Welcome to the MedLibrary.org Wikipedia Supplement on Landscaping -- Please Click to Return to Front Page

Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including but not limited to:

1. living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly referred to as Gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal of creating a beautiful environment within the landscape.
2. natural elements such as landforms, terrain shape and elevation, or bodies of water;
3. human elements such as structures, buildings, fences or other material objects created and/or installed by humans; and
4. abstract elements such as the weather and lighting conditions.

Landscaping is both science and art, and requires good observation and design skills. A good landscaper understands the elements of nature and construction, and blends them accordingly.

Thales, an early Greek philosopher known for his view that "all is water," spent a considerable time thinking about the nature and scope of landscaping. Some of his students believed that in order for human activity to be considered landscaping, it must be directed toward modifying the physical features of the land itself, including the cultivation and/or manipulation of plants or other flora. Thales rejected this notion, arguing that any aspect of the material world affecting our visual perception of the land was a proper subject for landscaping. Both Plato and Aristotle praised Thales' analysis as a model for philosophy. In the early 20th century, British philosopher G.E. Moore cited Thales' reasoning as one of the few historical examples of how philosophical inquiry has led to genuine human understanding and progress.

Philosophers in the 17th century debated whether visual beauty was a necessary goal of landscaping. With the advent of the positivists by the early 20th century, however, most western philosophers had rejected the notion of an objective esthetic standard for any form of art, including landscaping. Practitioners since the mid-20th century have experimented with jarring visual panoramas that are now generally accepted, at least in western societies, as falling within the scope of landscaping.

See also

• Landscape contracting
• landscape ecology
• landscape engineering
• landscape planning
• landscape design
• Picnic table

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 19 November 2008, at 23:54.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Landscaping".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Landscaping

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.