And you think you have a green thumb?

You have a backyard garden, just a small one that allows you to spend time outdoors working with the flowers and vegetables you like. It's the perfect size and you can't imagine having one any bigger.

Well, try to imagine a garden that covers hundreds of acres or one that thousands of years later is still considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are still being disputed by archaelogists today. Babylon was an immense city complete with the Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk. The gardens were built by King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled for 43 years, for his wife Amyitis. Amyitis came from a land that was mountainous, rugged and green- everything Babylon was not. The king recreated her homeland with an artificial mountain and rooftop gardens to help alleviate her homesickness.

In actuality, the hanging gardens were more like overhanging gardens from terraces or balconies. In the first century B.C., Greek geographer Strabo described the gardens as having vaulted terraces that were raised one above the other and rested on cube-shaped pillars. These were hollow and filled with dirt so trees of all sizes could be planted. The pillars, vaults and terraces were all made from baked brick and asphalt. There were stairs leading to the highest story, and alongside the stairs were water engines, which were manned by people whose sole job was to bring water from the Euphrates to the garden. The gardens were irrigated by means of a "chain pump," two large wheels, one above the other, connected by a chain. Buckets were hung from the chain. The water source was below the bottom wheel, and as the wheel turned the buckets dipped into the water, picked some up, moved to the upper wheel, tipped over and dumped the water into the pool. The pool could be released by gates into channels which watered the gardens.

Despite proof of the gardens' actual existence, there is a description by Greek historian Diodorus Siculus that said the gardens were 400 feet wide by 400 feet long and more than 80 feet high. What a site the gardens must have been, with their green artificial mountain rising out of the flat, barren, sun-baked land. Lets hop on the plane and jet to our next stop, England.

In Cornwell near Mevagissy, you will find the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which have been featured in a best-selling book, numerous newspaper articles and a four-part TV series. The gardens make up 80 acres, plus a complex of walled gardens and a huge vegetable garden. William Tremayne built the estate in 1603 and the family controlled over 100 acres. The estate contained a flour and saw mill, a brickworks and a brewery. It was totally self sufficient and had a staff of 44 people. In fact, the local economy and parishes were dependent on the estate for their survival.

At the start of WWI, the entire male staff enlisted and the estate became a convalescent home for officers. At the end of the war, only six of the 22 gardeners returned and the estate returned to the family. The Tremaynes were not able to keep it up like before the war and decided to rent it out. The Williamson family rented the estate but were unable to keep up the gardens, which began to fall into decline. Through WWII, the gardens remained under the Tremaynes' ownership but nothing was done to them.

Over the years, they became overrun with ivy, bramble and laurel until 1990 when John Willis, a Tremayne family member, John Nelson and Tim Smit met and changed the future of the gardens. Smit and Nelson leased the gardens, researched their history and began a restoration project. Each area of the garden contains something unique:

t The Bee-boles is a large wall with 15 vaulted chambers used to house bees.

t Opened in 1997, the walled sundial garden contains a herbaceous border that has been described as one of the finest in Victorian England.

t Flora's Green in the Northern Gardens contains the green rhododendron which measures 82 feet from bowl to tip, making it the largest in the world.

t The garden also contains the world's largest Japanese Black Pine, Chinese Cedar and Chilean Yew.

t The Melon Garden is an oval-walled garden containing pineapple pits, melon frames and bothys. Built in 1720, the Melon house has been restored and is once again growing melons and cucumbers. The nearby pineapple pit is the only working Georgian pineapple pit in Europe.

t The Jungle was created to house subtropical plants and now has the largest collection of palms and tree ferns in the British Isles.

The Gardens of Heligan are important because they have remained as they were in the Victorian era and no modernization has taken place. They are considered a Victorian time capsule. Restoration is still taking place and the gardens are open to visitors. Check out the Web site, www.heligan.com, for more information.

The scope of these two gardens is staggering. To think they were created without computers and fancy equipment. They were simply the visions of men who wanted to create a beautiful place to be enjoyed by all as well as serve a practical purpose. They definitely give new meaning to having a green thumb.