Context and Form in Garden Classification

Authors

• David Fenner, University of North FloridaFollow

Abstract

Correctly classifying a garden is important because it allows us to appreciate a garden for what it is, create maintenance agendas for gardens, compare gardens to others in appropriate ways, and meaningfully evaluate gardens. We may correctly classify a garden by first deciding on an appropriate taxonomic approach and, second, by fitting gardens into their appropriate taxa. The first is achieved through justifying the organizing schema by ensuring that it significantly meets the goals mentioned above, results in meaningful and satisfying garden appreciation, and is comprehensive in scope—the creation of this taxonomic approach necessarily includes reference to a garden’s context. The second is achieved through focus on those perceptual elements of a particular garden’s form that appropriately set its membership in a given taxon; in contrast to the creation of a taxonomic approach, the process of placing a garden in a given taxon focuses on the perceptually available form of that garden.