Ornamental Horticulture

Gardens for cities

In a city, there may be parks of several sizes from very large to medium size and also squares or small gardens are generally found at street intersections. The small gardens or squares are planted with a view to relieve the eyes of the people passing by them or for a short resting period for those who care to use them. Therefore, these may be planted with a patch of grass, few flower beds, one or two shade or flowering trees or a group of shrubs and trees. The medium to large parks are meant for a place of recreation and these are considered as lungs of the cities. These should be a place of beauty as well as utility.

A small city park may be an area anything between 5 and 100 hectares or little more. A large rural park gives a degree of seclusion from the city but the small city park, as it is situated within the city, has no such characteristic although the features may be the same as that of large rural park. In the small parks, the scenery created will not look as natural as those of a large rural park because of the limitation of space. A small park should have enough strolling space for the citizens. Good flowering and shade trees should be planted in groups or singly in some corners or other suitable places for creating beauty as well as a place for resting. Garden benches should be constructed at regular intervals especially under the shade of the trees. Few interesting and rare shrubs should also be included. Besides these, some garden adornments such as statues or fountains can also be planed in appropriate parts of such parks.

The third category of city parks may be called as pleasure grounds which have large reserve areas for playing games and often this is the main feature of these parks. A restricted swimming pool is also often a feature of a pleasure ground. If it is meant for the children, features such as swings, see-saw, sliding chute, etc., should form part of the park. Due to hard usage it is almost impossible to maintain grass area within this park. Some trees and shrubs may be planted aesthetically to make the view pleasing to the eyes.