Best garden hedges

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.

The orangerie @ Versailles

Versailles, the famous palace and town west of Paris, became the seat of the French government in 1682 and remained so for over 100 years.  The name conjures images of luxury, magnificence, and excess.  In the 1970’s, it was even used to name the Lincoln Versailles, a re-badged Ford Granada.  (Granada also the name of a town with a famous garden.)  But I digress…

In the garden at the Palace of Versailles, one of the iconic sections is the Orangerie.  Built by architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart in the 1680’s, it epitomizes the French formal style with geometry, symmetry, control, and perspective. This garden includes six sections of grass arranged around an oval pool, and a crushed stone walk that lines up with the formal Swiss Lake, all conveniently meant to be taken in from the roof terrace of the Orangerie.

Over 1,000 orange, lemon, and pomegranate trees, many reported to be over 200 years old, flourish in quintessential painted wood and metal boxes called Versailles planters.  Still made by hand in France using traditional techniques, a mid-sized planter weighs 400 pounds and will set you back thousands of dollars.  It’s like an Hermes bag for your plant!  Said to last 150 years, the craftsmanship visible in these planters make them worth it.  Nonetheless, with 1,000 planters, this garden has millions tied up in garden pots. 

The potted trees spend their summers outside, and their winters tucked safely inside the Orangerie where they are protected by tall windows.  I reached this garden from the Queen’s Grove by climbing up through the Hundred Steps Gate.  Though the garden did not pull me in the way more intimate gardens do, I found myself observing this structured garden for some time.  Meant to be viewed from above, the central walk lines up perfectly with the Swan Lake which visually points to the horizon where the landscape becomes more natural.  The perfect spiraling designs in the lawn beg to traced.  The symmetry and repetition give it a special rhythm. And the trees, each unique yet also similar in their identical blue-green boxes, are arranged as if they were soldiers in uniform, all standing an arms-length apart.

Click here for more posts about the Versailles and the French formal garden style.

 

Never a bad day in the garden (Happy Holidays!)

As winter arrives here in the northern hemisphere, it’s worth fighting the urge to stay inside.  Instead, let’s keep exploring gardens to enjoy and learn from them in all kinds of weather.

I have never had a bad day in a garden.  And my visit to the formal garden at Het Loo palace in Apeldorn, the Netherlands was no different despite a freak cold front and snow storm.  I considered canceling my trip, but this was the only Saturday that I was available to get to this garden.  So I loaded my camera and set out on a journey that included a trolley, a commuter rail, an international train, and a local bus.  The scenery along the train ride through freshly fallen snow was out of the movie Dr. Zhivago.

On average 1,000 people visit Het Loo each day. But on this day I was the only person in the garden!

The garden at Het Loo was built in the 1680’s by William (Dutch) and Mary (English).  The Queen and King were named joint sovereigns of Britain in 1689 in exchange for signing the Declaration of Rights that limited the power of the monarchy.

The garden was designed in the French formal style by mathematician Daniel Marot around a central axis, radiating walks, and boxwood parterres.  Nearly every plant is clipped -- as if to suggest complete human control over nature.  This style can feel stifling, and in the 1700’s the garden was demolished to make way for an English picturesque garden which would have looked like a naturalistic landscape park. Many European formal gardens of the time suffered this fate.  The view of nature in the eighteenth century shifted from dangerous wilderness that needed to be tamed, to a romantic ideal, all goodness.  More on this shift in later posts.  In the 1970’s, the garden was restored to its original design in order to preserve its history.  This garden is considered one of the finest examples of a formal European garden.  On a par with world famous Versailles, albeit much smaller.

I feel lucky to have been able to see this beautiful garden under a fresh blanket of snow.  It reminded me that in the search for the all season garden, the formal garden has a lot to offer. And that no day in the garden is a bad day.

Thanks to a delicious and hearty bowl of Dutch pea soup at the palace cafe and a souvenir hat from the gift shop, I managed to stay warm.  It was colder than it looks in the photos above.

Happy holidays!