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The good garden blog is about sharing garden inspiration and ideas from historic gardens around the world and some right next door. Garden stories explore garden history, design, and the garden people behind famous and not-so-famous gardens. My garden photographs span dozens of places across 5 continents. Please join me in celebrating good garden design.
There is nothing like a good garden gate to welcome us into an outdoor space. Garden gates tell us where to enter the landscape – mark the separation between the outer and inner worlds of the garden - and provide a sort of invitation. Here are a few of my favorite. What's your favorite garden gate?
Read MoreGertrude Jekyll has touched many gardeners. I love that she came to garden making in a professional way later in life. She wrote her first book at the age of 55. Her voice is still fresh, direct, and thoughtful. She often mentioned that she considered herself an amateur ...
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Innovative ivy hedge over a metal frame creates a lush, dark green backdrop for this garden room at Hillwood. Washington, DC.
Hornbeam trained over a wood trellis at the Prinsetuin includes windows and doorways. Groningen, The Netherlands.
A boxwood and yew hedge in the garden at Hidcote. Gloucestershire, England.
Hedge of holly and hornbeam, in both regular and copper varieties, at the garden at Hidcote. Gloucestershire, England.
Yew in simple, rectangular shapes frame a garden at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent, England.
Notches in old yew hedges are invitations to explore. Savill Garden, near Surrey, England.
A yew hedge in a small urban front garden. Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
A semi-circular cut out creates a sheltered seating area at Longwood Gardens. Pennsylvania, US.
I have hedge envy.
Hedges define a space, provide shelter, and create the perfect backdrop for shrubs and perennials. Tall hedges pull the eye upwards. An opening in a hedge adds mystery and invites us to look in, to enter. A nook in a hedge is the perfect place to secretly sit.
Hedges offer interest all year round. They make places for wildlife to hide, or rest, or sleep . A trimmed hedge is an opportunity to create fantastical structures or just keep it simple.
Once established, they take care of themselves; they don’t need to be painted and they don’t fall down like a wooden fence. Like a fence, though, a hedge can hide an unwanted view.
Historic gardens offer inspiring ways to use hedges. Just a few of my favorite examples are highlighted above and include: Hidcote, Prinsentuin, Longwood Gardens, Hillwood Estate, Savill Garden, Sissinghurst, and Versailles. Hover on the photos to learn where each photo was taken.
Even with today's power tools, formal hedges are a lot of work. I can't imagine what it was like with manual tools. Old Garden Tools Virtual Museum's mission is to be "a resource to collectors and researchers in the field of tools and ephemera used in the art and science of gardening." Thanks to their work we have a few examples of tools used in the early 1900's to keep hedges looking their best.
Hedging shears. Source: Old Garden Tools Virtual Museum.
Little Wonder. Source: Old Garden Tools Virtual Museum.
Multi-cut shears. Source: Old Garden Tools Virtual Museum.
