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Let’s be honest, as a gardener you can be found considering buying garden accessories or perhaps marveling at those Alan Titchmarsh garden spades - but it’s worth pointing out, it’s taken the majority of human history to reach this level. Rakes and shears are surprisingly recent tools, but as you know, the concept of gardens is as old as humanity. This pastime can trace its roots to the cradle of civilization itself.

The Egyptians cultivated gardens for spirituality, for practical reasons, and we shouldn’t leave out pleasure. Generally protected by walls of stone, fertile grounds were filled with flowers, grapes, fruit and nut bearing trees, vegetables, and from time to time pools for fish. Admittedly the bulk was for food but some plants were cultivated to honor some of their deities. And other herbs, important to the priests, grew on the surrounding land.

Other civilizations, too, were known for designing early gardens. The list also includes the Persians, the Assyrians, as well as the Babylonians, all of whom also incorporated buildings of significant scope into places. The Romans were another tribe who went in for tranquil gardens, unlike their forebears the Greeks. They cultivated farmland purely for food. While we grant you they wouldn’t have had lawn rakes or forks, these nations had invented quite the selection of elementary implements and accessories not dissimilar to modern spades and hoes. Spades were made of stone in the earlier years, but their replacements used iron, bronze, and copper. The mayhem of Europe’s Dark Ages caused several cultures to set aside the simple spade and the rest of the garden tools - except for the priests, who grew certain flowers and herbs. Slowly we went back to cultivating gardens for pleasure. Conventions began to emerge, a formal structure determining the way the garden should eventually appear. You’ve only got to contemplate the work that goes into a hedge maze or knot garden to see this. So if you’re musing on ways to mend some vexatious lawn rakes deformity or studying some interesting lawn rake review, don’t forget that things changed again when visionaries such as William Kent, Humphry Repton, as well as Lancelot “Capability” Brown turned to contrivances like yours to develop brilliant landscapes. “Capability” Brown and others examined the traditions - so fixed by then as to be essentially fossilized - and ignored any that obstructed their plans, combining a realistic panorama with captivating statuary and other such decorative touches. Yes, things have evolved over the generations, but gardens are still popular for much the same reasons. There’s no way you’ll discover a more picturesque place to be than a garden paradise.