How an Italian garden is made and how to care for it

Geometric, rigorous, and elegant. In this type of garden, nothing should be left to chance. It requires careful planning of the spaces.

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Italian garden

HOW THE ITALIAN GARDEN IS MADE

Symmetrical, geometric and balanced, the garden The Italian garden has an unmistakable style that has profoundly influenced the history of gardening. It represents an evolution of the medieval garden, where fruit and vegetables were grown, which it transforms by combining the useful with the pleasurable. It becomes a place of pleasure and beauty, filled with columns, statues, terraces, fountains, labyrinths, and secret gardens.

ITALIAN GARDEN

Un garden late Renaissance which, as he explains the VilleGiardini website, It represents the evolution of the medieval garden (hortus conclusus), the latter dedicated only to the cultivation of fruit, vegetables and medicinal plants.

The Italian garden, or formal garden, which spread throughout the castles and villas of the upper middle class, began to incorporate Roman-inspired architectural elements, conceived as a place of pleasure, harmony, and beauty. Orderly, symmetrical, and geometric, its unmistakable style would influence the history of the gardening.

It was the architect Niccolò Tribolo who designed the first Italian gardens, for example the Boboli Gardens in Florence.

WHAT IS MEANT BY AN ITALIAN GARDEN?

Un garden A late Renaissance garden with harmonious, geometric shapes, this particularly elegant garden lends itself perfectly to embellishing sumptuous villas. Hedges and walkways delineate the spaces, while flowerbeds and borders serve as decorative elements, adding a pleasant splash of color to the surrounding greenery. And water is a must!

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ITALIAN GARDEN

The Italian garden is rigorous, symmetrical, harmonious, and extremely elegant. The space is organized down to the smallest detail, leaving nothing to chance, and includes numerous elements: from hedges (decorative and at the same time dividing) to the statues, from the columns to the trees always positioned in a regular way.

And it is still characterised by flowered pergolas, colonnades with plants, gardens secrets, labyrinths, fountains, differences in level. Thewater It is omnipresent: we find it in artificial lakes, in specially designed canals, in water features, in streams.

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HOW TO MAKE AN ITALIAN GARDEN

Creating an Italian garden is no easy feat, requiring careful planning and spatial organization, as well as careful plant selection. Therefore, hiring a professional gardener is always a good idea.

Here are some tips to keep in mind if you want to introduce this type of garden into your home.

  • First, consider hedges, which should be created with suitable plants. Among these is the star of the Italian garden: boxwood.
  • As for the grass, opt for an English lawn.
  • The flowerbeds must have a geometric shape and can be enriched with flowers of various kinds.
  • The water element cannot be missing: you could create artificial ponds, insert fountains or similar elements.
  • The statues are also important, giving elegance and sumptuousness to the garden.
  • Use tall trees, which should be pruned regularly.
  • If possible, create a secret garden within the garden itself.

Below is the video of Pilgrims Gardens, A group of companies specializing in the design, construction, and maintenance of exclusive, custom-made gardens, showcasing the design and construction phases of an Italian-style garden, of classical-Renaissance inspiration, for an ancient residence.

FLOWERS, PLANTS AND TREES OF THE ITALIAN GARDEN

Speaking of plants, the most used are evergreens, in particular cypress e bosso, but also rate and cedar. But flowers such as roses, lavender, and even ficus and rosemary are also used, at least in flowerbeds. As for trees, we find, for example, plane trees, holm oaks, maple trees, poplar White.

HOW DO YOU TAKE CARE OF AN ITALIAN GARDEN?

Il garden Italian requires a lot of care and maintenance Because, unlike other types of gardens, it is rigorous. Plants must therefore be pruned regularly to maintain their intended geometric shape, and flowers must also be watered regularly. Everything must be impeccable! It is therefore not a garden suitable for those who don't have the time to dedicate to it or aren't willing to pay someone to do it for them.

ITALIAN GARDEN EXAMPLES

From the Garden of the Palace of Caserta to the Garden of Venus of Cythera, and the Belvedere Garden in the Vatican, designed by Bramante in 1503, not to mention Villa d'Este in Tivoli. These are just a few examples, but we could cite countless others, such as the Villa Medicea di Castello in Sesto Fiorentino or the Boboli Gardens, filled with hedges, avenues, and terraces.

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ITALIAN, FRENCH, AND ENGLISH GARDEN

While the English garden is vastly different from the Italian garden, the same cannot be said of the French garden, which is very similar. The main difference, explains VilleGiardini, is that the French garden did not originate in the late Renaissance but is a "landscape architecture declination of Baroque theatricality."

The more colorful flowers are present, the strong differences in level typical of the Italian garden are missing, and although the shape is still geometric, one notices "a more marked pleasure for the hedges with orderly ornamental shapes and for the long linear perspectives that merge into the large natural parks and forests that surround them", explains the Villegiardini website. An example? The garden of the Palace of Versailles, designed by André Le Notre in the late 600th century.

What to say instead of the gardenThe latter originated in England in the mid-700th century, interpreting nature in a decidedly freer and more irregular way. But while it appears spontaneous and asymmetrical, and decidedly less controlled than the Italian garden, it remains a carefully studied garden.

Except that in this case, the vegetation is deliberately lush, eclectic, and uncultivated, at least in appearance, because the aim is to convey an ideal of free nature, uncontrolled by man. In short, these are very different gardens that can nevertheless coexist perfectly, so much so that the English garden has also spread to our country, influencing many Italian gardens.

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