A Brief History of Landscaping

by Kristyne McDaniel

Landscaping refers to any process or activity that alters the features of a portion of land in a visible way, such as living elements of fauna and flora, landforms, such as terrain elevation and shape or bodies of water, human elements, such as structures and fences, and abstract factors such as elements to somewhat control the lighting and / or weather conditions.

Landscaping is a highly aesthetic art form that requires a volume of practical knowledge having to do with plant knowledge, practical applications and working with various tools. It could be stated that the earliest landscaper was the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who spent a great deal of time pondering the nature and various scopes of landscaping.

Where many early landscapers argued that true landscaping alters plants or fields directly, such as in the activities of cultivation of food crops, Thales rejected this definition of landscaping, arguing that any aspect of the physical world affecting one’s visual perception of an area of land was a proper application of landscaping.

Both Aristotle and Plato had nothing but praise for Thales philosophical modeling involving landscaping, as well as how his theories can be applied elsewhere in philosophical exploration. G.E. Moore also cited Thales in several of his own philosophical works expressing how philosophical inquiry and discourse has led to the truest forms of human progress and understanding.

Then in the 1800s many philosophers debated whether or not visual beauty should even be considered a required goal of landscaping, though by this time most western philosophical thinkers had grown to reject the idea of an objective esthetic standard for any form of art, whether landscaping or architecture.

Landscaping professionals and practitioners since the latter half of the 20th century have experimented with spectacular visual panoramas that have since become widely accepted as falling into the category of landscaping, at least in the West.