How to create the perfect English country garden...
...even in the middle of a city
The American singer Jimmie Rodgers was spot on when he asked, “How many kinds of sweet flowers grow/ in an English country garden”. He goes on to list daffodils, heartsease and phlox, gentian, lupines and forget-me-nots among others. The key to the English country garden, a style that gained popularity throughout the world and has recently enjoyed a revival thanks to #cottagecore is that it is a glorious jumble, with roses and cranesbill, hollyhocks, delphiniums and gladioli spilling out over paths and stone walls.
Alongside the vegetables they grew to feed their families, traditional cottagers would have planted flowers to enjoy, but in the absence of drive-in garden centres, these would have been begged and borrowed from neighbours and the big house. A cutting of creeping rosemary here, some purple honesty seeds there. This is not the place for symmetry or uniform colour schemes.
Nor would all country gardens have had a lot of space, they might just have had a couple of window-boxes, or some planters by the front door, much like today’s city dwellers. It is amazing how much a pot of sweet peas climbing up a bamboo tipi can brighten up an entrance.
Nor should you be afraid of the exotic. Gardening has always been a form of cultural exchange – think of the Victorians with their rhododendrons and azaleas, not to mention the monkey puzzle trees that now dominate former rectory gardens. The trick is to soften these with typically ‘English’ planting: pot marigolds, ox-eye daisies and frothy umbellifers such as Ammi majus or Queen Anne’s Lace.
Lavender is a key plant, used for centuries in nosegays and muslin bags to sweeten wardrobes and drawers. Lavandula ‘Hidcote’, named for the iconic Cotswold garden created by American Lawrence Johnston is one of the best.
No English garden would be complete without a decent selection of roses. David Austin’s English roses are among the best and the names remember great English writers such as Thomas Hardy, Roald Dahl and George Eliot, as well as artists such as Vanessa Bell and actors like Judi Dench. These are best planted in a profusion of technicolour, a climbing crimson ‘Tess of the d’Urbevilles’ next to a sweetly scented pink ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, named for the woman who made the relaxed English country gardening style famous in the first half of the twentieth century.
Informality is essential, planting in artistic drifts, with rows only coming into their own at the edges of paths and borders. If you are trying to recreate this style on a balcony or in a small space, fill pots with one type of plant, which you can then move around to create the effect you desire.
Eccentricity is another feature of the English country garden, think Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Don’t be afraid of garden ornaments, but trawl flea markets for something that looks as if it has always been there. A stone cherub could work just as well between overflowing plant pots on a balcony, as in the middle of a border in an acre of country garden.
Talking of tea, that is the final ingredient. Once you have created your English country garden, throw a linen tablecloth onto a table, pile a plate high with cucumber sandwiches and sponge cake with strawberries and pour yourself a nice cup of Earl Grey with just a splash of milk or a slice of lemon. The English country garden is not just a place, it’s a state of mind.
Love this post. My garden helps to design itself, and mostly I love it!