Gardens of the World - Introduction

Portland Oregon Japanese Gadens
Photo: Alison Hawkins 2010

In these dreary Winter months a gardener longs for the warmer Spring that are just around the corner. I love the time leading up to and including the Holidays, I think Christmas light become my substitute for plants, but once the decorations come down, its a long cold haul until Spring. To pass a little of the time, I started watching the series Downton Abbey. I don't know how many of you have seen it, but if you haven't, run do not walk to PBS and catch up! The series is filmed on a gorgeous estate in England. I recently ran across an article about the gardens on the estate. This got me thinking about gardening traditions around the world.

I thought what better way to spend the cold months of winter than taking a tour of the garden traditions around the world and exploring how they influenced our gardens of today, why the did what they did and more...

Portland Oregon Japanese Gardens
Photo: Alison Hawkins 2010 

I'm planning on exploring
* Colonial American
* Formal English
* Japanese
* French
* Mediterranean
* Middle Eastern
* Traditional Chinese

I hope you'll enjoy this tour of the Gardens of the World and that it'll help us get through until Spring.

I will start with Traditional Chinese Gardens this weekend.....