Medieval gardening, or gardening during the medieval period, was the cief method of providing food for households, but also encompassed orchards, cemetaries and pleasure gardens. For the purposes of this article, the European medieval era will be considered to span from 400 to 1400 CE, though appropriate references may be made to earlier and later times. Gardening is the deliberate cultivation of plants herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables. The gardening article discusses the differences and similarities between gardens and farms in greater detail.
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Humans' relationship with plants is almost as old as humans as a species. The majority of our knowledge about the method and means of gardens in the Middle Ages comes through archaeology, surviving textual documentation, and surviving artworks such as paintings, tapestry and illumination. The early middle ages brings us a surprisingly clear snapshot of the european gardening situation at the time of charlemagne with the survival of three important documentations, being the Capitulare of Charlemagne, Walafrid Strabo's poem Hortulus, and the Plan of St Gall which depicts three garden areas and lists what was grown.