Alexandra Campbell explores the elements of an English country garden

Alexandra Campbell explores the traditional elements and beauty of the English country garden.

I’VE been talking to various people about what “English country garden style” means. One of the simplest answers came from the owners of Doddington Place Gardens in Kent (doddingtonplacegardens.co.uk).

“I think English country garden style means lots of flowers,” Amicia Oldfield said.

She said she’d realised this when she went on a French garden tour, and noticed how few flowers there were.

I think that’s very interesting. We automatically equate gardens with flowers, but thinking back to the French gardens I’ve seen, I think they major on hard landscaping, neat hedging, shrubs and trees more than flower borders.

Flowers are good news for wildlife, pollinators and diversity. Clare Foggett, editor of “The English Garden” magazine, advises planting traditional ones for the English country garden look.

“Roses, clematis and honeysuckle on trellis and walls, perennials for soft, summer colour – think delphiniums, hardy geraniums, astrantia; anything that conjures a romantic, dreamy feeling.”

She also says that a lawn is essential, but it no longer has to be neatly striped – it can be meadow.

Gardener Joff Elphick (joffelphick.co.uk) runs the Pot and Cloche podcast. He points out that top English country gardens often aren’t even in England.

“I’ve seen English gardens in Chicago which are more English than those in the UK.” And the style doesn’t necessarily come from England, either.

He worked at Barnsley House, which was transformed into the epitome of English country garden style by Rosemary Verey.

“Rosemary Verey was an expert at reimagining different historical garden fashions, from the fifteenth

century onwards, and recreating them in the space available.”

He also points out that many terms – potager, cloche, espalier, parterre etc. – have been borrowed from elsewhere.

And that the features in an English country garden come from all over the world, such as Greek and Roman-inspired statuary and urns.

Everyone agreed that you could evoke the atmosphere of an English country garden in small gardens, and also in towns and cities, provided that you focus on the planting.

Tom Brown is head gardener at West Dean Gardens (westdean.org.uk), which has been described as one of the finest restored historical gardens in Britain.

He advises you to fill your borders but restrict the number of different plants and colours.

Plant fewer and larger clumps of any one flower and repeat further down the border. He likens it to going to a party.

“If everyone’s talking at once, you can’t pick up the thread of the conversation. But if just one person is speaking you can hear what they’re saying.”

This can be seen at West Dean gardens. The borders have repeated clumps of yellow day lilies, purple lavender or hot pink roses.

Only one or two colours are out at any one time and they look stunning.

I’ve looked again at my own borders and realise I need some more repetition.

On the other hand, I wrote recently about “cottage garden style”, where individual plants jostle in a packed border with no defining pattern.

I think it’s interesting to consider which one you would like your garden to be. ■