[kindredspirit]

Is gardening an art form?

Obviously this would normally exclude vegetable growing, although my uncle many years ago had an allotment that was a work of art and a kaleidoscope of colour. (I didn't follow in his footsteps; it's more time efficient to buy veggies in Aldi, pesticides and all)

Topiary buffs would think it's an art form, I presume. But in general??

[Greengage]

No

[James Kilkelly]

Dunno about gardening, but garden design is a combo of art and science.

A garden can look good initially but everything fails to thrive after a year or two.
Or
A garden can thrive year after year but it does not look appealing.

To balance the two is both a science and an art.

[tagwex]

You need to get yourself a good gardening consultant James. Will solve both those problems.

[James Kilkelly]

[Good guy]

Gardening - An Art Form?

This is a very useful question to put. It makes me ask two further questions: what is gardening? and what is art?

Neither of these questions is particularly hard to answer.

Gardening is the deliberate manipulation of an ecosystem in order to achieve some pre-conceived effect. It matters not whether the ecosystem is a natural one or whether it has some human origin or elements; the key is in the deliberate manipulation. Equally, the medium - water, soil, trees, rock, moss, concrete, or landscape - is not important. Neither does what is grown matter. It is the manipulation for some effect that makes a garden. The only room for doubt, here, is the consideration of when gardening becomes farming. But that's not the question under discussion.

What is art? After a lifetime studying and making art, my best response to this question is to recognise that every moment is a new moment, one that has never happened before; that this new moment requires a new response, that creativity is the human capacity to make the new, never-before response and that art is the result. The medium through which the art is expressed is irrelevant: it might be sound, colour, texture, clay, metal, plants, paint, words, numbers, film, dyes, fibres, movement, flavour........... or a combination of these. What is important is that the response be a new and fresh response by the artist to a stimulus.

So, is gardening an art form? Of course it is. And it is many other things as well: a craft in that to garden successfully requires the acquisition and practice of skills; it is a science in that an understanding of biology helps if you want to grow things well; it involves engineering in the manipulation of land, water and materials. Like art, gardening can be frustrating, difficult and utterly enthralling.

Gardening is, above all, creative. Every time we grow something, we are making something new and we are engaging in an act of creation as old as mankind. Not for nothing were Eve and Adam gardeners and the Tree a malus!

[kindredspirit]

Stunning, well thought out reply Good Guy.

I think your second picture is a bit rubbish, though.

[tagwex]

Well GG you just took the very words out of my mouth, exactly what I was going to say. There is an Art teacher lost in you somewhere.

PS. Good answer though.

[robineire]

I went to Art School for a year after leaving school, spent the time I should have been studying chasing women and spending all my grant money instead of studying. Anyway I like now to incorporate art into my garden, I think it adds a new dimension.
When I say Art ,I'm using the term very loosely, I make practical things like the benches then paint them bright colours or carve animals with a chainsaw, my carvings are not realistic they are representations I suppose, sort of cartoon carvings. The amount of comments I get from people passing the house is amazing.
I think art can influence your mood and gardens can do the same, Japanese Zen gardens for example.
My plan here at Derrykyle is to have a wonderful woodland garden, a nature haven that is pleasing to walk through and has hidden gems for people to happen across.
At the moment (after the last frost) I am just about to plant a wildflower meadow in an area that was 10 foot high bramble bushes until recently. The meadow will have a winding path through it edged with scalloped logs and we have built and planted a rockery at one end with a bench seat and will do the same at the other end. I went for a wildflower meadow to attract butterflies and bees and because it will only require mowing once a year.