| The traditional English landscape garden had lots of | | | | the look of English landscape gardens. The clipped |
| wall fountains and is thought to be a type of garden | | | | yew hedges that serve as a background for |
| that was developed in 18th-century England, | | | | seemingly endless borders were grown primarily to |
| originating as a revolt against the architectural garden, | | | | shelter plants. The wall water fountains are usually |
| which relied on rectilinear patterns, sculpture, and the | | | | turned off and pipes drained during the winter |
| unnatural shaping of trees. The revolutionary | | | | months. |
| character of the English garden lay in the fact that, | | | | But it is not only what the English plant that makes |
| whereas gardens had formerly asserted man's control | | | | their English landscape gardens so characteristic, it's |
| over nature, in the new style, man's work was | | | | where and how they plant. If there is a bit of bare |
| regarded as most successful when it was | | | | dirt somewhere and a way to coax something to |
| indistinguishable from nature's. In the architectural | | | | grow in it, count the space filled. Blank walls are |
| garden the eye had been directed along artificial, | | | | strung with wire and every imaginable vine or shrub |
| linear vistas that implied man's continued control of | | | | trained to grow up them. The wall fountains serve as |
| the surrounding countryside, but in the English garden, | | | | a focal point for the overall design. Fruit trees and |
| a more natural, irregular formality was achieved in | | | | hedges serve as living trellises for clematis, roses, and |
| landscapes consisting of expanses of grass, clumps | | | | other climbers. Plants are grown over, under, around, |
| of trees, wall water fountains and irregularly shaped | | | | and through each other, creeping out onto gravel and |
| bodies of water. | | | | stone paths and softening the hard lines of terraces |
| English Gardens Change From Formal to Natural With | | | | and steps. Once garden space runs out, attention is |
| the Addition of Wall Water Fountains | | | | turned to any object that will serve as a pot. Old |
| In the 16th century the English philosopher Francis | | | | horse tanks, bicycle baskets, kitchen sinks, and the |
| Bacon was outspokenly critical of the artificiality of | | | | occasional rusted teakettle can become home to |
| "knot gardens." He was supported in the early 18th | | | | some gem bought or "pinched" during a weekend |
| century by Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope, who | | | | garden visit. |
| argued that trees should be allowed to grow into | | | | Even the lawns in English landscape gardens are |
| natural shapes; by the artist William Hogarth, who | | | | gardened by mowing different areas at varying |
| pointed out the beauty of a wavy line; and by a new | | | | heights and intervals. These areas, known as |
| attitude that nature was good. As the factotum of | | | | "rough-mown turf," not only provide an opportunity |
| the Whig aristocracy, William Kent was responsible | | | | to experiment with line, pattern, and texture but also |
| for beginning the wholesale transformation of the old | | | | host naturalized plantings of bulbs and meadow plants. |
| formal parterres into the new fashion. The classic | | | | In addition, they serve as transitions between highly |
| example of the transformation was at Stowe in | | | | maintained areas of the English landscape garden and |
| Buckinghamshire, which included wall water fountains | | | | abutting naturalized areas, such as woodland or |
| was where the greatest of England's formal gardens | | | | cropland. |
| was developed by stages turned into a landscaped | | | | Another aspect of English landscape gardening is the |
| park under the influence of Kent and then of | | | | absence of power tools. Initially, it may seem quaint |
| Lancelot Brown. | | | | to learn to garden the old-fashioned way, all the time |
| It is no stretch of the imagination to say that England | | | | believing that it was simply because the rototiller may |
| has produced the most famous landscape gardens in | | | | be broken. Rototillers are actually available but are |
| the world. It has been said that gardens are to the | | | | seldom used because the action of the tines creates |
| English what cuisine is to the French. The English love | | | | a hardpan that impedes drainage beneath the fluffed |
| their wall water fountains with incredible designs. | | | | soil. In addition, the planting density is often so high |
| What Makes an English Landscape Garden Grow so | | | | that a tiller would damage the roots of nearby plants |
| Well? | | | | and destroy hidden bulbs. Tractors and wagons for |
| There are many factors that differentiate English | | | | transporting heavy materials are available also, but |
| landscape gardens from American ones. The most | | | | because most of the lawns are soft and |
| obvious difference is the English climate. It offers | | | | impressionable, wheelbarrows are preferred--though |
| ideal growing conditions for many plants because it | | | | they often are rusted out or plagued with a low or |
| lacks harsh extremes of temperature and provides | | | | flat tire. |
| necessary moisture throughout the growing | | | | Give a man a bag full of seeds or a bucket of bulbs |
| season--conditions few areas in the United States can | | | | and he will plant them in a straight row every single |
| claim. Too many warm, sunny days in a row may be | | | | time. Nature does not do this. Flowers and trees |
| great for the gardener's disposition, but plants | | | | grow naturally in a random pattern, almost as if |
| conditioned to moist, overcast days quickly begin to | | | | Mother Nature, herself has tossed the seeds and |
| show signs of stress. The reverse also poses a | | | | plants to land where they may. This philosophy is the |
| problem: A string of rainy days may be great for the | | | | entire basis for an English landscape garden and the |
| plants but can make it impossible to do much in the | | | | wall water fountain is merely icing on the cake. |
| garden except hand weed. Wind also contributes to | | | | |