Advice from Beth -- Ask of yourself: If someone came in from the outside and listened to your account. So what? Start with your thesis sentence about why what you observed matters.

Major ideas across groups --
(1) Thresholds and the separation of public and private space. Note the use of slope, closure, and vistas to influence the spatial experience and facilitate placemaking. These are alternative ways to see spatial organization and sequence.
(2) Shade and microclimate alone can create a separate space, a room within a larger room. This was a major contribution of the picturesque in terms of spatial organization and framework.

Lecture by Dr. Marcus Koehler -- The major takeaway was a revisionist history that challenges the conventional historical interpretation that the German landscape gardens were more or less English landscape gardens in Germany. Koehler emphasizes the social context in which Lenne and Puckler designed. Lenne was from the tradition of gardeners (common people), while Puckler was part of the dilettanti (the noble, royal, high-class). Koehler called for a more critical reading of the development of the German landscape garden. He argues that the importance of Worlitz in this development is overemphasized in the traditional reading, and that it was not really the first German landscape garden, as there were many other gardens (though perhaps not as well-preserved) and branches of thought (being oversimplified out). In English landscape gardens, the art IS the land, and the land IS the art. There wasn't quite as much luxury in the sheer amount of space within most German landscape gardens. So where is the art in the German landscape garden? This was a major question that the designers grappled with. This reminds me of how architects struggled with defining the "international style" in the early 20th century and the world's fairs and exhibitions (curated by Hitchcock, Johnson, etc.). What does it mean to be modern? Likewise, what is the contribution of the German landscape garden in the development of landscape design that differs from or is beyond the contributions of the English, the French, etc.?

In addition, after seeing other gardens (notably Lenne and Karl Foerster), I can't help but wonder if Puckler lacked the horticultural knowledge to produce gardens with many different species living in very close proximity. He leans more towards monocultures of a few species to create a very clear vocabulary, while Lenne and Foerster seem to be more willing to branch out into different species. The effect can be somehow chaotic, but is actually very orchestrated, and the room organization is quite compelling.