Seventeenth-Century Gardening

So I got this cool book last spring...

...but I haven't actually looked at it aside from the occasional flip-through every once in a while. It's quite interesting, if not a little confusing actually. In short, as can be ascertained from the title, it's a gardening book (gardining?) on which plants are best to grow for each month.

John Evelyn, author of this book, was born on October 31, 1620 in Wotton, Surrey in England. He was a writer, a diarist, best known for his Diary, though other known works of his included Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees, as well as translations of books on gardening, religion, and architecture. As so aptly described  in the introduction of Directions for the Gardiner and Other Horticultural Advice, "Throughout [Evelyn's] long life, gardening design and maintenance and the desire to pass on his knowledge about gardening inspired him, and it is the detail and practicality of his advice that make his horticultural writings, four centuries later, so fascinating and timeless" (xi). Evelyn was well-traveled, journeying extensively throughout France, Italy, and the Low Countries and even in his earliest diary entries, one could discern of his immense interest in gardens and parks as he took the time to record their design and content, a habit he continued throughout his lifetime.

Directions for the Gardiner at Says-Court, But which may be of Use for Other Gardens is record of "the maintenance and management of a post-Restoration garden" (xv). It was actually inscribed to Evelyn's apprentice of six years, Jonathan Mosse, and was meant for professional estate gardeners. The manuscript itself was first transcribed and privately published in 1932 by Sir Geoffrey Keynes. The Sayes Court itself consisted of 40.47 hectares (or 100 acres) of farmland at Evelyn's disposal, with the Thames River running along its northern edge. Evelyn read extensively on the subject of stylish garden design and on the plants he intended to grow. He was also quite connected and corresponded with everyone connected to horticulture from aristocratic friends to gardeners. His garden allowed him to observe the growth and behavior of plants, which contributed to his writings.

Pen and ink sketch of Deptford, with remarks by Evelyn

So there you have it; an introduction to this nifty little book. It actually consists of several of Evelyn's writings, but for now I just wanted to introduce the general idea of the book. Expect another update about seventeenth-century gardening as gathered from this book.

Bye for now~

Sources

Evelyn, John. Directions for the Gardiner and Other Horticultural Advice. Ed. Maggie Campbell-Culver. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.

UPDATE (01.22.2013): Just wanted to let you know that, after trying my hand at understanding and explaining seventeenth-century gardening, I have decided to revert the two posts I did on seventeenth-century gardening back into drafts. Honestly, I felt that I was doing a terrible job, if only because I had so little understanding of the terminology used in the book, so I decided it would be best to save the series for when, if, I ever grasp all this gardening terminology. Thanks.