many places have recreated them from texts and drawings.

18. Unable to afford large gardens and orchards, peasants and lower classes would compete with the crops they grew. • Status grew from the largest, best sample, or weirdest.

19. The East • Bonsai and container gardening popular among feudal warrior class • Scholars, sages, and nobles try to replicate nature in gardens • Medicinal crops expand to a culture wide use that exists to the modern era

20. Asian gardens ranged from recreations of nature to idealized depictions from artists. • As with European gardens, many Asian gardens were the province of nobles and monks.

21. The Silk Road • Container gardening brought to the West from the far East • Bonsai became popular, especially among un-landed gentry and middle class • New spices and seeds are sold and migrate their way into Europe and the Mediterranean • Monks and nobles expanded knowledge of crops

22. Some examples of bonsai have actually been in training and cultivated since the later part of the period (1625) • Spices from the east were transported to Europe and cultivated from seed and cutting.

23. Take Aways • Horticulture shaped the ancient world through the middle ages. • Regions became famous for a variety of crops. • Plants and trees have been used as currency, competition, and art in addition to foodstuffs from centuries. • The use of crops such as tobacco and cocoa have influenced culture and religion.