as much horticulture as art

[yamyam]

Hello teachers.

Would you read the following passage?

The garden is a middle landscape between wild nature and the city. Although the word evokes the natural, the garden itself is manifestly an artifact. In China one speaks of "building" a garden, whereas in Europe one may speak of "planting" a garden. The difference suggests that the Chinese, unlike Europeans, are more ready to admit the garden's artificial character. Because artifice connotes civilization to the Chinese elite, it doesn't have quite the negative meaning it has for Europeans brought up on stories of prelapsarian Eden and on Romantic conceptions of nature. European gardens were originally planted to meet certain basic needs around the house: food, medicinal herbs, and suchlike. In early medieval times they were an indiscriminate mixture of the useful and the beautiful, as much horticulture as art. Progressively, however, the gardens of the potentates moved in the direction of aesthetics and arichitecture. From ...


What does the sentence "they were an indiscriminate mixture of the useful and the beautiful, as much horticulture as art" actually mean?

Does it mean the following?

they were an indiscriminate mixture of the useful gardens and the beautiful gardens, that is, they were as much horticulture as art

If my guess is wrong, would you let me know the correct interpretation of the sentence?


Thank you very much in advance for your help.

yam.

 

[Raymott]

Hello teachers.

Would you read the following passage?

The garden is a middle landscape between wild nature and the city. Although the word evokes the natural, the garden itself is manifestly an artifact. In China one speaks of "building" a garden, whereas in Europe one may speak of "planting" a garden. The difference suggests that the Chinese, unlike Europeans, are more ready to admit the garden's artificial character. Because artifice connotes civilization to the Chinese elite, it doesn't have quite the negative meaning it has for Europeans brought up on stories of prelapsarian Eden and on Romantic conceptions of nature. European gardens were originally planted to meet certain basic needs around the house: food, medicinal herbs, and suchlike. In early medieval times they were an indiscriminate mixture of the useful and the beautiful, as much horticulture as art. Progressively, however, the gardens of the potentates moved in the direction of aesthetics and arichitecture. From ...


What does the sentence "they were an indiscriminate mixture of the useful and the beautiful, as much horticulture as art" actually mean?

Does it mean the following?

they were an indiscriminate mixture of the useful gardens and the beautiful gardens, that is, they were as much horticulture as art

If my guess is wrong, would you let me know the correct interpretation of the sentence?


Thank you very much in advance for your help.

yam.

Gardens were an indiscriminate mixture of useful plants and beautiful plants, that is, they were as much horticulture as art.

 

[yamyam]

Thank you so much for the instruction, Raymott!
It makes the point much clearer to me.

Thank you again,

yam.