The ancient philosophers held that the figure 4 represented the Divine, and garden designers followed that theme. Was it for divine reasoning or pedestrian practicality? Anthony Lyman-Dixon took a long look at why we garden at right angles, among other geometric fables, in the spring 1995 issue of Herbs. Below are highlights from that article. 'I expect that you thought you had created rectangular and square herb beds in your garden not only because a regular shape uses fewer edging plants (like box, Buxus spp for instance) but because they also act as templates to facilitate the sowing in straight rows. Moreover, you were aware that rectangular beds are easier to raise above ground level than wiggly ones, and that they look tidier. But there may be more to your planning than meets the eye. Were you subconsciously influenced by a folk memory dating back to the dawn of civilisation? Many philosophers would say yes. Indeed by the time the medieval gardeners were creating the rectangular beds seen in so many illuminated manuscripts the idea was already thousands of years old.