When Did Landscaping First Start in Durham?
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When it comes to landscaping, Durham North Carolina got it’s start back before Europeans ever settled in the area. In fact, records show landscaping in Durham being done by the Occaneechi Indians hundreds of years ago! But before we get too deep into North Carolina history here, we first need to really narrow down what we mean by “landscaping”.
A landscape can be defined as the features of an area, its forms, and how these integrate with man-made or natural features. It includes geophysical landforms such as hills, mountains, lakes, rivers, ponds and the sea. The landscape also includes indigenous vegetation, structures, and buildings, human elements such as land use, as well as transitory elements such as weather conditions and lighting. The action of modifying visible features in an area of land can be referred to as landscaping, and that’s exactly what the Occaneechi Indians were doing in the area way before anyone else settled in the area.
When combining both the cultural overlay and the origins of human presence (created over millennia), a living synthesis of place and people can be seen reflected in landscapes that become vital to national and local identity. A landscape’s character can help to define the self-image of the people inhabiting it and offers a sense of place to differentiate regions one from the other. This is exactly what the Durham landscaping company Leisure Landscapes does for it’s clients. As they explain on their website, as a dynamic backdrop to the lives of people, landscapers can be as varied as a wilderness, a landscaped park or farmland.
The earth possesses a vast range of landscapes that include:
- Icy Landscapes
- Mountainous landscapes
- Polar regions
- Islands
- Tropical rainforests
- Wooded or densely forested landscapes
- Tropical and temperate regions
- Coastal regions
- Arid desert landscapes
Landscaped Gardens
The English Garden or the English Landscape Park is a style of garden intended to look like a natural landscape, although it may have been extensively rearranged. The English landscape garden originated in England during the early 18th Century and replaced the symmetrical, more formal style of gardening of the 17th Century to become the principal style for large gardens and parks in Europe and Ireland. It represents an idealistic view of nature and draws inspiration from landscape paintings by famous artists.
An English Landscape Garden or Park will usually include sweeps of gently rolling lawns against a background of trees, a lake, and recreations of bridges, classical temples, Gothic ruins or picturesque architecture, designed to recreate a tranquil pastoral landscape. Soon the English Garden was being imitated by French landscape gardeners as well as in St. Petersburg, Russia. It also had a major influence on the form public parks took around the world in the 19th Century.
A Chinese Garden is done in a style that evolved over a period of three thousand years. Built to impress, and for pleasure, it includes the huge gardens of Chinese Emperors and other members of the Imperial family. The more intimate versions of the Chinese Garden were created for reflection and escape from the outside world by poets, scholars, merchants, soldiers and government officials. As an idealized miniature landscape, they are meant to express the harmony desired between nature and man. A typical Chinese garden includes walls, ponds, flowers, trees, ‘scholar’s rocks’ and an array of pavilions and halls connected by zig-zag galleries and winding paths. A series of carefully composed scenes can be viewed by moving from one structure to another, almost like unrolling a scroll of landscape paintings.
Landscape History
Landscape History is the study of how humanity has changed the environment’s physical appearance, both past, and present, and is sometimes referred to as landscape archaeology. It not only applies to the landscaping done by these Durham, NC landscapers, but also the many other landscaping companies in North Carolina. During the 20th Century, it was first recognized as a separate area of study and used approaches and evidence from disciplines such as architecture, archaeology, ecology, aerial photography, historical geography and local history.
