Blog Post

Creating The Quintessential English Garden

  • By Paul Day Tree Surgery
  • 19 Aug, 2020
English garden

Have you heard the term ‘cottagecore’ recently? Well, it's a new term sweeping the internet and essentially encompasses an aesthetic with illustrates an idyllic life in the countryside and for

much of us triggers imagery of English style gardens - the pinnacle of that idyllic country style. Whether it is because of the reputation of the English for gardening skills and design or for the sheer breadth of landscaping features, a good English garden is one of the most tasteful expressions of the gardener’s skill. 

The legendary gardens of England have very much influenced the residential landscapes worldwide and have been admired for their lush, green lawns, hedges, and drifts and borders of breathtaking flowers, grasses, and herbs. With a few simple design principles and knowledge of plants that grow well in your region but can be integrated into an overall landscape, you can seek the essence of an English garden in your own back garden. 

In the 1800s, William Robertson's book, The English Flower Garden, spearheaded an enthusiastic interest in the calming design of herbaceous plants, a movement away from a more structured, geometric, and manicured garden. In addition to this, it was the garden designer and author Gertrude Jekyll, who introduced the concept of single - and colour-themed borders, along with planting natural-looking drifts diagonal swaths. 

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is a garden charity which holds annual events, including the renowned famous Chelsea Flower Show. This event is held in May, during the height of spring, and features stunning flowers and plants, along with the word of innovative designers. The event is an incredible opportunity to view English gardens all at once.

Characteristics of an English Style Garden

One of the key factors is a feeling of abundance, whether this is in the form of lush grass, stands of carefully chosen tree specimens and combinations, or floriferous borders. The climate is given to fullness of burgeoning growth, although it takes a lot of work and planning to give the best gardens their seemingly unstudied simplistic and tasteful abundance. 

Another interesting identifier in terms of the English style garden identifies a more naturalistic look with the plants that appear at home in their various locations.

Marina Schinz describes a quintessential English garden as follows:

The key to the style and appearance of the quintessence of the English garden is the extraordinary variety of plants – the flowering shrubs, the herbaceous perennials, the herbs, the annuals, the bulbs, the wildflowers, and the ground covers.

Additional features of this Look:

●    Richly layered planting and flowerbed

●    Full of flowers and foliage

●    Lots of details from weaving and vining plants, and containers of flowers

●    Naturalistic appearance

●    Great variety

●    Informality and rustic characteristics

What is a Landscape Style or the Cottage Style?

When deciding how to arrange plantings and bring the style to our home gardens, what becomes our inspiration? The English garden style is similar to two other types of style category, these are the Landscape garden style and the rustic and intimate feel of Cottage gardens. These are three styles which very much overlap and are somewhat interchangeable.

Bring a Cottage Garden to Your Garden

The Cottage Garden is probably the favourite variation of the English style garden. Think of a space dripping with roses, overflowing with clematis vines, bunches of daisies, pinks, and spikes of delphiniums all around. The exuberant planting of England's cottages is one of the most iconic images of the land. Even if a landscape is not given the full-blown treatment of the style, details are borrowed for an inviting look.

Is The English Garden Style For You?

 

Whichever design direction you opt to take your English garden, one thing is sure: 

There will always be a place in our gardens for the English style to be a choice. However it may be tempered with realistic notions of what time, space, and interest will permit. English garden style will always need some level of attention to a carefully cultivated landscape. That is what makes it so beautiful and intensely personal style of design.

English Roses

Our whole idea of the ideal rose garden is very much dependent on traditional English garden traditions. Both design and the plantings themselves take on the customary legacy of heritage. 

Today, heirlooms and their modern equivalents bring strong, shrubby presence, and fragrant full blooms into both contemporary and historical flower garden plans.

The Bare Bones Of a Garden

The English gardeners have written prolifically on the details of what they consider the nuances of their gardens, and of their overall structure. A crucially important concept is the idea of a skeletal foundation to the garden as a whole, “the bones” of an English garden. This is the hardscape and the visually stronger planting of trees, shrubs, and hedges. Here we list a few of these fundamental principles:

Weaving

There are details in the English garden such as “weaving” in which vining or sprawling plants lead the eye through the plantings and give depth.

Drifts

Long-range views consisting of “drifts” of plants. Planting large enough numbers of the same plant to give the effect of a natural mass of growth. In smaller spaces, this could be five to seven, in large areas, possibly a hundred! All these elements are steps in creating the full and generous delight of the English style of gardening.

An English Style Garden Features

 

The characteristics cover the broadest definition possible, because, in fact, there are many kinds of landscapes and gardens in the English garden style, once you get a few of the basics right, you are very flexible in terms of what you can do:

 

What are some of the types you may require?

 

●    Tudor Knot Gardens

●    Edwardian Perennial Borders

●    Cottage Yards

●    Estate Landscapes

●    Mixed-use, mixed borders

●    Kitchen and Cloister (herb) gardens


Paul Day Treecare - Specialist Tree Services Based in Sheffield

Are you looking to give your garden a bit of an overhaul? Well, with this in mind, here at Paul Day Treecare, we offer the best tree services in Sheffield as well as the surrounding areas. We are experts in all things gardening and have a passion for making your surroundings more scenic and beautiful, whether you need a tree felled or removed due to disease, or simply need pruning to keep your trees and hedges healthy. 

Whether you’re thinking about adding a statement water feature, you’re longing to tidy up your patios or you’re after a whole new garden design, look no further than Paul Day Treecare. As a team of landscape gardeners who boast an extensive range of services, we can completely transform your garden. Guiding you every step of the way, right from initial design to the finishing touches, we provide affordable and high-quality garden services today. 

We are intimately familiar with all of the common varieties of trees that are found across the United Kingdom and offer a range of sympathetic tree care services that are designed to promote healthy specimens and minimise the chances of your trees encountering potentially terminal problems in the future. To find out more about the services available, please visit our website or contact us today for further information. We’d be delighted to hear from you!

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Spending time in the garden has been proven to provide a range of mental health benefits. From improving the connection we have with the world to reducing stress, gardening can make us happier, healthier and more fulfilled people. Having the perfect garden to unwind in only helps to improve these benefits and, as the summer arrives, working with local gardeners can ensure your outdoor space is summer-ready. 

From large-scale projects, like landscaping and patio installations, to more generalised maintenance, local gardeners can breath new life into your outdoor area for the ensuing period of parties and entertaining. To give you some inspiration, we’ve provided a few tips on how to create the perfect summer-ready garden.

Have Local Gardeners Perform Landscaping and Garden Improvements

When summer begins to peek over the horizon, it can inspire us to change our homes to accommodate living outdoors. This process may require some improvement in your garden, but investing in the below additions can create a much more habitable environment.

Paving

Paving your garden is an excellent way to create an entertainment area for the summer. If you’re lucky enough to have a large outdoor space, you can section off an area dedicated to dining and parties. 

Similarly, paving is a great way to section off other areas of the garden and create a ‘zonal’ space. Using paving intelligently, local gardeners can dissect areas of your garden for different purposes. For example, you could install paving as a perimeter to your flower bed, for entertainment space and for dining.

Decking

Similarly to paving, a decked area will create a more habitable environment for friends and family to dine outdoors. By installing a decked area at the top of your garden, you can create the perfect space to utilise for summer parties and gatherings.

Local Gardeners Can Improve The Privacy of Your Garden For Summer Parties With Fencing

Creating a new entertainment space in your garden is all well and good. However, you may also need to improve the privacy of your garden at the same time. Local gardeners can provide quality fencing products to ensure that you have the privacy you want. 

Particularly if you have a young family and live in a built-up area, it’s important to have adequate security. Every family wants to be able to enjoy the summer in their garden without the unease of limited privacy measures. From timber fences to bespoke solutions, there are plenty of options which ensure your garden is summer-ready.

Employ Local Gardeners To Prune and Thin Trees To Allow More Sun In

As summer approaches, your trees and bushes will begin to become more unruly. If left to their own devices, the plant life in your garden may become obstructive and can even hinder the growth of other plants. That’s why it’s always a good idea to contact local gardeners to prune and thin your trees before they get too difficult to manage. 

By pruning your plants, bushes, hedges and trees in the lead up to and during summer, you’ll facilitate better growth, improve the aesthetics of your garden and increase the sunlight streaming into your outdoor space. 

As well as pruning some of the larger trees in your garden, hedges and smaller bushes can also be trimmed back. Having your hedges trimmed by local gardeners will ensure they remain healthy and neat. Having a well-maintained hedge during the summer can even act as a natural alternative to a perimeter fence and can improve the biodiversity of your garden.

Prepare Your Vegetable Patch and Fruit Trees

One of the many benefits of having a garden is the ability to grow your own produce. However, doing so does require some maintenance work. 

If you have a fruit tree growing in your garden, the timing of pruning can greatly impact the quality and quantity of your crop. Particularly if your fruit tree is still in its infancy, it’s important to help it grow thick branches and canopies by pruning. The best time to prune fruit trees is in early spring before any significant budding. If your fruit trees are pruned properly in the first few years, they will provide much better fruit in higher quantities. 

As well as preparing your trees for fruiting, the lead up to summer can also be spent preparing your vegetable patch. The first step in the process should be preparing your soil for planting. Loosen the soil, add compost, level the soil and water it adequately. 

In the spring, plants like tomatoes and peppers should be incubated indoors whilst it’s still chilly. These can be moved outside once it gets hotter. However, you can begin planting vegetables like potatoes and onions outdoors straight away. When the summer does arrive, you’ll have a healthy and happy crop ready to eat.

Some General Upkeep To Consider

As well as some of the significant improvements covered here, there is also some more generalised upkeep you can enact in the lead-up to summer.

Weeds

Weeding isn’t one of the most well-loved gardening projects in the world. However, it’s a necessary evil every gardener will have to go through to ensure their garden remains healthy. The lead up to summer is the best time to tackle this problem. During spring, remove any weeds from the garden and from in between the cracks in your paving. By de-weeding, you can ensure that your plants, rather than the weeds, consume the nutrients in the soil. 

At the same time as de-weeding, you should also spend some time getting rid of any pests. Using natural solutions, like crushed eggshells for slugs, you can future-proof your plant life and vegetation.

Plant Summer Plants and Tidy Flower Beds

The blossoming of flowers is one of the most satisfying experiences of summer. It signifies the changing of the seasons and begins to bring colour and warmth into your garden. During the autumn, dead leaves and twigs will have fallen down and collected in your flower beds. With summer on the horizon, now is the time to clear that up ready for summer plants. Prepare the soil of your flowerbeds, tidy the borders up and plant flowers like lilies, dahlias and others that thrive in the warmer period.

Start Your Compost Heap

By using high-quality compost, you can greatly improve the quality of your soil and, therefore, your plants. Begin making your own compost heap months in advance to ensure it’s ready for summer. If starting during the summer, your heap should be ready for the following summer. You can then recycle much of your garden and kitchen waste to add to the compost.

Clean, Treat and Varnish Your Furniture

Finally, summer poses an opportunity to give some of your garden furniture some TLC. Dust, wash, varnish and treat your furniture to ensure it’s in the best possible condition for the summer. The spring is the best time to make these small improvements to have your garden summer-ready for friends and family.

Our Local Gardeners Provide Specialist Tree Services in Sheffield and Beyond

Do you require the services of local gardeners at your property in Sheffield and the surrounding area? If so, look no further than Paul Day Specialists. We’re experts in the industry and provide a wide range of services for both domestic and commercial clients. Whether you need a tree felling or simple hedge maintenance, we can help. 

If you want to get your garden ready for the summer, with services like hedge maintenance, landscaping and pruning, one of our specialists can be on hand to help. 

To find out more about our services, please feel free to contact us today. You can call us on either 01909 519 675 or 07909 743 488. Alternatively, email us at paul.daycountryside@btinternet.com.

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