Seyyed Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad - Ph. D. Candidate in Landscape Architecture, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
Kai Tobias - Ph. D. in Landscape Architecture. Professor, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensions and attributes of productive and agricultural landscape in thePersian gardens. The methodology of conducting this study is descriptive-analytical. The data is gathered throughlibrary research and interviews, as well as field studies in the six Persian Gardens (Akbariyeh, Rahim Abad, AmirAbad, Bahlgerd, Pahlavanpur, and Shahzadeh). The results, which show the need to provide recreational servicesfor owners, guests and in some cases people, has led to the significant presence of fruitful greenery, even in thegovernmental gardens. There are various fruit trees in the gardens of Shahzadeh, Amirabad and Pahlavanpur whichdemonstrate the importance of targeted food products for human consumption as well as animals in the system ofdesigning the traditional green spaces. Promotion the quality of the beauty of inner green scenery of the gardens isother characteristics of agricultural landscape, specifically in Birjand’s gardens which the visual landscape systemhas been created by composition of fruitful and ornamental species. Additionally, attitudes into increasing theefficiency, profitability and self-sufficiency of landscape have been ordered the planting of multipurpose plant speciesin the Iranian garden design. There are varieties of vegetables and herbs in the garden of Shahzadeh, and fragrantflowers, saffron, plum, pomegranate and fig trees representing in Birjand’s garden proving the medicinal propertiesof productive scenery in addition to their appropriateness to the climate and scarce resources. Throughout historythe structural importance of the edible landscape in Persian garden is due to the knowledgeable use of green spacesand landscaping. The combination of ornamental horticulture and fruit farming results in a multi-functional garden.Therefore, the agricultural landscape can be introduced as an indicator to assess the quality of garden management,an efficient tool for assessing the status of agricultural knowledge, gardens health assessment, as well as evaluatingthe lifestyle and the natural- cultural continuity of a garden to its context which should be considered more by theresearchers.

Productive landscape, Pleasure gardening, Agricultural landscape, Culture of agriculture, Persian garden