IX | Kitchen Garden.
The art of gardening, which may be called the luxury of agriculture,[IX_1] was known at the most remote periods.[IX_2] In the same inclosure was to be found the kitchen garden, orchard, and flower garden,[IX_3] at a short distance from the habitation of the rich.[IX_4] Royal hands did not disdain to embellish those spots which afforded a pleasing retreat, solitude, and repose.
Thus Attalus resigned the cares of his crown to cultivate his little garden, and sow in it the seeds of his favourite plant.[IX_5]
Babylon, the renowned city of antiquity, was celebrated amongst other wonders for her gardens suspended in the air; they were partly in existence sixteen centuries after their erection, and astonished Alexander the Great[IX_6] by the sublime grandeur of their prodigious boldness and the rare beauty of their workmanship.
Homer has left us the description of Alcinous’s garden,[IX_7] from which can be traced the birth of the art of gardening; its luxury consisted in the order and symmetry of its form, in the richness of its soil, the fertility of the trees, and in the two fountains which ornamented it. It was not so with the Romans. Those conquerors of the world displayed every where pomp and ostentation: Lucullus, Crassus, Pompey, and Cæsar, filled their gardens with the riches of Asia and the spoils of the universe.[IX_8]
The serious horticulturist, who wanted a garden for enjoyment, and not for show, carefully laboured, to see it bring forth fine fruits and excellent vegetables.[IX_9] Water was properly distributed for irrigation by means of aqueducts[IX_10] of tiles, wood, or lead pipes,[IX_11] and everywhere the plants received the necessary moisture; and clever experienced gardeners were constantly occupied in improvements suggested by an attentive and skilful master.[IX_12]
The kitchen garden of the ancients contained mostly the vegetables, herbs, and roots, of which we still make use; but they also cultivated certain other kinds, which modern cookery has either put aside or rarely employs. We shall describe all those which appear most worthy of notice.