Here is an article taken from the Orthodox Arts Journal which appears to be consistent with the ideas that I have proposed about the connection of the garden to the liturgy
This was sent to me by reader James Morgan (thank you James!). It is one of a series of called An Icon of the Kingdom of God - the Integrated Expression of all the Liturgical Arts (h/t James Morgan). It is written by Andrew Gould the architect (and it seems garden designer).
This is right in line also with my own thoughts on the importance cultivating for beauty; that a proper ecology is one in which man, by God's grace, manages the environment by working harmoniously with it. As a result he builds it up to what it ought to be which, as a general rule, is greater and more beautiful than it is as untouched wilderness. Accordingly gardening is in some way recreating Eden, or even the paradise of the redeemed world (which perhaps some might consider to be very similar but perhaps not exactly the same thing).
There is a hierarchy. Well farmed land is more beautiful than the wilderness it replaced. And then a garden cultivated for the contemplation of its beauty is more elevated still. So in my mind, it is more noble thing to grow flowers in your back garden than to grow vegetables...or keep chickens.
The pictures below are taken from the article:
The flower garden of the Stretensky Monastery, Moscow
Western European style with the cross-in-square archetype of paradise in the Alcazar, Cordoba, Spain
Byzantine courtyard athe Kaisariani Monastery, Greece
St Anthony's Monastery, Egypt
Medieval style garden designed by the author in South Carolina
The following photographs are of the gardens of the Alhambra palace in Granada in southern Spain.
