Early days (3000 BCE – 500 CE)

The earliest recorded Western gardens belonged to the Egyptians and Persians, and the earliest Eastern ones to the Chinese. Chinese gardens were idealized representations of nature that provided space for contemplation, art, and poetry. Chinese gardens were recorded extensively in drawings and gardening books; and garden design remained a respected art form for thousands of years in China. Further west, the gardens of Egypt and Persia were about paradise.  Roman gardens reflected the influence of traveling to across the middle east and combined the ideal of paradise with Greek geometry.  In Roman gardens we see rectangular pools set on an axis that align with key building elements. 

Check out the posts below for other examples of gardens inspired by the early days of garden design.