Creating a classic
garden
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Perhaps the ultimate classical garden design,
but not difficult to install. You can adopt any pattern you like, from a simple
rectangle to contain a modest bedding scheme, to a complex system of
criss-crossing hedges and paths.
The best hedging materials
for a small knot garden are, in this order:
• box (Buxus
sempervirens)
• lavender (Lavendula)
• rosemary
(Rosmarinus)
• cotton lavender
(Santolina)
• germander (Teucrium chamaedrys)
Combinations of some or all of
these plants can be highly effective.
It can be expensive to buy all
the plants, but it is not difficult to propagate your own. All you need is
stock plants, a little space to set up a mini-nursery and plenty of time. Here
is a suggested timetable:
• In the first season,
purchase between six and a dozen stock plants of the hedging materials you plan
to use, for example box (Buxux sempervirens), cotton lavender (Santolina),
rosemary (Rosmarinus).
• Measure out your knot
garden, marking the positions of all the hedges with a series of small sticks.
Plant the stock plants out at key positions.
• Fill up the remaining
spaces with temporary plants. Use short term bedding to create a display while
the hedging plants develop elsewhere.
• In the first summer
and autumn, take cuttings - either softwood or semi-ripe - from the hedge stock
plants.
• Months after
taking the cuttings, the remainder of you hedging plants will be ready to
transfer to the knot garden. By this time, the original anchor plants will have
become large and well established, and will make the 'cornerstones' of your
knot garden.
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