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Abstract

Research into historic gardens has often emphasized the garden – the work of art – or elseits creator or owner and his interests. Insofar as he has been mentioned, the gardener hasoften been viewed as an instrumental person giving effect to other people’s intentions. Agarden, however, is an ongoing process and its form and content are created and re-createdthrough the actions and decisions of various agents. The gardener’s knowledge, contactsand managerial acumen have a supremely palpable impact on the outcome. Despite thepivotal role of himself and his work in gardens throughout history, the gardener’s almostcomplete absence in research is notable. Knowledge born of experience, the work of handand body, has somehow been taken for granted.This study is based on sources of many different kinds, such as gardening accounts,contracts of service, inventories, wage bills, estate inventories, correspondence, citizenshiprolls, gardening manuals, horticultural journals and travelogues. In the absence of completecradle-to-grave data for one individual, it has not been possible to make an individual casestudy of a particular gardener. Instead particulars of travel, workplaces, forms of tenure,tasks, name changes, godparents, succession, chattels etc. have been obtained from differentdocuments about different gardeners in different places. The main emphasis of the study ison southern Sweden, without focusing on any particular geographic region.The thesis shows that a skilled master gardener, with his experiential knowledge, or ‘tacitknowledge’, was essential to the formal and substantial functioning of the garden during the18th century. His role was that of caring for the garden and moving it forward, preservingand developing a concept, giving it a raison d’être and transforming it completely whencalled upon to do so. In addition, a gardener had to organize the work in the garden, teachgarden boys and journeymen, run a business and keep the accounts, present the garden tovisitors and sometimes develop new horticultural techniques. The study indirectly providesknowledge concerning the nature of garden design and the manner of its creation.

Keywords

gardening; biographies; gardens; plant production; cultivation equipment; documentation; professional associations; history; sweden

Published in

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2005, number: 2005:54
Publisher: Department of Landscape Planning, Horticulture and Agricultural Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science

Publication identifier

  • ISBN: 91-576-6953-8

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/12666