When it comes to gardens, the prevailing preference these days seems to be for the romantic, natural paradise of an English (or "Cottage") garden. I like a storybook tangle of ivy, miniature roses and endless blooms as much as the next girl, and a garden that can go to pieces just a bit before it's in an obvious state of chaos has serious attraction. Most of us don't have a staff gardener maintaining the lawn after all!
But I do wonder if a lack of exposure to more highly stylized designs is the real root of our cottage garden preference. These days, we love walking mandalas and find a small labyrinth beautifully meditative, but a French garden makes people think that you must be wound just a little too tight.
Instead of seeing a really bad case of OCD with pruning shears, try thinking of French gardens as bringing the best of scrollwork, living fences and angles into play. Let's take a gander at the geometric inspired and tightly controlled beauty of the French garden. And if you really need a storybook connection to feel better, it's not like Wonderland wasn't full of manicured hedges!
The sprawling garden above is breathtaking from the fountain anchoring the center to the cohesive but varied patterns. One of the best parts of the French garden is the way that it clearly defines individual spaces within the larger picture, which allows you to try different designs in different zones. Each unique square here is cohesive and on theme, but showcases slightly different quirks.
In case you're worrying about those controlled lines, here are 3 nice reminders that French gardens aren't all stuffy and rigid. There can be distinct whimsy! The left's zig-zag adds excitement to an otherwise flat and straight pathway.The right makes me think of an octopus more than anything, and you can't claim that someone lacks a sense of humor when they have a scrollwork octopus in their yard. Finally, the topiary balls plopped onto this manicured lawn feel like rolling small animals. It's a lawn made for a crochet match!
Speaking of topiary balls, finely pruned boxwood is one of the best parts of a French garden. Here they form the garden's architectural element that would normally be created with the addition of statues and metal decor. Instead, they add the same eye catching sharpness as stone in living form.
If finely pruned topiary balls aren't your thing, this might be a perfect meeting point. The ivy creeping up this stone exterior feels like the best of a rural English manor house, and the gardens are defined but not quite as demanding as some of our more formal examples. There's a nice balance here with the hedges relatively short and simple, gravel clearly delineating our regions, and soft height added with small flowering trees.
I hope I've convinced you that the eye doesn't only need to feast on the English style imitation of a natural landscape. There's room to appreciate the order and repetition of a French garden and to even find whimsy in the contrast that it adds to our environment.
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