In gardening

Gardening

Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...

, a terrace is an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a prospect

Prospect

Prospect may refer to:* Prospect , a Scottish architecture magazine* Prospect High School , various high schools* Prospect House, the former President's residence and current faculty club of Princeton University...

. A raised terrace keeps a house dry and provides a transition between the hard materials of the architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 and softer ones of the garden.

History

Persia
Since a level site is generally regarded as a requisite for comfort and repose, the terrace as a raised viewing platform made an early appearance in the ancient Persian gardening tradition

Persian Gardens

The tradition and style in the garden design of Persian gardens has influenced the design of gardens from Andalusia to India and beyond. The gardens of the Alhambra show the influence of Persian Garden philosophy and style in a Moorish Palace scale from the era of Al-Andalus in Spain...

, where the enclosed orchard, or paradise

Paradise

Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...

, was to be viewed from a ceremonial tent. Such a terrace had its origins in the far older agricultural practice of terracing a sloping site: see Terrace (agriculture)

Terrace (agriculture)

Terraces are used in farming to cultivate sloped land. Graduated terrace steps are commonly used to farm on hilly or mountainous terrain. Terraced fields decrease erosion and surface runoff, and are effective for growing crops requiring much water, such as rice...

. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were considered to be one of the greatest Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one of the Wonders which may in fact have been legendary. They were purportedly built in the ancient city-state of Babylon, near present-day Al Hillah, Babil, in Iraq...

 must have been built on an artificial mountain with stepped terraces, like those on a ziggurat

Ziggurat

Ziggurats were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels.Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, Iraq; the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near...

.

Ancient Rome
Lucullus

Lucullus

Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...

 brought back to Rome first-hand experience of Persian gardening in the hilly sites of Asia Minor; the villa gardens of Maecenas

Gardens of Maecenas

The Gardens of Maecenas, built by the Augustan era patron of the arts Gaius Maecenas, were the first gardens in the Hellenistic-Persian garden style in Rome...

, which included libraries open to scholars, incurred the disdain of Seneca

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...

. At Praeneste during the early Imperial period, the sanctuary of Fortuna

Fortuna

Fortuna can mean:*Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck -Geographical:*19 Fortuna, asteroid*Fortuna, California, town located on the north coast of California*Fortuna, United States Virgin Islands...

 was enlarged and elaborated, the natural slope being shaped into a series of terraces linked by stairs.
The imperial villas at Capri

Capri

Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...

 were built to take advantage of varied terraces. At the seaside Villa of the Papyri

Villa of the Papyri

The Villa of the Papyri is a private house in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum . Situated north-west of the township, the residence sits halfway up the slope of the volcano Vesuvius without other buildings to obstruct the view. The villa suburbana was owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law,...

 in Herculaneum, the villa gardens of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

's father-in-law fell away in a series of terraces, giving pleasant and varied views of the Bay of Naples. Only some of them have been excavated. At Villa of Livia

Villa of Livia

The villa of Livia was probably part of Livia Drusilla's dowry brought to the Julio-Claudian dynasty. It was named and famous for its breed of white chickens and for its laurel grove , which were given auspiciously omened origins by Suetonius...

, probably part of Livia Drusilla's dowry brought to the Julio-Claudian dynasty, rooms in the cryptoporticus

Cryptoporticus

In Ancient Roman architecture a cryptoporticus is a covered corridor or passageway. The usual English is "cryptoportico". The cryptoportico is a semi-subterranean gallery whose vaulting supports portico structures aboveground and which is lit from openings at the tops of its arches...

 beneath terracing were frescoed with trees in bloom and fruit.

Italian Renaissance
During the Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

, the formalized, civilizing imprint of human control over wild nature expressed in terracing that was combined with stairs and water features, drew villa patrons and garden designers to escarpments that surveyed a handsome prospect. At the influential Cortile del Belvedere

Cortile del Belvedere

The Cortile del Belvedere, the Belvedere courtyard, designed by Donato Bramante from 1506 onwards, was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome; its concept and details reverberating in courtyard design, formalized piazzas and garden plans throughout Western...

 at the Vatican Palace, perfected under a series of popes from the earliest 16th century, the backdrop within the enclosed court was a raised terrace. The view in this case was from the Stanze of Raphael on an upper floor of the Palace.

English landscape garden
Even in the most naturalistic landscape garden

Landscape garden

The term landscape garden is often used to describe the English garden design style characteristic of the eighteenth century, that swept the Continent replacing the formal Renaissance garden and Garden à la française models. The work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown is particularly influential.The...

s of Capability Brown

Capability Brown

Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...

, a raised gravelled or paved terrace along the garden front offered a dry walk in damp weather and a transition between the hard materials of the architecture and the rolling greensward beyond.

Contemporary

Contemporary terrace gardens, in addition to being in the garden and landscape, often occur in urban areas and are terrace architecture

Terrace (building)

A terrace is an outdoor, occupiable extension of a building above ground level. Although its physical characteristics may vary to a great degree, a terrace will generally be larger than a balcony and will have an "open-top" facing the sky...

 elements that extend out from an apartment or residence at any floor level other than ground level. They are often discussed in conjunction with roof gardens, although they are not always true roof gardens, instead being balconies and decks. These outdoor spaces can become lush gardens through the use of container gardening, automated drip irrigation

Drip irrigation

Drip irrigation, also known as trickle irrigation or microirrigation or localized irrigation , is an irrigation method which saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves,...

 and low-flow irrigation systems

Low-flow irrigation systems

Low-flow irrigation systems, called low volume irrigation or microirrigation, is an irrigation method that operates under a lower water pressure than standard service systems, with a "lower-flow" resulting when combined with water delivery components manufactured for this application...

, and outdoor furnishings.