The English Garden

There is a whole lot of history associated with English Gardens. We will start with introducing you to the few pioneers of the English garden style and give you a gist of key features of their flair. We will also add, a short note on what you can take from these designers for your home.

The natural style of these gardens was started by WILLIAN KENT who was  an Architect, a painter, a Landscape Architect and also a Furniture designer. Hard to believe, but very true! Kent introduced ‘naturalstic style’ for garden designing. It simply means that Kent kept the garden design, in its look as close to nature as possible. He added winding pathways leading to the temple, had cascades, he enjoyed giving water bodies in his design a natural shape and in short his work had a very informal garden appearance.

Another great pioneer of the English garden was William Kent’s pupil and son in law – Lancelot “Capabilty” Brown. I must say, the entire garden designing talent came from this family! Lancelot did away from the all the geometric designs and brought freshness by having lawns to maximum lengths, introduced artificial water bodies in the form of streams, canals and damns to give the illusion that that water is naturally available, bridges to connect them and belts or clumps of trees.

Now for all the history lovers, you can see a preview of the garden style by William Kent in villa for Alexander Pope’s villa garden at Twickenham, for Queen Caroline at Richmond and Rousham House, Oxfordshire and design works of Capabilty Brown can be observed in Compton Verney, Warwickshire and Ickworth house and garden, Suofflk. Besides these two works of Humphry Repton, considered as a successor of Capability Brown, is quite famous as well.

If you want to imitate an English Landscape then these are the few must haves –

• We suggest that an English garden is best suited if the architecture of your home is on the similar lines.
• Find a balance of informal and formal planning in your garden layout. You can achieve this by using curvilinear and straight geometry. Avoid symmetry since the intention is to give the garden a natural appearance.
• A water pond with ornamental plants or a fountain with a classical statue is an essential. If you have acres of land, try and make an artificial stream and add bridges at necessary nodes for connectivity.

  

• Have a fairly large lawn bordered with perennial plants. Roses are quite a common plant in this style.
• You can use brick or stone pathway and picketed fences
• Add an Arbour which will lead to a your home entrance
• Have small stone seating in your garden
• Allow your garden to be slightly overgrown with plants, you will mostly find flowering plants in this style of garden

Adding these elements with proper planning and execution will give you your very own English garden.

Written by Priyanka Malik for GreenMyLife