Allen Centennial English Garden Project
English Garden
Garden Styles from Medieval Times to Georgian England
English gardens have changed drastically over time with the styles popular during different time periods. However, English gardens remain influential to garden design and can teach us about how to execute a wide variety of garden styles.
Medieval Gardens
In Medieval England, gardens were used for both practical and aesthetic purposes. There were often smaller gardens within castle walls, similar to the roman courtyards. Outside the castle were large gardens that were utilized for hunting and events. It was also very common for monasteries to have gardens that grew food and medicine.
Garden Elements
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Grass treated as a flowery mead planted with low-growing wildflowers
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Gardens enclosed with fences or quickthorn hedges
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Rose Beds
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Herb Gardens
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Raised beds to prevent plants from becoming waterlogged
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Orchards, Dovecotes, and fish ponds were used to provide food
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Monastic Gardens
Monasteries would often have various gardens, each with a designated purpose. There were “physic” gardens for growing medicinal plants, vegetable and fruit gardens, and enclosed gardens called “paradise gardens”. Plants that were common in medicinal monastery gardens were sage, rue, iris, fenugreek, bergamot, cumin, mint, fennel, lavender and other herbs. Paradise gardens were used for the spiritual purposes of meditation and praying.
Medieval Inspired Gardens: Gardens of the Met Cloisters
In a monastery, a cloister is a square or rectangular open-air courtyard surrounded by covered passageways.
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The gardens are split into two different parts, the Judy Black Garden and the Bonnefont Cloister Herb Garden
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The Judy Black Garden is modeled after medieval pleasure gardens and contains ornamental plants chosen for their beauty and fragrance, mixing medieval and modern species
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The Herb Garden contains "one of the most specialized plant collections in the world. The foundation of our plant list is a ninth-century edict of the emperor Charlemagne, naming 89 species to be grown on his estates"
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The horticultural team at the Met grouped the plants, by what their use would have been in the Middle Ages, into raised beds​
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Tudor Gardens
Tudor gardens were created to impress guests and were often a display of wealth and power. During this time period, gardens became more lavish and formal. Garden owners showed how they could control nature by shaping it into unnatural forms, another way of exhibiting their “power”. The Tudor garden was seen as an extension of the house where activities like eating and entertaining guests. That sentiment led to this garden style becoming very architectural, unlike the more naturalistic gardens of medieval times.
Garden Elements
This garden style was also influenced by Renaissance Italy, and it can be seen in the use of symmetry and elements like fountains and statues. A stand-out feature of these gardens is the “knot garden”, which is a garden bed created to form complex geometric shapes that are filled with aromatic herbs or colorful flowers.
Another notable element of the Tudor landscape was having a deer park. Deer parks were a large expanse of land that was used for hunting for sport, but also as a way to source meat for meals.
Garden at Kenilworth
The garden was originally created by Robert Dudley, The 1st Earl of Leicester who was hoping to woo Elizabeth I into marrying him
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In 2009, the gardens were recreated into their Elizabethan-era style
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The garden contains an 18-foot fountain, an aviary, fragrant flowers and a terrace
Georgian Gardens
The Georgian period brought a vast change to garden styles in England. During this time, there was a transition from very formal gardens to a more naturalistic style. The styles were inspired by landscape paintings and the picturesque aesthetic. This aesthetic covered landscape styles, architecture, art, and literature.
Garden Elements
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This garden style blended parks and gardens into one large area, often referred to as a “landscape park”. The style was very naturalized and embraced imperfections and irregularities. This was to revoke gardens of the past that were formal and overly organized. The style was also explicitly British, and not influenced by other European gardens like previous periods.
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Elements included in this style were circulating pathways, ponds or lakes, grottos, temples, shrubbery, woodlands, and ha ha walls.
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown
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One of the most famous landscape designers from England
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He received his nickname "capability" from his clients who would often hear him describe landscapes as having capability
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He created natural-looking landscapes that were also practical blending “agriculture, sport, forestry, wildlife havens, recreation, and wonderful settings for magnificent houses.”
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He often created long thing lakes to give the appearance of rivers
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Stowe
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Head gardener at stowe from 1741-51
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He began his work here as an under-gardener for Willam Kent, another influential landscape designer of the 18th century
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An important part of stowe designed by Brown was the grecian valley
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Naturalized octagon and eleven acre lakes
Croome Court
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Brown was hired in 1751 by the Earl of Coventry
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He got rid of their previous formal gardens and created a parkland with temples, follies, a winding river
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He often used Planes, Cedars, and Oak trees