What is an English Garden?

When you think of an English garden, do you picture a colorful jumble of flowers in front of a thatched-roof cottage? Or do you picture a stately home surrounded by tightly trimmed boxwood and a formal rose garden? Both of these are valid visions of an English garden. However, there are several elements that are usually found in most English gardens. Adding a few of these elements to your design will start you on your quest for an English style garden. Colorful perennial borders are standard. Try to include a variety of heights and bloom times in order to have something blooming from early spring through late autumn. Dont forget to include spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils or English bluebells. Roses are a typical English plant and come in many different varieties. You could have a shrub border thats composed of a variety of roses, or roses climbing up a trellis, or one perfect specimen rose in your favorite color. Walls create privacy and definition to your garden. Choose a ...  more

As it has evolved over the centuries, the English garden has become something rather unexpected -- not a carefully crafted symphony of order and design, but a joyous jazz improvisation filled with surprises. The credit for this goes, in large part, to early 19th century landscape artist William Kent. Born in England but schooled in Italy, he brought a more open Mediterranean sensibility to the traditional English garden, seeing it as something that should honor nature more than the hand of man. The result was something that has been called "controlled chaos." The transition that Kent pushed along was advanced farther by next-generation English landscape designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown. So called because he saw the capability in every potential garden spot, Brown designed over 170 parks all over the British Isles and Europe, creating striking designs with plants and damming small streams to flow in serpentine patterns.Then and now, the traditional English garden is usually ...  more

March 26, 2009 Thursday PERENNIALS THROUGH THE SEASON April 30, 2009 Thursday A TERRIFIC TOPIARY WORKSHOP with Karen Thompson May 28, 2009 Thursday TRAIN STATION PLANTINGS June 25, 2009 Thursday (Special Event) ANNUAL CLUB GARDEN WALK

The idea of an English home garden design is not simply having your fruits and veggies in neat rows like the farm gardens. The English home garden design is more of a sprawling area that you can get lost in – most of them are very large and they are quite windy and fun to walk through. It might not seem like there is order, but indeed a English home garden design is very highly planned because it is usually a walled in enclosure, and in order to see the whole thing you usually have to walk through the garden on a path. There are many different flowers and plants that are growing in the English home garden design and they are all growing in certain areas that might appear to be random, but are actually well planned out. The English home garden design is something that is supposed to appear as mysterious and wild, but in reality is very well tended.  more

The idea of an English home garden design is not simply having your fruits and veggies in neat rows like the farm gardens. The English home garden design is more of a sprawling area that you can get lost in – most of them are very large and they are quite windy and fun to walk through. It might not seem like there is order, but indeed a English home garden design is very highly planned because it is usually a walled in enclosure, and in order to see the whole thing you usually have to walk through the garden on a path. There are many different flowers and plants that are growing in the English home garden design and they are all growing in certain areas that might appear to be random, but are actually well planned out. The English home garden design is something that is supposed to appear as mysterious and wild, but in reality is very well tended. Need Space In order to have a English home garden design you truly need a lot of space in which to have your garden. This might be ...  more

Carolyn's lecture looks at Western garden history and resolves that there are only 3 English garden styles. The gardens that you see in England today are variations on one of these three concepts.  more