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Moonlit Formal Gardens

© Kirk Johnson

The human eye contains cells in the retina called cones and rods. In bright light we use the cones to see, in dim light we use the rods. The cones are sensitive to yellow, the rods to blue-green. In moonlight, the level of illumination is so low that we are essentially colorblind. Instead of seeing in black and white, we see in shades of white and blue-green. The rods also don't see as clearly as the cones do. Because humans don't see well in dim light, a garden which is designed for moonlight should have a simple structure. This is why when traditional Japanese and Chinese gardens are designed for moonlight, the focal point is a pond or an area of white sand.

I expect that many classical Italian gardens were designed for evenings and moonlit nights. The typical design for a classical Italian garden isn't well suited to a hot summer climate. There is usually a large open area next to the palazzo, this area is not inviting under the scorching sun, but it is very inviting once the sun starts to set. Some of the most important classical Italian gardens were not next to the owner's house, they were next to entertainment pavilions which were mainly used for dinner parties. How the garden looked in the evening would have been an important consideration. The pale sand or gravel paths bordered by clipped evergreen hedges were highly visible in moonlight, this made formal gardens enjoyable as patterns and easy to walk through.

One of the most influential formal gardens of the 20th century is Sissinghurst's white garden. Sissinghurst was an unusual house because it was a ruin when Harold Nicholson and his wife Vita Sackville-West bought it in 1930. They couldn't afford to rebuild the missing parts of the castle, so they lived in the fragments that survived. These are the wings on either side of the entry gate, the tower, the south cottage, and the priest's house. Vita and Harold had their private living quarters in the south cottage, the priest's house contained the kitchen and dining room as well as bedrooms for their two sons. Attached to the east wall of the priest's house is an area for outdoor dining, the table sits under a trellis which is held up by columns, this simple structure was known as the Erectheum. The Erectheum sits in the northwest corner of a rectangular formal garden. The rectangle is divided into four parts by crossing paths, the two quarters in the south end of the rectangle are again divided into four parts by crossing paths. The north end of the rectangle is more complex, this area is quartered and then quartered again to create 16 small beds which are separated from each other by paths.

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