ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the ultimate distinction in The Wild Garden was less between formal and informal manners than between gardens and gardening that is the noun versus the verb. The more naturalistic of the gardens’ zones bracketed these more formally-composed areas, centrifugally spinning ever more informally, blending with the agricultural countryside off in the distance beyond the discernment of optical parallax. “The formal treatment of gardens,” Reginald Blomfield asserted, “ought to be called the architectural treatment of gardens for it consists in the extension of the principles of design which govern the house to the grounds which surround it.” The simplest translation into English of the Japanese words shin-gyo-so might be “formal, semi-formal, and informal” orders, although typically, far more is implied in their implementation. Contrasting formalities create visual or conceptual richness in many fields of Japanese design. In Renaissance Italy the natural, or at least naturalistic, bosco selvatico complemented the formality of the villa’s principal garden.
