English gardens have an ethereal, peaceful feel: Roses clambering over stone walls, old-fashioned plantings like sweet peas reaching skyward, and meandering paths that invite you to explore. But there’s actually not one defining feature that makes a garden “English,” says garden historian Jenny Rose Carey, author of The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide and former senior director of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Meadowbrook Farm. “The concept means many different things to different people, but what’s appealing about the ‘English-ness’ of it is that you can take what you like about the look and make it part of your own garden’s design, no matter where you live.”
Historically, English gardens evolved from many sources of inspiration, including walled kitchen gardens, which supplied large estates with fruit and vegetables, as well as cottage gardens, which were productive spaces where herbs, flowers, vegetables, and livestock were raised together. Great houses, such as Great Dixter and Hidcote, reflect the iconic English garden sensibility that remains so appealing even today. “We can’t take that Sussex farmhouse and the old stone walls back with us, but we can find plant combinations and elements we love and recreate that feeling in our own gardens,” says Carey.
Ahead, how to incorporate the enchantment and beauty of these spaces into your own outdoor space with these English garden ideas.
Incorporate Lush Plantings
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Full, thriving beds are a key element to English gardens. “The sort of plant-packed or intensively planted landscape is iconic,” says Carey. To capture this look in your own backyard, include beautiful flowers in profusion. Here, various shades of blue offer a peaceful welcome in this elegantly planted border.
Define Borders with Low Hedges
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Hedges are an iconic element of English gardens, as seen here at Sissinghurst Castle. Low hedges of evergreens such as boxwood are classic, but you also can imitate the look with other shrubs such as inkberry holly or tightly planted perennials such as lavender or easy-care catmint.
Diversify Plantings
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Annuals, perennials, and shrubs all have a place in an English garden. Whether formal, as shown here, or in a tiny corner of your yard, an overflow of color and plants you love will capture that sense of exuberance that is a quintessential part of an English garden, says Carey.
Add Kitchen Garden Elements
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Both herbs and vegetables should be part of any English garden in the form of a potager, or kitchen garden, which is both practical and pretty. Interplanting with flowers, such as dianthus and sweet alyssum, adds beauty and attracts pollinators and beneficial insects to your garden, says Carey.
Plan Wandering Garden Paths
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Winding paths allow you to further explore the beauty of your landscape, and they provide a place where you can work in the garden. The more they meander, the better. Allow plantings to spill over the walkways to sharpen harsh edges, says Carey.
Embrace the Magic of Roses
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“Roses are very much a part of any English garden,” says Carey. Here, climbing roses cover walls and trellises throughout this quintessential English garden. Both climbers and rambling roses can be trained to spill over rock walls, a trellis, or arbor.
Harbor Heavenly Scents
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Fragrance is an often overlooked part of gardening, but no English garden is complete without it, says Carey. Look for classics such as sweet peas, perennial geraniums, peonies, and snapdragons.
Create Tucked-Away Spaces
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“Every foot of space is valuable in an English garden,” says Carey. Even if you only have a tiny outdoor space, make it your own by fitting in as many plants as possible to achieve a sense of coziness and privacy.
Look Ahead to Spring
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Spring-flowering bulbs are an easy way to imbue an English or cottage feel to your garden. A profusion of snowdrops blooms in early spring, but you can plant a succession of spring bulbs for color all season long, including crocuses, daffodils, grape hyacinths, and tulips.
Include Plants with History
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Old-fashioned favorites such as delphiniums, larkspur, hollyhock, and dianthus belong in an English garden. Fill yours with a succession of seasonal color to make the landscape inviting in every season.
Arrange a Place for Repose
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A wooden or metal garden bench allows you to stop and smell the roses…literally! It’s essential for enjoying your garden from every perspective, so make sure to add a pretty place to perch.
Reveal Your Wild Side
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Not every English garden has to be perfectly manicured—in fact, chaos gardening is encouraged. “With the cottage garden feel, that neatnik mentality goes out the window,” says Carey. Let the flowers overflow the paths, mix in as many colors as you love, and allow plants to reseed at will. This sense of overjoyed abandon is evident in this wildflower border at Hidcote.
Introduce Espaliered Fruit Trees
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Like living sculptures, espaliered fruit trees are pruned to grow on a flat plane, usually against a wall or trellis, and are excellent for small spaces where a traditional fruit tree would be too large. Though the name espalier is French, the practice is popular in English gardens, and produces an eye-catching and edible accent.
Display Charming Containers
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Planting blooms and herbs in pots, whether corralled together in a bunch or placed throughout the landscape as focal points, is an easy way to add cottage charm to a garden. Employing containers in a variety of sizes and materials, from terra cotta to ceramic, will add visual interest and can be skewed casual or sophisticated to fit your aesthetic.
Cultivate Climbing and Cascading Plantings
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Rambling roses, climbing clematis, and draping wisteria add instant romance. With beautiful foliage and blooms, climbing plants can beautify fences and arbors, bestow personality upon a blank wall, and hide eyesores like old sheds or trash and recycling bins.