Part 5

“Show me your garden, and I shall tell you what you are,” wrote English poet Alfred Austin in 1905. Then as now, gardens are an expression of certain lifestyles and living standards.

In the Baroque Era, gardens with artistically trimmed hedges, circular flower beds and boxwood bordering were a status symbol of wealthy citizens. Such changes were also seen in the countryside. Farmers became more prosperous as they transitioned from self-sufficiency to the general economic system and became independent landowners for the first time. The garden no longer served exclusively to supply the family. The typical farm garden has disappeared since then.

With the beginning of the Industrial Age in the 19th c., field and garden cultivation was intensified through technical innovations like the combine, mineral fertilizer and plant breeding. Corn and rapeseed took over large areas, and the potato made its triumphal procession. They displaced root crops like parsnip from the field.  Meanwhile, “new” vegetables like black salsify and carotene-rich orange carrots appeared in gardens. Scarlet runner beans, including the variety „Witzenhäuser Riesenbohne“ here in the bed, have also been since cultivated.