An English-style Garden in Your Backyard

Many of us admire the beauty and romance of English gardens, from formal estates to simple cottage plots. Clipped parteres, pleached lime allees, thatched bungalow pastorals, walled kitchen enclaves — the United Kingdom is unrivaled for its iconic gardens and soaring arboretums.

Blessed with a mild rainy climate and a wealth of plant collections, no other nation has elevated horticulture quite the way the British have. Indeed, gardening there is practically a national past-time. Even city dwellers cherish their “allotments” and balcony pots.

It’s tempting to want to recreate these looks in a North American landscape. But our vastly different growing conditions can make success with many English cultivars a challenge. But there are ways to merge English ideas with American innovation to get comparable, if not entirely authentic outcomes. The results can be just as lovely.

What are some ways to do this? Here’s one approach to get you thinking. Feel free to borrow or adapt whatever appeals to you.

What makes a garden “English”?

Before we borrow from the English styles, we need to know what they are. There are several, two of which we will focus on here: Formal estate gardens and informal cottage gardens.

Let’s start with a little background. (Or skip to planning your own.)

During the Renaissance, estate or architectural gardens were highly manicured show pieces with Italian and French influences in vogue at the time. They became living status symbols of their wealthy owners, designed to up the ante on man’s mastery over nature on a vast scale.

What defines this look? Labor intensive features such as hedges, topiary, stonework and fountains; ivy and yew; symmetrical parterres and borders infilled with flowers or textural herbs, and the whole lot punctuated by upright shrubs such as cypress or yew.

Over time, the architectural style expanded in scope to encompass the surrounding landscape. Park-like terrain that once housed deer or cattle might be altered for even more impact. Large bodies of water, terraces, follies and conservatories were added. High walls and hedges often divided the space into various themed sections, copying the monasteries with their cloistered kitchen gardens.

Symmetrical layouts, geometric forms, straight paths and elaborate focal points help to balance the massive stone edifices in their midst.

Of course all this grandeur is laborious to maintain, which originally was the whole point– it proved one’s wealth. Over the centuries many estates fell into disrepair. Today some have been restored to their former splendor and the gardens opened to the public, which surely helps subsidize their considerable upkeep.

Victorian gardens eventually followed, with lots of colorful annuals grown in glass conservatories and transplanted out. But it’s the more readily identifiable formal style we want to focus on here.

Features of classic English gardens

• Clipped hedges, topiary and evergreens
• Mazes, knots, borders, and parterres
• High brick walls, often with arched openings
• Sprawling symmetrical layouts
• Geometric patterns
• Footed urns and statuary; ballustraded terraces
• Manmade water features like rills and fountains
• Espaliered fruit trees; pleached allees
• Follies and gazebos

A Different Look

If the architectural style originated with top-down one-up-manship, its rustic cousin was birthed from just the opposite. I’m talking about the cottage garden of course.

Cottage gardens trace their roots to the fourteenth century, when England’s commoners raised livestock and crops as a matter of survival. Whereas estates could wall off their vegetable patches, cottage dwellers merely planted everything cheek-by-jowl to fit it all in. Victorians soon added lots of flowers. The very informality of these plots became one of this style’s most endearing characteristics.

Other cottage hallmarks include snugly planted house foundations, intermingled varieties and wide floral borders. Today even sprawling country landscapes include cottage features. Without the constraints of formality and repetition, it is an endlessly versatile style. Practical, imaginative and beautiful, the “cottage look” can be classic or modern, petite or expansive.

Beatrix Potter’s abode (of Peter Rabbit fame) in England’s Lake District is a classic example of old cottage charm. What bunny wouldn’t love to run amok here! When I visited years ago I remember the climbing roses embracing the house like a warm sweater. Its simple beauty is timeless.

Cottage features

• Asymmetric paths; often in a practical layout
• Plants allowed to grow closely, naturally and self-seed
• Species intermingle; herbs, veggies and flowers together
• Flowering cultivars filling broad borders
• Tall, vertical cultivars like foxglove and delphinium
• Use of roses, lavender, dahlias, sweet peas and clematis
• Boundaries often left semi-wild, meadow-like

Now that we know what English gardens are, how do we create something that looks and feels English, yet will thrive here in the eastern US?

Plan your own custom style

• Pick several English elements (below) that will work in your location. You can go all formal, all cottage, or a blend of the two. There’s no right or wrong here. But decide in advance what to include.
• Select plants that replicate the look you’re after. Formal gardens look best with just a few cultivars repeated over and over in a design. Cottage gardens look best with a variety of forms and colors grown in cozy proximity.

Don’t be afraid to substitute

England lies in hardiness zones 7 and 8, with rainy winters and non-humid summers. Pennsylvania, being in zones 5 and 6 with a tiny sliver in 7, is both hotter and colder than England. Many plants featured in English gardens grow here too, but those that don’t must be replaced with hardier species.

Bloom periods overlap differently in England because some species have shorter dormancy or none at all. As a result they often grow far more robustly there than in Pennsylvania. Heat also impacts flowering. Instead of trying to replicate a specific combination, again it is better to approximate it with similar cultivars.

For example, if lavender really struggles where you are, use catmint (nepeta) or Russian sage instead. Not a fan of dahlias? Use zinnias, mums, and rudbeckia hybrids for a similar effect. Don’t want to bother with foxgloves? The tall racemes of false indigo (baptisia), a tall penstemon or bellflower will look just as good, and for less effort. You get the idea.

Easy to Replicate Elements

A few large pots. Oversized urns, pots and planters are ubiquitous in British gardens, where freeze-thaw cycles are minor and the pots can be left in situ year round. Here, overwintering a large terracotta pot full of soil risks breakage and frozen roots. But large moveable (or emptied) pots are a great idea.

Lightweight resin containers work great if pottery ones are too heavy to manage. Get several of the same size, design and color; too many different hues and designs can be distracting.

Big planters not only look English, they let you grow tender perennials with ease. Or fill them with annuals. Just make sure you empty or move them to a garage or shed for the winter. (A furniture dolly is helpful for this.) Alternatively, nest several smaller pots inside.

A very English look is to plant box or other evergreens in planters, something you don’t see often in this country except on city sidewalks. Roses on standards also look wonderful in containers. The effect is calm, serene and lovely.

Place them as you would any accent piece, strategically. Footed urns and embellished terracotta pots will make the garden feel orderly and formal. Plain terracotta will enhance a cottage look. Or, nestle them into a border. For even more impact, you can elevate them on a pedestal or plinth as the British do.

A single large vessel like the eared urn below can look spectacular, no matter the setting. (I love the three little flower pots on the gate behind in the photo below; they accent the urn perfectly, and the effect is whimsical.)

If you want to use multiples, twin pots can flank an entry, or place several in a row at spaced intervals. If you don’t have footed vessels, use iron plant stands, a clever trick that is also versatile.

Pea gravel. English gardens frequently use gravel (mixed with grit for stability) for paths and courtyards. Beautiful, natural and water-permeable, gravel is an ideal landscape material. I don’t know why more Americans don’t use it. Gravel is easy to maintain, eco-friendly and much cheaper than pavers. Use it alone or combine it with other natural materials like flagstone and wood. It comes in neutral shades of cream, buff, ochre, gray and charcoal.

Clipped greenery. We all associate clipped hedges with English gardens. Skip finicky English privet and box; disease-resistant Japanese holly looks similar and is a much better choice. Yew is also easy to work and tough as nails. Laurels, spirea, barberry and hemlock all respond beautifully to shaping, whether it be a hedge, topiary or a dense privacy backdrop. Finally, a low clipped border around roses and herbs always looks neat and attractive. But hedges do restrict air circulation, which is not good in high humidity. So space accordingly.

A word about clipping — It seems shearing shrubbery is a skill many folks have trouble mastering, especially when to stop. Far too many American yards illustrate the worst of what a power trimmer can do in over-zealous hands. If shaping isn’t your strong point, hire a professional. Or at least finish the job manually, so there is less risk of taking too much off at once. Remember, clipped shrubs need twice-annual maintenance at mimimum. If that’s not acceptable, stick with cultivars that retain a nice shape naturally.

Plant in small, close clumps. If you’re after an informal look, it’s important to plant in random groups of threes and fives. You don’t want a choked thicket, but you should not be able to see expanses of mulch between mature plants. Snug planting crowds out weeds, too. The occasional nip and tuck is all that’s needed to keep them in line.

If it’s more of a Victorian look you’re after, then wider spacing and the inclusion of many annuals is appropriate.

Include tall varieties. English gardens regularly incorporate tall racemes, climbers and conifers. These plants add drama, so take advantage of them. Consider delphinium, baptisia, foxglove, climbing rose, clematis, lilies, hollyhock, phlox, snapdragons, phlox, Sky Pencil hollies, fastigate cedars, even arborvitae. You may have to seek out the taller perennials. Garden centers tend to carry short and dwarf varieties since that is what most people want.

Create a simple allee. This feature is more involved but the effect is worth it. An allee is a symmetrical framing technique with origins in France (allee is French for promenade with a view). But allees are used in English gardens too, both formal and cottage.

A double row of equally spaced, same-species trees straddle a path or walkway. Upper branches may be sheared flat or left natural to form a continuous canopy. (When branches are interlaced it’s called pleaching, but no need to do this.) Lime or linden and hornbeam are traditionally used in England, but any tree species with straight trunks can be used. Allees create a strong linear perspective usually terminating in an interesting focal point. They can make a small garden or driveway seem larger and longer. The whole point is to accentuate perspective.

Holly, pin oak, crabapple, redbud, crepe myrtle, rose of sharon and purpleleaf plum are all allee possibilities. Large hydrangea standards also work. Lower branches are removed up to eye level, creating a pattern of repeating trunks emerging from continuous groundcover, which mirrors the canopy above. The effect is at once inviting, dramatic and calming. Who can resist?

Scale back if need be. Long allees are undeniably lovely but they demand space, upkeep and investment. Yet even a modest four to six trees can look striking. In the photo below, four trees in a side yard make an effective design statement. A serpentine underplanting completes the look. Very doable at home! Or try this look in miniature, using hydrangea standards. You get the idea.

Plant appropriate cultivars. The closer you can replicate the style you want, the more convincing the results will be. Here are some suggestions, but feel free to build on these ideas.

• For formal gardens: Consider cypress, Alberta spruce, small flowering trees such as dwarf crabapples, box, euphorbia, yew, lavender, shrub roses, Mediterranean herbs, lambs ear (stachys), salvia, allium, tulips, ivy, geum, and dianthus. Hydrangeas would make a lovely addition. A formal layout will enhance the effect, as will an English style bench or topiary.

• For a cottage look the possibilities are much broader. Besides any of the above species you can include clematis, dahlia, baptisia, delphinium, Russian sage, catmint, peonies, penstemon, lilies and foxgloves. Whether randomly sown or packed into banked borders, your garden is sure to have cottage charm.

Want an English meadow look? More indicative of country homes, the meadow look in Britain is characterized by fields of oxeye daisy and cow parsley, unmown grasses, and a plethora of spring bulbs mixed in. Modern meadows include lavenders and salvia.

Umbellifers like Queen Annes lace, orlaya, angelica, yarrow, dill and fennel will lend the same carefree vibe. Shasta daisies, fall anemones, fleabane and coneflowers can substitute for oxeye daisies (native to Britain but invasive here). Asters, toadflax, beebalm, daylilies, iris and astrantia are all excellent options to fill in the gaps.

If you like dahlias, put some in pots to save lifting them in the fall. Most English gardens have at least a few dahlias.

Larger garden sites can usually handle a few understory trees like flowering crabapples or cherries. Spring bulbs of scilla, winter aconite, camassia, snowdrops, crocus and narcissus scattered under the trees and shrubs look natural and informal, very English. If you have a cool wet spot, try an old English favorite, primroses — maybe interplanted with forget-me-nots or brunnera.

Remember if you sow bulbs in grass you can’t mow it until the bulb foliage has ripened, about July. So choose bulb locations carefully. (A mowed path through tall grasses and bulbs is a lovely meadow look in its own right.)

Go bold. Southern English gardens often feature tropicals, which of course won’t work here. But ostrich and cinnamon fern, rodgersia, yucca, ligularia and ornamental rhubarb (gunnera) all make good substitutes if you want to go big and bold. Cannas and caladiums in a planter with bold annuals and purple fountain grass is another way to mimic a tropical vibe.

Speaking of bold, if you’ve got the room and a sturdy support, why not add a rambling rose, or at least a climber? You can’t get more English than a rose scrambling up an old tree or brick wall. They deliver such clouds of soft beauty and scent.

In my previous garden, a rambler at full peak in our old pear tree made it appear as if the tree was in bloom a second time. Sadly a storm took them both out. I miss them to this day.

Add a special focal point. Stone statues, weathered benches, sundials, armillaries and even a well-patinaed birdbath can instantly take your space to the next level of Englishness. Choose the item and its spot carefully, ensuring it is in scale and harmony with its surroundings. And do be stingy; less is more here. Just one is enough.

I hope these ideas inspire you to add an English touch to your own garden or landscape. It’s a lot of fun playing around with such ideas, and very rewarding. Enjoy the journey!

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For even more inspiration, visit England’s National Garden Scheme “Virtual Garden Visits” page— showcasing over 190 virtual tours of real English gardens, filmed during the pandemic: https://ngs.org.uk/virtual-garden-visits/