Roman Gardening and Its Influence

The source I looked at this week is Gardens of the Roman World by Patrick Bowe.  Although it is similar in terms of content with several other sources I have read thus far, Bowe's work is unique in its own way.  It talks about what and who influenced Romans and their gardening, while also discussing the many features of Roman gardens.  It differs from other sources in that Bowe gives his reader an idea of how Roman gardening differed throughout the Roman provinces and also how Roman gardens influenced gardens that followed the Roman period.  I especially enjoyed Bowe's great usage of illustrations from various Roman garden sites.  He provides pictures of paintings, mosaics, and gardens themselves in each section he discusses.

Bowe starts off by giving his reader an overview of where the Romans got their gardening ideas from.  He specifically lists the Near East, Egypt, and Greece as the Empire's main influences.  

Roman gardens were greatly influenced by the gardens of Mesopotamia of the 5th c. BC.  The Mesopotamians had court yards that were surrounded by trees and contained stone-edged pools and pavilions.  They also had flower and vegetables beds. (1) By reading my previous blogs, it is easy to tell that the Romans also used these features, although they might not have been identical to those of the Mesopotamians.

The Persians also influenced the the Romans and their gardens.  In their gardens, the Persians were known for their use of water canals or rills to keep their gardens hydrated.  The Romans later adopted this way of watering gardens, specifically by using narrow rills. These narrow rills were called euripes and they were named after the Euripes canal in Greece that separated the island of Euboea from mainland Greece. (2)

A Roman garden canal in the House of Loreius Tiburtinus, Pompeii, From Gardens of the Roman World by Patrick Bowe.

The Greeks, according to Bowe, were the most influential to Roman gardens in terms of architecture.  Since the 4th c. BC the Greeks used a colonnade to separate their gardens from their homes.  The Romans adopted this technique and the earliest example can be found in Pompeii from the 2nd c. BC.  The difference being that Romans renamed these colonnades and called them peristyles when in their town homes.  In Roman villas, the colonnades were known as porticoes.  The Romans also adopted the idea of decorating their gardens with Greek or Greek inspired sculpture.  This became very popular after the Romans conquered Greece in 146 BC because many Greeks emigrated to Rome and brought their garden ideas and art with them.  Interestingly enough, gardens and gardening ended up being more popular in the Roman Empire than they were in Greece. (3)

Last to influence the Romans were the Egyptians.  An important aspect of Egyptian gardening that was appreciated by the Romans was their irrigation system which was very sophisticated.  Important to note is that the Egyptians also terraced their gardens and did so way before the Assyrians and their Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  The Romans adopted the Egyptian symmetrical layout of gardens, their water features, colorful pavilions, and avenues of trees.  The Roman gardens which contained an atrium (gardens in internal courtyards) were also an Egyptian byproduct.  Just like they did with Greek statues, the Romans also imported Egyptian statues after their takeover of Egypt at 30 BC. (4)

Ornamental gardens also slowly became popular in the Roman Empire with the earliest known example being in Syracuse, Sicily during the 3rd c. BC.  Gardens became so popular that Heron II, ruler of Syracuse, had one on his boat so he could enjoy it while at sea.  The  peak of classical gardening in Italy occurred from 150 BC to AD 350. (5)

During the Roman Republic (ca. 150-27 BC), gardens shifted from being something of private use to something for public pleasure.  In the early Republican period, gardens were small and mainly used for produce, in order to feed families, but by the end of the period they became ornamental and larger.  Emperors began to annex gardens for their own use and later in life they would will them to public use.  In the Roman Empire (27 BC-ca. AD 350) gardens became more luxurious, while much of the upper-class citizens tended to have them. The same families also owned more than one villa, which meant they owned more than one garden.  Why did they own multiple villas/gardens? Because they spent time at a different villa every season. (6)

Among the sources Bowe lists that give us an idea of what Roman gardens were like are literary source, archaeological evidence, pictorial records, and horticultural traditions.  

For literary testimony he lists the following:  Cato the Censor's (234-149 BC) De agricultura, later renamed De re rustica; Varro's (116-27 BC) De re rustica; Columella (c. mid-1st AD) De re rustica; and Palladius' work.  Another important work he notes is Pliny the Elder's Historia naturalis (an encyclopedia on gardening).  Although these works are useful in telling us the types of plants and flowers Romans planted and how they took care of them, they do not tell us much about design and decoration. (7)

Architectural evidence on the other hand gives us an ample amount of info on design as well as planting.  Much of this evidence comes from Herculaneum and Pompeii because of how well the area was preserved by ash and capilli after the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.  Pictorial records come two-fold: through frescoes and landscape themes.  Frescoes that survive depict garden and rural landscapes.  Garden themes were illustrated on the inside or outside of house walls, and on walls that surrounded gardens.  Romans also painted murals inside their homes to give their homes an outdoor feel.  Landscape themes depict rivers, mountains, woodlands, caves, and springs, but also man-made things. (8)

Fresco from the House of the Golden Bracelet, Pompeii, discovered in 1979.  From Gardens of the Roman World by Patrick Bowe.

Bowe claims lastly that horticultural traditions are good sources of the way Roman gardens were planned and functioned.  For instance, many of the same practices of the Romans are still practiced today.  The tools we use for gardening today are also very similar to those the Romans used to take care of their gardens. (9)

The garden had many purposes and functions.  One was that of pleasure, somewhere to relax and enjoy the outdoors.  Another was health and exercise.  Many gardens incorporated baths, gymnasiums, stadiums, and hippodromes in order for the Romans to take care of their physical health.  Romans also walked together and read to one another in their gardens in order to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy. (10)

Bowe mentions two different types of garden designs that the Romans used.  One was the enclosed type, where there was a building that surrounded the garden entirely or partially.  The other type was the open garden that surrounded a building entirely.  The latter of the two was used for suburban or rural villas with views of the surrounding countryside. (11)

Bowe also discusses garden buildings and structures.  The first he discusses are altars and shrines.  Religion was very important to the Romans and so having altars and shrines in their gardens only seemed appropriate.  The most popular or widely used were lares (household gods).  Some examples are Ceres (goddess of agriculture), Flora (goddess of flowers), and Pomona (goddess of fruit and orchards).  Larger gardens also contained prospect towers, called belvederes in modern times.  These prospect towers allowed for a "birds-eye view" of the garden as well as a nice resting place (since it was high up, it was also very cool during the summer).  Many gardens also contained arbors and pergolas.  Arbors were open structures that were used for shade where people could rest and dine.  These tended to be made out of stone or marble, but more commonly brick or timber.  Pergolas were also open structures that provided shade for people walking throughout gardens. (12)

Reconstructed fresco from the House of the Amazons, Pompeii.  From Gardens of the Roman World by Patrick Bowe.

Garden sculpture was also very popular with there being religious and semi-religious sculptures, secular sculpture, decorative, fountain, and herms.  Religious sculpture included deities while secular sculpture included famous rulers, sculptors, philosophers, writers, or characters from popular dramas.  Decorative sculpture consisted of low-relief carvings on garden vases, bowls, tables, or couches.  Fountain sculpture was that of river gods, sea nymphs, Venus with her shell, seashells, marine creatures, fish, and dolphins.  Dolphins were the most popular.  Herms tended to be stone or bronze busts of human heads that were usually placed on top of a short pillar. (13)  

Gardens also varied depending on where they were.  There are three types Bowe addresses: city gardens and villa gardens.  Much of what we know today about city gardens comes from what is preserved at Herculaneum and Pompeii.  City gardens contained an impluvium, a space that collected rainwater that fell through the atrium.  This water was stored in a cistern and used for daily household needs during dry seasons.  These storage cisterns became less popular as aqueducts and public water became increasingly available.  These gardens were very symmetric and were planned on an axis.  The majority of the sculpture used in these gardens is decorative as illustrated below. (14)

Decorative sculpture in the House of the Stags, Herculaneum.  From Gardens of the Roman World by Patrick Bowe.

Villa gardens were the second type of garden Bowe discusses.  In the Early Republican era the owners of villa gardens planted simple crops, whether that would be flowers, veggies, and fruit.  There were three types of villa gardens.  The first was the suburban villa that became popular during the 2nd century and were located outside the city walls.  They differed from city homes because city homes had a front that led to the atrium and then to a peristyle in the back of the home.  The suburban villa's front open directly to the peristyle and then led to the atrium; the opposite of a city home.  By the end of the Republican era (27 BC) wealthier families began to purchase agricultural estates and built their homes on farms, which became known as the country villa. (15)

The country villas was similar to the city house because it had internal courts and gardens that were planned on an axis and were symmetrical.  The arrangement of the rooms in the villa differed because there was more space and more freedom to place things wherever the owner wanted.  These villas had an agricultural estate surrounding them, and in the distance they were surrounded by mountains or hills.  Those who built such villas tended to hunt, relax, eat, study, and drink on their free time.  These villas had cypress trees planted around their gardens to protect the plants from dangerous winds and to provide them with shade from the hot summer sun.   As aqueducts became more and more popular, country villas began incorporating pools, fountains, and fishponds.  Some fishponds were so large that they became commercial fish farms.  (16)

Romans also incorporated their gardens in public parks; we speculate they got this idea form the Ancient Greeks and their Athenian Agora (market place).  Many of the wealthier, upper-class men usually willed their gardens for public use.  The majority of these public gardens were attached to public buildings like temples, baths, or theaters.  The first public park that is recorded is Pompey's Portico (55 BC) that is located in front of Pompey's Theater.  Another area where Romans planted gardens was the market.  These gardens would then provide produce to the market to be sold. (17)

The Romans did not only practice their gardening techniques in Rome and Italy, but also in the provinces they conquered.  The Romans conquered much of the Eastern Empire during the 2nd c. BC and it included modern-day Greece, Turkey, Syria, and parts of Arabia.  The Romans did little to impose their culture on the Greeks and instead took many of their ideas, one being the peristyle garden.  In 146 BC the Romans conquered parts of Northern Africa, which included modern-day Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Libya.  Africa was important to the Romans for its sources of food like wheat, corn, barley, olives, and wine.  In Africa the Romans had to accommodate to the slightly different climate.  For example, the water cisterns in the African gardens were larger to store more water due to the hot weather.  Homes were also different in that they had two floors, one at ground-level and another below ground-level) because of the hot weather.  Garden sculpture also differed to reflect the cultures the Romans conquered, as illustrated below. (18)

White marble dolphin statue from Sabratha, Libya, in Gardens of the Roman World by Patrick Bowe.

These Roman Gardens left a long lasting impression.  The cultures that followed that of the Romans' would always use Roman gardening as their basis.  For example, one of the earliest influences the Romans had was on the Byzantine Empire, after Emperor Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople in 330 AD.  None of the Byzantine gardens survive, but much of what we know comes from images that do survive.  Garden images in the Byzantine had Biblical themes.  Frescoes show that the gardens had colonnades, but were much more elaborate than those of the Romans.  Similar to Roman gardens, Byzantine gardens also contained fountains.  Islamic gardens were subsequently influenced by Byzantine gardens.  Ancient Roman and Greek texts on gardening were translated to Arabic between the 8th and 12th centuries.  The most popular topic was hydraulics, which allowed Islamic gardens to build pools, canals, and fountains.  One similarity between Roman and Islamic gardens is that the Roman peristyle was surrounded by a continuous covered colonnade, while the Islamic peristyle was surrounded by a continuous covered arcade.  In the Middle Ages, Medieval gardens were surrounded by a continuous covered vaulted corridor called the "cloister."  Medieval garden architecture, however, had little in common with that of Roman garden architecture.  At the same time, medieval gardeners did turn to Roman texts by Pliny the Elder, Varro, Columella, and Palladius, for guidance. (19)

Bowe does a good job at explaining the various aspects of Roman gardens and gardening.  I think he does an excellent job in giving readers a chronological sense of what came before and after Roman gardens.  He is the only author from the sources I have look at so far that discusses the influence of Roman gardens both during the Roman period and after. I also enjoyed the abundance and variety of illustrations he provides in his book; I think they were all excellent and really help in understanding Roman gardens.

Primary Sources of Roman Gradening

This week's blog will discuss John Henderson's The Roman Book of Gardening, a very interesting book that discusses primary sources from the the Roman period.  These sources are the works of four of the most notable Roman horticulturalists which include Columella, Pliny the Elder, and Palladius.  Each source is a poem from each of the horticulturalists.  The poems are important in giving us first-hand accounts of how the Romans took care of their gardens, and in many cases there are instructions of what to do in the garden throughout the year.  While each author discusses what he believes is essential for gardens, some of their ideas overlap.  The works that I will specifically discuss are Columella's books Ten and Eleven, 'Nature's Miracles' in Pliny's Encyclopedia, and Palladius' The Work of Agriculture.

The first author I will discuss is Columella and his books Ten and Eleven.  Columella is one of the most important Roman agriculturalists who lived during the 1st c. AD.  Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella was a Spaniard who wrote and farmed near Rome.

A Statue of Columella in Cadiz, Spain, his hometown.

Columella's Ten is a poem's goal is to make the reader create a garden that reflects paradise.  His poem is aimed at giving the reader monthly instructions about gardening, with his sequence starting in autumn. (1)  Columella argues that the 'ancients" did not look into gardening because their diets comprised largely of milk and meat; fruits and vegetables were not necessarily needed.  His first advice is to place the garden somewhere near rich soil; dry soil won't do the job.  He points out that a natural water source, like a river, near the garden is also beneficial because it will keep it hydrated.  If it doesn't rain, then he advises to just wait for the winter because it will rain.  In order to close off the garden, Columella suggests that one may want to use walls or hedges.  Enclosing it is important because it means keeping out animals and thieves. He also makes it clear that art work in the garden should be little to none because the focus should be on the garden itself and not on anything else. (2) 

Important in gardening to Columella (and all Roman gardeners) was cultivation, specifically the times of the year to sow (plant seeds).  Columella believed that the stars were associated with the different times of the year one sows plants.  He says that it is important to create paths around the garden that are at a right angle, and to leave space between the plants or herbs that have a strong scent (mint, dill, mustard, and onion).  He also mentions that it might be ideal to ship in onion seeds from Megara (Greece) and Sicca (Tunisia).  This is important in showing that the Romans traded and wanted the best varieties for their garden.  Before ending his poem he mentions his "first commandment" which is to bring in plenty of spring water to water the garden, but also warns us to be careful while watering, forking, or weeding the garden. (3)

Columella's book Eleven discusses the job of a "farm manager" and the general things to do to take care of the garden.  He argues that Romans began gardening to make it easier to feed themselves.  In the garden it is essential to have a wall; early on, the Romans preferred walling of their gardens with small hedges.  He advises his readers to choose an area next to a villa that has rich soil and a stream or well.  If there is a drought then dig the soil extra deep.  He says that one must prep ht e soil and dig over it twice a year because there are two primary seasons for sowing: spring and autumn.  Columella lists the following plants as some that can be sowed twice a year: cabbages, lettuces, artichokes, rockets, cress, coriander, chervil, dill, parsnip  rampion, and poppy.  Lastly, and most importantly, gardeners must strip the garden from any grasses and spread muck over it four days before sowing, in order to prep it. (4)

The next source I will discuss is 'Nature's Miracle' from Pliny the Elder's Encyclopedia.  Pliny was a Roman agriculturalist who lived during the 1st c. AD and died from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.  He began 'Nature's Miracle' in 77 AD, but was unable to finish it before the eruption.

Portrait of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny mentions that gardens are not a Roman thing, but have been utilized by other cultures during antiquity.  Some people he lists as examples are the Garden of Hesperides, the Garden of King Adonis, and of King Alcinous.  He also mentions the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (shown below). (5)

Reconstruction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

In his work, Pliny mentions the Twelve Tables (Roman Law) and how gardens, referred to as 'villa', were not mentioned in them, but gardens were referred to as 'hortus' or 'heredium' (estate).  Going along with this, he mentions that gardens are now used for pleasure purpose, as oppose to reasons of simply providing for the family.  He adds that in earlier times, the garden was important to the poor man, the rest of the citizens shopped their produce at the market. (6)

In terms of taking care of the garden, he advises to place the garden right next to the farmhouse and that it should be frequently watered.  For the latter, he  (like Columella) says that it's best to place the garden near a river.  Then he continues by discussing the various vegetables grown in Roman gardens.  One vegetable he discusses is the cucumber and mentions that throughout the Roman Empire, cucumbers of different shapes were grown.  The Greeks recognize four types in particular: Corinthian, Cleonaean, Liothasian, and Boeotian.  Corinthian grows the largest, while the Liothasian type is the most tolerant of winter.  Pliny notes that the ones with smoother leaves tend to be sweeter. (7) 

The second vegetable he mentions is radishes and says that the thicker their skin is, the more bitter they are.  Once again he mentions the Greeks and how they identified three types of radishes: the ones with curly leaves, smooth leaves, and leaves that are smooth and short.  (8) 

Another plant he discusses in abundance is lettuce.  The Greeks also knew of three varieties of this type.  The first having a broad stalk, with narrow leaves. The second having a round stalk, and the third being squat (short and broad), also known as 'Spartan'.  The other type Pliny discusses is 'Greek', which has a long and broad stalk with smooth leaves.  The worse kind is called 'pikris' because it is very bitter.  The most common type of lettuce in Italy is known as 'mekonis'.  It is from this particular type that the word lettuce derived from.  This type is very milky, and therefore we use the word 'lettuce' because of their 'lac-tic' milk.  (9) 

He also discusses beet and notes that they tend to be the smoothest plants in the garden.  A piece of advice he offers is that beet should only be consumed by the "fit and well" because it is difficult to consume and even does more hard than cabbage. (10)

The final author I will discuss is Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius, the Roman writer who lived during the 4th c. AD.  Like the authors mentioned above, he also discusses the location and set up of gardens.  Unlike the previous authors, he discusses how to rid the garden of predators (insects and animals).  He also differs from the other authors in that he gives instructions as to what plants to sow during which months.

The Rustic Calendar at Saint-Romain-en-Gal from The Roman Book of Gardening by John Henderson.

Palladius advises his readers to locate their garden, or orchard, close to home and near running water.  If there is not a natural source of water then put a well near it.  If it is not possible to build a well near the garden then he advises his readers to build a fish pond above the garden so when it rains, the water from the pond will run down to the garden.  In order to border off the garden, he says to use clay or stone (or even both) to build a wall. (11)

He then lists various pests that can harm the garden and discusses how to rid of them.  I will list ones he pays more attention to:
-gnats and slugs: spray them with fresh olive dregs or soot from the ceiling.
-ants: attach a bat's heart to their hole if it is located on the inside of your garden.  If they are coming from the outside then mark the entire garden with ash or white chalk.  
-caterpillars: burn a headed stock of garlic throughout the garden and the scent will ward them off.
-mice: pour thick olive dregs on a dish and they will stick to it.  One can also mix cheese, bread, lard, or barley-meal with dark hellebore (which contains poison) and they will die from it.
-snakes: ward them off by "acridity smelling smoke drives of harmful spirits." (12)

Next Palladius lists the vegetables that need to be sowed in accordance with every month.
-January: lettuce, rocket, cabbage, garlic, and wild garlic.
-February: lettuce, onions, dill (tolerates any whether but likes warm weather the most), mustard, cabbage, mallow, mint and beet.
-March: wild garlic, garlic, onions, dill, lettuce, beet, radish, melons, cucumbers, asparagus, thyme, anise, and cummin.
-April: cabbage, parsley, and basil.
-May: parsley, melons, radishes, and rue.  Keep in mind this is a good time for building trenches.
-June: cabbage, parsley, beets, radishes, lettuce, and coriander.
-July: onions (on watered or cool spots), basil, mallow, beet, lettuce, and leek.
-August: this is the final month to sow radish (like rich soil that is loose, and dreads tufa and gravel.
-September: poppy, cabbage, and thyme.  This is also the time to prepare the garden for the following spring by building a 3 foot deep trench around the garden.
-October: mustard, mallow, dill, onions, thyme, and beet (in dryer spots).
-November: garlic, wild garlic, and onions.
-December: lettuce, garlic, wild garlic, onions, and mustard. (13)

These three authors are useful in discussing early Roman garden and many of the plants used in these gardens.  Henderson's book differs from previous works I've used in that it directly used primary sources and the sources discuss various vegetables in great detail.  I enjoyed reading these primary sources, however, I did have to look up certain words to see exactly what they meant because I was unfamiliar with them.  I also had to re-read a few of the sentences here and there because again the language was a little more complex.  Overall this will be useful because it is direct evident of gardening form the Roman period.

Roman and Medieval Gardens and Medicine

For this weeks blog, I will discuss again a little bit more the background on Roman gardening, seeing that it is important to know where the Romans got their ideas from.  Then I will continue on by discussing how Roman gardens were designed, what types of gardens are included in this, the types of plants they planted, and primary evidence from Roman horticulturalists.  This will lead into a discussion of Medieval medicine all the way through the fourteenth century, that included many of the plants used in the Roman period.

The first book I will draw from for this discussion is Anne Jennings Roman Gardens.  The book is full of all sorts of information regarding Roman gardening and guides to constructing your own roman garden.  Jennings does a good job at laying out the history of Roman gardening.  Rome was one of the greatest powers during the 3rd century BC for it controlled much of present day Italy and the land bordering the Mediterranean.  Rome conquered Greece in 146 BC and was greatly influenced by the Greeks in many aspects of life, including gardening.  As I've discussed in previous blogs, the Romans were interested in not only what they planted in their gardens, but also how they structured their gardens.  The Ancient Greeks, however, did not care too much about the layout of their gardens, but focused solely on the plants themselves.  The Greeks connected their plants, trees, and flowers to the deities they worshiped and many writers, like Homer (whom Pliny the Elder studied), discussed horticulture and plants in their works.  If anything, the Greeks liked simple landscaping that would later serve as the basis for Roman gardening. (1)  The image below depicts the simple landscaping the Ancient Greeks enjoyed, with only a few trees surrounding the temple.

Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, Greece.  From Roman Gardens by Anne Jennings.

The Egyptians, who were conquered in 30 BC by the Romans, were fortunate enough to have the Nile River because it acted as a good water source in an area that was very hot and dry.  Like the Greeks, the Egyptians attributed much of what they planted to their gods, but unlike the Greeks, they enjoyed ornamental gardens.  The Egyptians also placed religious sculptures in their gardens, just like the Romans would, and they also left us with tomb paintings illustrating their gardens.  The Romans would leave similar illustrations using wall paintings and mosaics.  Below is a picture of an Egyptian tomb painting that includes palms, lotus flowers, and a fish pool. (2)

From the Tomb of Nebamun (c. 1350 BC), in Anne Jennings's Roman Gardens.

The Persians, who signed a treaty with the Romans in 20 BC, were also interested in ornamental gardens.  Ornamental gardens in Persia date back to the 6th c. BC and the earliest garden being in Pasargadae.  Persian gardens were very similar to Roman ones, with formal architecture, shade, and irrigation. (3)

The gardens of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians all influenced the Roman and how they did gardening.  Jennings does a good job with discussing this influence, but also does a good job in discussing the Roman garden design as well as the importance of Roman gardens.  Gardening was very important to the Romans and they tried their best to incorporate the indoors with the outdoors.  It is essential to note that all Romans appreciated gardening; the poor planted small gardens that would help their families survive while the rich built flashy gardens to show of their wealth and status.  Jennings does a good job in discussing the general features of Roman homes that contained an atrium, which in turn contained an implurium (pool) that collected rainwater.  Each home also had a central courtyard that had another pool or sometimes a fountain, serving as a focal point of the home.  Roman homes were geometrically shaped and the Romans used this style to build their gardens.  In order to assure that the gardens were well watered, many Romans tried to plant them near water sources.  Columella (1st c. AD) notes that he planted his gardens near streams or rivers.  Many Romans, however, did not live near bodies of water and for that reason they used pipes and aqueducts to channel water into their gardens. (4)

Unlike Linda Farrar, Jennings does a good job at focusing on Urban gardens and uses Pompeii as her main example because of how well it was preserved after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.  In many cases, the Romans saved specific areas of land for vegetable gardens in order to provide for the family.  The Romans also enjoyed putting murals of gardens inside their home, in order to give the illusion of a garden, as shown below. (5)

Mural from the House of the Golden bracelet in Pompeii, from Roman Gardens by Anne Jennings.

Archaeologist have found pots at Pompeii that allow us to understand how plants were grown.  One method the Romans used was to plant young trees in pots and once they start getting larger, to break the pot so the roots could expand.  Another method was to poke holes in the pot so that the roots could grow through it without having to break the pot.  Romans also placed holes in columns and pillars so that climbing plants can grow on them. (6)

Similarly to Farrar, Jennings provides us with evidence from Pliny the Younger  (AD 61-113) that is helpful in having first hand evidence of Roman gardening and garden architecture.  Pliny the Younger refers to two of his villas and helps us in understanding the architecture of Roman gardens.  His villa at Laurentum, just south of Rome, was near the sea.  It had a set of two colonnades (rows of columns) shaped like the letter "D" that were roofed and contained a garden window.  His villa at Tuscany faced harsher winters than that at Laurentum because it was situation near the mountains.  This villa produced more than the other and he used the produce to help the poor.  This villa included a colonnade with a terrace.  Box hedges surrounded the colonnade and were clipped into different shapes. (7)  Jennings also discusses the work of Pliny the elder and makes note of his work titled as Historia Naturalis which was 37 volumes about nature and science.  many of the chapters contained information on trees, olives, fruiting tree, herbs, and wild and medicinal plants.  Another source Jennings mentions is Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, a book that discusses how to grow, harvest, store and utilize several plants in medicine. Among the plants he mentions are fennel, henbane, and mustard. (8)

While Jennings repeats many of the concepts Farrar introduced in her book Ancient Roman Gardens, Jennings talks a little more in depth about the sources she draws from such as Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger.  I enjoyed her discussion on Pompeii because it really is good evidence of Roman gardening seeing that the volcanic ash preserved much of the area. I also enjoyed how she provided "How-to" sections in her book that give us step-by-step instructions on how to construct Roman gardens and mosaics.  Her book was short, however, and not nearly as detailed as that of Farrar's.

The other source I looked at this week was Health and Healing From the Medieval Gardens, edited by Peter Dendle and Alain Touwaide.  This book differs from the previous two in that it discusses the uses of plants and herbs for medical purposes during the Middle Ages (5th-15th centuries) across Europe. 

One chapter of the book particularly discusses the importance of physicians and cooks during this time period and their relationship with one another.  The wealthier families during the Middle Ages usually had cooks in their homes that would cook specific dishes in accordance with each persons health.  In order words, if someone was sick, they would cook them a "sick dish."  Cooks would use medical doctrines of their time to guide their cooking.  Physicians looked at the source of the problem and prescribed their patients with medication that was to combat that specific ailment.  Among the more popular plants known to help cure illnesses was mustard seed, garlic, mushrooms, onions, and peppers.  Towards the last couple of centuries of the Middle Ages, people began to develop an interest in curing diseases and as trade grew, herbs became more and more readily available.  Physicians started writing more and more books that contained many recipes to "sick dishes" that cooks used, chicken and parsley being the most common ingredients. (9)

In another chapter of the book, Peter Murray Jones discusses how Medieval surgeons used herbs during operations.  Physicians began to write books and manuals to guide one another on how to treat the sick.  While herbs were the most popular ingredient in curing the sick, physicians also relied on animal parts, minerals, and exotic spices among other things.  One primary source Murray uses is that of the 14th century English surgeon John of Arderne.  Arderne was born in 1307 and died in 1370, and while he was a surgeon, he was never educated in the field.  Instead, he was taught by others who were also not educated in the field of surgery.  Although he was uneducated, he left very descriptive writings behind that discussed herbal therapy, how surgeons made choices, and issues regarding getting a hold of herbs and plants.  It was very helpful for Murray to include this in his work because it is a good primary source, but also shows how important herbs were in Medieval medicine. (10)

John of Arderne performing fistula in ano, from Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden edited by Peter Dendle and Alain Touwaide.

The above picture is an illustration of John of Arderne performing fistula in ano.  Arderne was known as the only one able to perform this procedure.  During and after the procedure he used several herbs to treat the patients.  Wealthier patients would get more expensive herbal medicine, while the poorer patients would receive the most basic.  Arderne and other physicians would get these herbs from apothecary shops or would grow them themselves.  Walwort was the herb Arderne used the most and its purpose was to stop blood loss.  Arderne's works are extremely useful because he provides illustrations (although not detailed) of the herbs and plants he uses, something that was not that popular during the 14th and 15th centuries. (11)

Dendle and Touwaide's work is useful in understanding herbs and medicine during the Middle Ages.  It gives us a different view from what I have been discussing up until this point.  In the future I would like to see how gardens were planted in the Middle Ages and if Medieval gardens were directly influence by Roman gardens.