Beauty in English Home Garden Design

 

English home garden design has a long and varied history so this means there is a wealth of ideas available for the modern gardener or landscape garden designer. The quintessential cottage garden, subject of the previous article, is typically seen in many classic English paintings and is still commonly seen across the UK, if only for the simple reason that it can be considered a low maintenance garden if planned correctly.

Inspiration From History

Initially English home garden design was only for the rich landowners and their stately homes and the formal garden was popular, and still is, in such magnificent buildings. The British love their gardens and even in the heavily fortified historic castles often had a kitchen garden and a flower garden somewhere within the grounds.

Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, the ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII, and features fantastic garden designs including a 38 acre lake and fascinating Tudor style formality. If you visit the castle make time to take in the amazing Rose Garden which has over 4,000 roses.

The current, American, owner has added an Italian Garden incorporating Italian sculpture and while this sounds far from a typical English home garden design it could be argued that it is really within keeping of the traditions of the development of English home garden design. Throughout history the English traveled the world and many botanists, scientists, and aristocratic types, enjoyed bringing back various, newly discovered, types of plants. These were often developed into garden varieties and influenced garden design greatly (especially during the Victorian period).

During the time of the great tours of Europe by the rich young of England many travelers brought back art and drawings of European buildings together with other items such as sculptures which they were keen to show off. It became popular to feature sculptures in their gardens and many fine works of art can still be found, somewhat weathered, in the gardens of many English stately homes.

The simple truth is that if you are planning to incorporate English home garden design into your own garden design you will, literally, be adding design elements from every corner of the British Empire, which, at one time, was virtually, most of the world. Even elements of Chinese and Japanese gardens have been incorporated into the English garden.

 

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