English garden - description, examples of what plants

Table of contents

Thestyle of English gardens , especially popular in the 18th century, referred to natural landscaped gardens, but broke with artificial and too rigorously shaped baroque gardens. Seehow to design an English gardenand what should characterize it. Here is a description and examples of English gardens, as well as tips on how to chooseplants for an English gardenThe secrets of designing an English garden are revealed to us by MSc. landscape architect Agnieszka Socha.


English garden

English garden - description, examples

How often do we run away with our thoughts to places where no one has been yet? Nobody cut down trees, nobody threw out the trash, and nobody built concrete walls? Man in his striving for perfection will never catch up with nature, and although he wants to tame it, it still follows its unchanging path, in its innermost recesses hiding a world so opposite to ours …

Attempts to imitate nature were most reflected inEnglish gardens , and their whole essence was to make the garden similar to the natural landscape. Dating back to the 17th century, we encounter pattern minesEnglish garden assumptionsTheir fully developed form is reflected in the designs of William Kent (1684-1742; painter, architect, creator of landscape gardens). Lord Cobham's garden in Stow, Buckingkamshire, was one of the most successful landscaping projects, enjoyed a well-deserved fame among his contemporaries, being both a typical example and a modellandscape English garden
As the most famousexample of an English gardenin Poland, we can mention the Dendrological Garden in Przelewice near Pyrzyce.
How to describe an English garden? What characterizes it and what principles should we follow when designing an English garden? Here are the most important elements and rules for creating English-style gardens:

  • beauty of natural natural forms,
  • irregular groupings of trees and shrubs, flower beds and groves (instead of commonly used trimmed rows and geometric plantings)
  • trees in their natural form, growing freely,
  • presence of large lawns and meadows,
  • creating and highlighting uneven terrain,
  • use of natural springs, rivers and lakes with irregular outlines,
  • roads run along curved lines, revealing picturesque views and connecting individual parts of the garden,
  • the entire garden plan is irregular, free and asymmetrical,
  • "
  • English gardens are secret and wild gardens,"
  • the garden may transform into a park and then merge fully with the landscape,
  • sculptures placed on purpose have their own character, often placed directly on the ground, without a plinth,


English garden

How to design an English garden

"

Our views on the art of creating gardens have changed over 4 centuries, today we live in our own green sanctuaries with shapes enclosed in a geometric fence. Our space for communing with nature is closed in private properties where the neighbor will not look from behind a dense hedge … Is it possible to create aEnglish gardenin such conditions? If we want to get closer to the world of the mysterious and fascinating English garden, let us get carried away and create at least a substitute for the old picturesque assumptions! The presence of such elements as: "

  • perennial, irregular discounts,
  • large decorated flower pots, vases,
  • "
  • rotten sculptures (they will turn red faster if we spread them with … milk!),"
  • rose corners,
  • large lawn or flower meadow,
  • "
  • remains of ruins,"
  • "
  • clusters of wild bushes,"
  • walls with viewing windows in them (break or shaped clearance),
  • mysterious nooks with a stream or a small pond / pond.
"

The whole composition should be closed in curves - roads, paths and planting lines. There is no need for needle-cut forms of coniferous trees and shrubs in favor of leafy plantings left in their order. Let&39;s not forget about the mood created by all the senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.In theEnglish Gardenour eyesight will be seduced by the restless search for a corner, a part of which is hidden somewhere between the trees, and which invites us to our place, promising a dose of pleasant sensations. Our hearing will be softened by the chirping of birds somewhere between the boughs, and sometimes also by the restless browsing of the hedgehog among the fallen leaves. Let the fragrance of flowers floating in the warm July air be the fullness of our aromatic experiences. "

Unfortunately, not all of these elements can be moved to a small city garden, but as much as possible, let's try to reflect the moodin English gardens17th century.

Which plants for the English garden

English discountsare composed with a well-thought-out idea, where higher species create the background, descending lower and lower into smaller forms of vegetation. They look very nice when surrounded by a stone wall that can turn into steps. Below I present an example of a list of species for a discount in the style ofEnglish garden

Deciduous shrubs:

  • David's Budleja
  • Sweet jasmine

Annual and biennial plants:

  • Black Damascus
  • Refined gypsophila
  • Double feathered cosmos
  • Dill
  • Rezeda wonna
  • Purple foxglove
  • Bicolour slope
  • Drummond's phlox
  • Calendula

MSc Eng. landscape architect Agnieszka Socha

This page in other languages:
Night
Day