In this new series Country Gardener looks at how we have gardened over the centuries, starting with the Romans and finishing with the great gardeners of the 20th century. We will tell you about the designs of the different periods, the plants used and when some of them were introduced, which may surprise you. Through understanding the history of the old gardens around us, you can learn to ‘read’ a garden and a visit will mean so much more.
Gardening in Britain – how the Romans did it
HISTORIC GARDENS
Vivienne Lewis starts a new series on garden history by looking at how the Romans brought in herbs, evergreens and formal structures to start to define our gardens
villas and gardens, some in the countryside and others in the towns that they built or enlarged. Places like Chedworth Roman Villa in the countryside, and many buildings including those in towns such as Bath, Cirencester, and Exeter, and in Wales, at Caerlion which they called Isca.
What did a Roman garden look like? Villas standing in the countryside could have fairly large gardens, quite formal hard landscaping structures, with paths, perhaps terraces, steps, walls, and columns. Grand gardens would have niches for statues in the walls. The Romans wanted to transplant their own gardens to Britain, bringing evergreens such as cypress for specimen trees with some height and box for edging beds.
Fishbourne was a spectacular building and we still have some idea of what the gardens would have looked like
How did the Romans garden in Britain? Did they try to import their gardens from their warmer climate, or did they adapt to our chillier, and shorter, gardening season?
The answer is probably a bit of both. We know from excavated sites that they brought their classical designs to adorn the villas they built all over England and in Wales, and we know that they introduced plants such as lavender, garlic and probably fruit such as quinces.
Like all gardeners, they would have had to use the trial and error method of gardening, finding that some well loved plants did not travel well from Italy and other parts of their empire. They would have found that the climate was colder than they were used to, although it is thought that for most of the period England at least was quite warm as well as rather rainy. They would also have found that our native plants were few: it has been estimated by historians that there were only about 100 native plants growing in Britain by the Middle Ages. They would also probably have found that our ancestors were unsophisticated in comparison with them, and had nothing like their gardens.
But they had successes, and they found what gardeners in Britain have discovered ever since – that we can grow so many plants introduced from other parts of the world.
The Roman army landed on the south coast in 43 AD. They left in 410 AD when their empire was crumbling. Between those dates they built
28 Country Gardener
They brought herbs and plants such as lavender. Herbs were useful as well as decorative, for cooking, to treat ailments and illnesses, for dyeing cloth and for washing clothes. Some warded off evil spirits and were used in religious ceremonies.
At Fishbourne Roman Palace near Chichester there is a recreation of a Roman herbal garden, with beds allocated for all these different uses.
Between some of the beds at Fishbourne there is a wooden pergola draped with vines. Romans were able not only to bring their vines to
Some of the plants brought in by the Romans
Some plants that were brought in by the Romans were not cultivated after their departure, and were re-introduced later. Herbs for cooking, medicinal use, for dyeing cloth and for religious ceremonies were all important to them and were brought to this country along with fruit, vegetables, flowering plants and trees. It is hard to be certain about the dates of some introductions: they could have been brought in by the Romans, or much later. This is just a selection of the ones we are sure about.
Acanthus mollis – Bear’s Breeches Box Carrots, cabbage Garlic
Globe artichoke
Herbs – lavender, parsley, some mints such as spearmint, rue, lemon balm Madonna lily Opium poppy Sweet chestnut
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