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New english garden


9780711232709: The New English Garden - Richardson, Tim: 0711232709

Join leading garden writer Tim Richardson as he visits twenty-five significant English gardens made or remade over the past decade, in this comprehensive overview of the contemporary English garden scene, probably the most inventive garden culture in the world. From the cutting-edge naturalistic planting design of the Sheffield School to the scientific imagery of Througham Court, this stunning guide surveys a wide spectrum of garden styles;some are challenging or thought-provoking, while others reflect the sensuously romantic tradition of English planting design, which has also been moving ahead in interesting ways. The New English Garden presents all that is most interesting about garden-making in England in the twenty-first century, beautifully illustrated by Andrew Lawson’s photography of some of England’s most famous gardens, from Prince Charles’s garden at Highgrove,Christopher Llyod’s garden at Great Dixter and Arabella Lennox-Boyd’s garden at Gresgarth right up to the Olympic Park in 2012.

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Review:

THE NEW ENGLISH GARDEN

by Tim Richardson Photographs by Andrew Lawson, with Jane Sabire and Rachel Warne

Armscote Manor (Dan Pearson) Mount St John (Tom Stuart-Smith) Packwood House (Mick Evans) Highgrove (The Prince of Wales and others) Trentham (Tom Stuart-Smith, Piet Oudolf) Temple Guiting (Jinny Blom)

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: The "new" English garden? That's a big claim. The sceptical reader may well ask: "How can a well-know garden such as Great Dixter, or Trentham, or Highgrove, be described as "new"? When I started to consider which gardens should be included in this book, I decided that the most useful, and certainly the most interesting, way to proceed would be to concentrate on innovative gardens that have been made or remade during the past decade. They do not have to be gardens that have recently been created from scratch. Gardens of character do not generally emerge overnight: garden-making is a pursuit in which change and regeneration are natural and desirable, where the passage of time has a creative impact on the look and feel of the place. For a truly "new" garden to bed down, for the plantings to mature and the hard materials to weather, can easily take a decade or more - sometimes much more: many landscape gardens are at their best when the trees have matured, perhaps 150 years after they were first laid out. At the same time, it is also possible to make something genuinely new on old soil. A new garden can be born of an old one, retaining part of an older identity while developing a new character. It is the relationship of a child to a parent, a chip off the old block, where the fads and foibles of successive generations can be traced in the visible and invisible fabric of the place. As Sylvia Crowe pointed out more than half a century ago, garden-making is all about process, not product. For time is the essence of garden-making as a creative endeavor: a garden is forever changing, and on every scale of time - through the passage of centuries, years, seasons, days, hours, or even across a single minute. ..

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About the Author:

ANDREW LAWSON is widely regarded as England's leading garden photographer. He has provided the photographs for many books, including Good Planting by Rosemary Verey, Penelope Hobhouse on Gardening, Designing Gardens (9780711217577) by Arabella Lennox Boyd, Little Sparta (9780711220850) by Jessie Sheeler, The Garden at Highgrove by HRH Prince of Wales, and The English Garden (9780711226388)by Ursula Buchan and The New English Garden (9780711232709) also by Tim Richardson. He holds the Royal Horticultural Society's Gold Medal for Photography and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Garden Writer's Guild. His garden in Oxfordshire is open under the National Gardens Scheme.

Tim Richardson is a writer who specializes in garden and landscape design and history. He has been gardens editor at Country Life, and landscape editor at Wallpaper* magazine, and was founding editor of both the award-winning gardens magazine New Eden and Country Life Gardens. He now contributes mostly to the Daily Telegraph, House and Garden, Gardens Illustrated and Country Life. He is the author of Phaidon's The Garden Book, Vanguard Landscapes Gardens of Martha Schwartz, English Gardens of the 20th Century and Arcadian Friends: the Makers of the English Landscape Garden. He is also editor of Vista: the Culture and Politics of Gardens (Frances Lincoln).

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30 Elegant English Garden Designs and Ideas

By

Peg Aloi

Peg Aloi

Peg Aloi is a professional gardener covering plants in various contexts, from recipes to heirloom orchard fruits. Her area of interest is the folklore of plants and herbs. She's worked as a garden designer for public housing, individual homes, and businesses, and gives workshops on various gardening topics.

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Updated on 11/23/22

Peg Aloi

From the formal gardens on the grounds of castles and grand estates, to the humble cottage gardens in villages, to the allotments popular in many urban areas, England is a nation of gardeners. It's not hard to achieve an English garden look, though some knowledge of horticulture and design is helpful, to help select plants suitable for your region and climate.

What defines the look of an English garden? There are a number of visual themes one sees again and again: large drifts of colorful perennials, color themes, and a full look with a wide variety of textures are all common sights. Authors such as William Robertson (The English Flower Garden) helped bring knowledge and techniques for creating herbaceous borders to the public in the 1800s, marking a modern trend away from the formalism of more classical European gardens. The legendary garden designer and author Gertrude Jekyll was celebrated for her bold approach to color, including single-color-themed gardens and the geometric diagonal shapes creating the recognizable drifts of plants in borders.

Fortunately, with a bit of preparation and inspiration, the English garden look is not too difficult to achieve, no matter where you live. Here are 30 English garden ideas to inspire you to create your own.

English garden in landscape design. English style

The English style in the design of the garden plot is similar to individual frames from classic films about the life of England in the 17th - 19th centuries. It captivates with the predominance of relaxing green hues and the natural beauty of the landscape. Once in such a place, you will certainly want to enjoy a cup of hot coffee on the terrace, and then take a leisurely walk along the ornate paths leading into the depths of the garden.

Peculiarities of the English garden

Finding yourself on the site, decorated in the best traditions of prim Great Britain, you will definitely notice: No smooth paths or deliberately planned reservoirs;

  • a large number of wild green spaces, in which a modest house and inconspicuous small architectural forms made of white or gray stone are practically buried. At the same time, the dominant is not a house, not some separate garden element, but the whole space in the aggregate, created by smooth natural lines and a lot of greenery;
  • paths and fences made of natural stone;
  • Barely noticeable signs of planting care. Bushes and crowns of trees have a natural look, mixborders give the impression that they have always been here. And only an evenly cut lawn stands out from the general picture;
  • harmony and a well-balanced balance in color: after all, an English garden in landscape design is not without magnificent rose gardens and flower beds. Buds of various shades so authentically fit into the overall color scheme that it is difficult to imagine a picture without them;
  • historical character, nostalgia for a bygone era thanks to aged garden furniture and graceful statues reminiscent of the decor of past eras.

    • Such a view opened before the owners of the estates and landed estates of England. It is not surprising that the pastoral nature of the front lawn inspired writers and poets to create works imbued with romance and love.

    History of appearance

    England, XI-XVI centuries. It was at this time that the art of designing a site in the British style began to emerge. The first gardeners were Christian monks. They grew vegetables, fruit trees, and medicinal plants that provided them with food and survival.

    A little later, during the period of Henry VIII, the garden began to take on a different meaning. Here they rested, enjoyed an ensemble of flowers, walked along symmetrical paths and alleys. This is how the Tudor garden appeared, regular, with an aristocratic character.

    In the 18th century, the British began to abandon pomp and geometrically correct planning. In addition, the very nature of England favors the creation of landscape gardens. A new stage in the development of the English style begins, which gained popularity in Europe and the Russian Empire thanks to Catherine the Great and Alexander I.

    Nowadays, the British direction does not lose its relevance. It feels unity with nature, which is so lacking for residents of megacities.

    Layout of an English garden

    Landscape design in this direction likes large areas that extend in front of the house. This is the foundation. But the owners of small plots should not despair: designers will repeat individual style elements even on a modest footage.

    The main place is occupied by the lawn, on which the British like to walk. It is framed by trees and shrubs planted arbitrarily. The territory is cut by paths, along which rabatkas and flower beds are developed. Paths are good not only for walking alone or with someone. They divide the garden into several zones, offering a walk to a pond, a rose garden or a place for sports.

    The loose arrangement of elements and architecture allows you to visually expand the space. The site seems more spacious, it is easy to breathe here. This layout also helps to highlight the features of rugged terrain with its ravines, hollows and hillocks. It is in this style that the terrain plays with new colors and opens up to the audience from a new side.

    The arrangement of an English landscape garden is also good because earthworks in this case are minimal. At the same time, the landscape features of the territory form a single space in which every corner opens up a picturesque landscape.

    Pond

    Owners of garden plots with a natural reservoir are lucky. To emphasize its origin, landscape designers can only clear the shore a little and plant around the plant. A place to relax and admire the water surface is ready.

    Creating an artificial reservoir requires patience and skill. After all, the garden in the English style repeats the natural outlines of nature. The stone lining of the pond, if used, is certainly smoothed out by stormy vegetation, the chaotic placement of which leaves no doubt - the reservoir was created in the bosom of nature itself. Thick green grass also surrounds the streams, the murmur of which is so pleasant to hear after a hard day.

    Greenery and plants

    English gardens captivate with a colorful play of colors with a predominance of green shades. They merge into one picturesque picture, making you feel real peace. Light halftones are smoothed out by more saturated and dark ones, bright flowers look impressive and at the same time harmoniously in a border of variegated greenery.

    Magnificent mixborders or rabatki of a non-strict form will meet you when you leave the house, will accompany you along the paths and in remote places of the site. Artemisia, daffodils, tulips, phloxes and, of course, roses are used for their decoration, without which gardening in England is inconceivable.

    The floral ensemble pleases with colors throughout the season, because plants with different flowering periods are used to create it. Snow-white or pale yellow daffodils will not have time to bloom, as the space around will light up with the beauty of lush roses of different shades. To give the space charm and a special character, it is enough to place a rockery or rocky garden, as well as varieties of alpine slides.

    Behind the splendor of the flower beds are usually bushes and trees. These elements of the landscape can also be planted as separate accents, emphasizing the untouched nature. The landscape style is filled with scents of lilac and jasmine. It is attractive with familiar crowns of larch, rowan, apple, spruce and weeping willow near the reservoir. The water surface is decorated with a bathing suit, cattail and forget-me-nots.

    Paving and paths

    Paths are laid according to the natural curves of the terrain, repeating the irregularities of the natural landscape. Thanks to this, the network of paths looks asymmetrical and original. They wind and confuse everyone who decides to go along them to explore secluded places. And only near the house the paths have a straight and even geometry to match the outlines of the building.

    Natural materials help to emphasize the love for nature when creating paths. First of all, the stone with its jagged edges. Slabs of different sizes and shapes are laid out on sand or in the ground. In the latter version, the grass fills the space between the stone slabs, telling about the prescription of the paths on the site.

    Lawn

    Neatly trimmed lawns are a special pride of style. The most hardy lawn grasses are planted on them, creating a thick and dense cover on the lawns. This is a great place to relax on weekends and get-togethers in the evening.

    The shape of the lawn is incorrect. If the site has the correct geometry, then it can be preserved by shifting the focus with the help of ensembles of flowers and small architectural structures.

    Garden design

    The English landscape style of the garden is imbued with an atmosphere of aristocracy and love for the classics. It is created using a variety of sculptures, forged products, hanging pots and flowerpots. Statues depicting gnomes, Greek goddesses or animals are placed both surrounded by flower beds, where they are barely visible, and in open areas.

    An indispensable element of the recreation area is garden furniture. Forged or wooden benches, tables stand out with slightly cracked paint and patina on metal surfaces. They are echoed by lanterns, in which the historical value is emphasized with the help of the effect of aging.

    Sheared hedges and a wrought iron fence serve as a fence. The British do not like blind fences - every passer-by can look into the garden and feel its beauty.

    Additional design solutions

    What else can surprise an English garden on a plot of different sizes? Separate large boulders or stones as part of the architectural design, podiums for relaxation and gazebos entwined with plants. Ivy and creepers are not only used to decorate pergolas or trellises. They twine sculptures, benches and walls of the house.

    An artificial grotto, mysterious and mystical, will definitely arouse the interest of guests. It will remind you of the life of people who did not know the benefits of civilization, and bring a pristine character to the atmosphere of the garden plot.

    Creation of a project of an English garden in the conditions of Russia, or rather Moscow and the Moscow region, is a reality that our company's specialists are ready to implement. Russian open spaces have a magnificent landscape, with rolling hills, small streams and ponds. This is the basis for the implementation of pastoral design according to the canons of conservative England. There will be no question about the selection of plants: our flora is very similar to the British. If you dream of having an English lord's garden in front of your house, then we are waiting for your application.

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    English backyard garden: expert advice

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    Since the 18th century, English landscape gardens have taken a special place in the history of landscape design. Despite all their conservatism, the British managed to create a unique, memorable style - an innovative, integrated approach to the landscape. Skillful combination of plants and their design, well-thought-out structure with the external naturalness of an English garden create a feeling of harmony and peace.

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    English parks look simply beautiful in the Russian expanses. And they do not always need a really large area, even a relatively small area can be turned into a miniature English garden. Here are some tips to help you do this:

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    1. Choose plants that are most comfortable in our climate. Do not plant boxwoods, yews, beeches. They are very thermophilic and do not tolerate cold winters, but if you still decide on such an experiment, take care of a good shelter for the winter.

    2. Natural materials are best suited for paths: flagstone, flat stones. If you plan a place for a car, then you can use decorative gravel.

    3. Pay attention to the house. Its facade can be decorated with wild grapes or climbing ivy, and flower beds or mixborders can be planted nearby.

    4. Benches, tables and even miniature arbors, as well as a small pond will greatly decorate your garden.

    5. Prefer hedges. They do not block the view of the area, and greatly ennoble the appearance of the garden.

    6. The concept of English style is neatness. Remove broken branches from bushes and trees, dry buds in time.

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