Is it essential to have a knowledge of garden history to be a good garden/landscape designer?

I suppose the answer is "No, not really", when you consider that most garden designs are for personal places of beauty and pleasure for the clientS... and yet, and yet...

Designers such as Kim Wilkie and Tom Stuart Smith both often work within historical settings, either re-creating a period garden or introducing contemporary design into
one. They need to know about garden history, it is their trade. But I often wonder when I go on garden history courses or garden trust outings, why am I the only garden designer there? And why, when I meet other garden designers, they may talk about contemporary designers they admire or historical gardens they love, but follow-up conversation about those gardens often show only a vague interest in the story of the garden, the past owners, the culture of the times. Have I just been unlucky? Or do I expect something beyond talent, plant knowledge and the ability to put elements together into a practical design?

I cannot help feeling that a curiosity about gardens of the past should be there in all garden designers. Not just a curiosity, but a desire to learn. A desire to look at plans, to see what designers of he past did; why they did it and what influenced them. To see how the same spaces were altered by designers through centuries; how each designer saw the same space differently. How they borrowed from each other, or deliberately did things differently to draw attention to themselves. Surely thereare lessons of all designers there of spatial relationships if nothing else. I like to read about their backgrounds, their other interests; their politics and those of their owners.

Nothing to do with the gardens? I think not.

I am reading a book by Tim Richardson, ‘The Arcadians’, which link the landscapes of the time of William and Mary, Queen Anne and the Hanoverians to the politics, culture and art of the time. This book is right up my street; it enables me to see the garden plans more clearly, and the gardens too, where they exist or have been restored. And, talking of restoration, it is the understanding of all the things behind the garden which can solve problems arising from a drawing. There is no question why Richardson did not call his book ‘Arcadian Gardens’; the gardens are part of the people, they are the outward sign of people’s beliefs as well as their aesthetic judgement. So, actually, are contemporary gardens, although it is rarely discussed.

When people used to say to me, "I like the music of Beethoven but I don’t understand it". I said that they didn’t have to understand it, just to enjoy it; so I suppose I should take the same line in gardens. Yet, I know that the best musicians know about the background of the music they play. You only have to switch on Radio 3 to know that.

Yes, I do feel that designers should know their history...