Enjoying English Landscape Gardens
by Adbelan Terreno
http://www.landscapingmiracle.com
To the individual who enjoys flowers and other types of
flora, the style of a garden ~ or its particular design
name ~ is irrelevant. For others, however, preferences for
very specific landscape designs make the gardening
experience much more challenging, if those designs are
among the more complex. Of the various types of garden
landscaping, perhaps the most enjoyable is that of the
English Landscape Garden. Its straightforward beauty and
simplicity offer much to the gardening world, and is often
the choice of public parks and/or facilities.
In an English Landscape Garden you might find winding,
curving lanes, statues and benches creating informal
focal points for a casual viewer, a careful balance
between manicured lawn and wilder flora, a place
where the house and garden meet in perfect harmony,
and an abundance of various plant types, colors, and
shapes.
There are many fine examples of this beautiful traditional
design. You can find such gardens at Castle Howard,
Stourhead, Blenheim Palace, Stowe and Rousham House, to
name a few. These gardens give us a lovely peek at what
it might have looked like centuries ago, at the height of
English Landscape Gardening's popularity, though that
popularity has now decreased a bit.
English Landscape Gardens were initially inspired by
paintings of European landscapes, as reimagined and
reinvented by gardeners. But it was designers like
William Kent who gave this form its status. Others,
like Humphrey Repton and Capability Brown, who were
already famous for their own designs, were also touched
by external influences. Although English Landscape
Gardening met with some criticism in the beginning, these
creative men gave the medium its prominence and
acceptability. Each designer followed a different route,
however much they shared a common goal. Kent was inspired
by ancient European culture, which was apparent in his
designs. Brown, in contrast, wanted his gardens to look
like the English countryside. Repton wanted to position
flowers closer to the house, an unprecedented idea at
the time.
That today's English Landscape Gardens can sometimes be
eclectic is a result of the mixture of these three men's
visions. There is also the constant influx of influences
from other cultures, such as China, whose impact on
English Landscape designs is readily apparent.
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