 | Ancient Roman gardens--classical and formal, bountiful and beautiful. The concept of the villa and its gardens date back to the late Roman Empire and their designs are still inspiring modern gardeners and landscapers today. Depending upon your landscape and garden style, you can incorporate elements of a classical Roman garden into your design bringing a bit of the ancient world into the modern gardening era.
When one thinks of classical Rome, inevitably, sculptures, basins, columns and marble fountains come to mind. But in fact, the first gardens of Rome were simple affairs consisting fruit, vegetables and a few flowers. However, Roman gardens began to incorporate styles of other cultures—the peoples they conquered in Greece, Egypt and Assyria for example. The influence of their conquests produced two styles of Roman gardens—one affiliated with the house that could be described as a courtyard or patio-type garden and of course the more sprawling and formal villa gardens.
Depending on your space, either style could be employed to great effect given today’s availability of plants and garden ornaments. A Roman’s house garden might have formal elements, but essentially it was functional. From the ruins of Pompeii, archaeologists have uncovered frescoes on the walls of these courtyard-type gardens that depict garden scenes—fruit trees, trelliswork, fountains, plants, bouquets of flowers. Garden wall art is a great way to bring ancient Rome into your own garden. Many artists today can be obtained to produce a large-scale work for your situation. For more ornamental ideas, you should page through ancient books about Rome with plenty of pictures. Your walls might sport statues, temples, ruins, etc…
Water plays a very important role in Roman gardens whether informal or formal. Your patio garden might employ a simple marble basin used to collect rainwater. Also, consider a wall fountain done in the Roman style. Animal statues were common in Roman gardens and there are many wall fountains that feature everything from lions to fish. A simple statue of a classical figure or even a mythological being would be quite fitting in a corner of the patio garden. Also, as ancient Romans had quite a reputation for indulging in feasts, your garden should have entertainment in mind. Ancient Romans often dined on low couches and such garden furniture would certainly cap off your ancient Roman garden.
In Pompeii ninety-three varieties of plants have been identified beneath the volcanic ash that destroyed the ancient city. To recreate such a garden that may have existed there, plant boxwood, roses, violets, irises, hyacinths, pines, pomegranates, firs, cypress and poplars. Be sure to plant some herbs for use in the kitchen in order to prepare some authentic Roman cuisine for your guests.
Formal villa gardens are an entirely different affair—although you could incorporate several features of courtyard gardens into the design like the statues and fountains for instance. Often these villa gardens had large rectangular pools and sunken gardens. Romans are famous for their aqueducts and ability to move water efficiently so they were quite proud of their water features. Consider any classical style that suits your taste when choosing a fountain. Several famous Romans like Pliny the Younger also kept fishponds.
A wonderful way to add a touch of the ancient world to your large garden might be to incorporate ruins. Old columns set down flat and covered with moss or vines. Broken statues set among the roses provide a Roman influence. On a smaller scale, employing old storage vessels like pottery water jugs—even cracked—as planters adds more old world nuance to the design.
Topiaries were a major element of ancient Roman villa gardens, but small ones would perfectly suit a courtyard garden too. Shaping box and cypress became an art form to the Romans. Topiaries are quite popular today so you should have little trouble maintaining them upon doing a bit of research. However, between your fountains and statues consider planting acanthus, lilies, roses and laurel.
Also, for the gardener’s enjoyment bathing pools and sunken hot tubs also have distinctive Roman feel for whom bathing was a social event. While these come in many styles, classical design is generally easy to be found, but keep in mind, your garden’s ornamentation can go a long way in giving that ancient feel. Marble is expensive, so if a marble tub is not possible, try to install just a few marble tiles around your water feature where your guest can place their goblet of Roman wine.
Bronze, iron, stone and terracotta ornamental features provide lots of ancient influence and you can find anything from containers to candle lanterns to bird baths today online or at your local garden center. Other features like pergolas, trellises and small aviaries all have their place in a classical Roman garden all bedecked with grapevine or laurel.
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