Why did Francis Bacon believe gardens should provide enjoyment throughout the year?

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Curving flower beds of colorful tulips and blue grape hyacinths bordered by green grass and blooming cherry trees at Keukenhof Gardens near Lisse, Netherlands. — gardening Keukenhof Gardens, near Lisse, Netherlands.

In his 1625 essay "On Gardens," the English statesman and scholar Francis Bacon proposed a sophisticated vision for the garden as a space designed to provide year-round enjoyment.1

Bacon believed that a garden should offer a wide range of experiences—including color, form, scent, exercise, and repose—throughout the changing seasons. By advocating for a garden that could be enjoyed at all times of the year, he moved away from purely utilitarian gardening toward a more modern conception of the garden as a place of deliberate, multifaceted delight. This perspective was part of a broader Renaissance-era shift that emphasized the garden as a site for creative display and the appreciation of the natural world.1