Landscaping or shaping the landscape if you prefer refers to any activity or process that alters the features of a piece of land in a observable way, such as living elements of flora and fauna, landforms, such as terrain shape and elevation or bodies of water, human elements, such as fences and structures, and abstract factors such as elements to somewhat control the lighting and /or weather conditions.

Landscaping is a highly aesthetic landscape art form that requires a quantity of practical knowledge having to do with plant knowledge, practical applications and working with various tools. It could be stated that the most early landscaper was the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who spent a great deal of time pondering the environment and different scopes of landscaping.

Where a lot of early landscapers argued that real landscaping alters fields or plants directly, such as in the activities of farming of food crops, Thales did not approve of this definition of shaping the landscape or landscaping, saying that any aspect of the physical world affecting a person's visual perception of an area of land was a proper application of landscaping. Landscape and landscaping are all around us each and everyone of us.

Both Plato and Aristotle had approved Thales philosophical modeling related to landscape and landscaping, as well as how his theories can be applied somewhere else in philosophical examination. G.E. Moore also talked about Thales in many of his own philosophical works expressing how philosophical discourse and inquiry has led to the truest forms of human evolution and understanding.

Then in the 1800s many philosophers debated whether or not visual beauty could even be considered a required goal of landscaping or managing landscape, though by the years 2000 most western philosophical thinkers had grown to refuse the idea of an objective aesthetic standard for any type of art, whether landscaping or architecture

Landscaping professionals and practitioners since the later half of the 20th century have experimented with amazing visual landscape panoramas that since became widely accepted as being a category of landscaping, at least in the West.

More often than not we do not appreciate the quiet beauty of nice landscaping designs. In our busy life the time to look around and enjoy the beauty around us has become a luxury. Next time you go out of your work place on a nice sunny day, why don't you sit silently on a park bench and be aware of the landscape around you.