City Gardens (entry)

Categories / City Topography/Green Areas/Gardens, Orchards
CITY GARDENS are landscape architectural monuments. In contrast to city parks, in the process of planting and arranging the gardens, the original fauna and character of the area are almost completely lost, whereas parks usually inherit the natural landscape. Soil is added and the territory is thoroughly drained, the relief is planned, a new layer of soil was formed in the course of laying the first city gardens in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 18th century (such as the Summer Garden, Mikhailovsky Garden etc.). The original growth was almost completely obliterated, specially chosen trees and bushes were planted instead of it. Lawns and flower beds of regular geometrical shape were arranged in the gardens. Hardwoods (mostly deciduous species) almost exclusively make up the plantations in city gardens of the present day. Thorny fir resistant to air pollution is the most wide spread tree among conifers. Specific grasses are planted on lawns but numerous weeds appear if they do not receive the necessary care. In addition to the named gardens, the most popular city gardens in the historical centre of St. Petersburg are Alexandrovsky Garden, Ekaterininsky Garden, Rumyantsevsky Garden and Tavrichesky Garden.

References: Ходаков Ю. И. Зеленый наряд города. Л., 1986; Горышина Т. К. Зеленый мир старого Петербурга. СПб., 2003.

G. А. Isachenko.