The Beginning Of Gardening In Russia

Tsar Peter was not at all the beginning of ornamental gardening in Russia, as some think. Our country has a rich gardening tradition. From time immemorial, at the monasteries there were orchards and pharmaceutical gardens, where medicinal and fragrant herbs were grown. The gardens were decorated with boyar estates and modest houses of townspeople, not to mention the royal estates. In the 17th century, there was an unusual hanging garden in the Moscow Kremlin - the prototype of modern roof gardens. Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich began to equip it, but the work was completed only with his son - Alexei Mikhailovich.

The roof of the former chambers of Ivan the Terrible was covered with lead slabs, and a stone wall with windows was built on the sides. Then they brought in fertile land and started planting. We planted fruit trees, berry bushes, all kinds of flowers and even made a small vegetable garden on the roof. The paths in the hanging garden were planks, sprinkled with sand from the Sparrow Hills. The garden was decorated with cages with songbirds, parrots and quails. There were also painted shops and armchairs for the tsar and tsarina, and even a pond with "water meters", as fountains were called in the old days.

As a child, Tsar Peter was sometimes rolled over this pond in a red and gold boat. Maybe it was in those years that Peter's passion for gardening, so memorable to many, was born? Overwhelmed with this passion, the king ordered plants from Holland to decorate the northern capital. At his invitation, gardening masters from Europe went to Russia, who tried to instill in Russians European concepts and garden tastes. And the sovereign made it a rule that at such dear assemblies, gentlemen and ladies adorn their dresses and hairstyles with flowers. Zubov's engraving "The Wedding of Peter" clearly shows the fashionable hairstyles of the ladies at that time, resembling tall towers in their appearance. They were based on a wire frame, which was decorated with lace, ribbons, precious stones and flowers.