Expert help from a experienced traditional garden design
Barry is a traditional garden designer and is known for its gardening and love of landscapes and plants. There are numerous traditional gardens in the form of parks and landscapes that stand out as masterpieces on their own with thousands of visitors enjoying the mature gardens that were designed and constructed many years ago and are still maintained with a high standard of professional care. Without such settings the splendid houses and palaces of the UK and Europe would be missing a vital element and be much poorer for it.
It is important that these traditional gardens are maintained and also allowed to develop when plants have been lost. As a traditional garden designer Barry offers advice on careful planning and management of such gardens is important and they should be entrusted to professionals, so that costly mistakes are avoided and the fragile environment of the garden is maintained for the benefit of generations to come, so they too can enjoy these special environments.
Traditional gardens conjure a host of different pictures of what everyone thinks of as the typical English garden – a perfect lawn, flower beds filled with mixed herbaceous perennials, shrubs and roses, summer houses and mature fruit trees. A traditional garden design is often is quite simple in its layout, but what is important is how the planting works within that design. As with all design and craftsmanship, what looks so easy and simple is made after much deliberation and careful though.
Traditional garden design offers the creation of outdoor spaces using historical styles from through the many ages, often these are characterized by symmetrical layouts with paths and iconic elements such as water features, sculpture and topiary. Influenced by English, French, and Italian gardens, this style emphasises both harmony and balance to offer a higher status. Use of a range of plants both native and exotic to create aesthetically pleasing landscapes. Traditional garden design continues to inspire modern landscaping but with a new emphasis on sustainable practices. The National Trust ‘Garden design through the ages’ article offers details of the various periods from Medieval to the 20th Century with the style and planting used in each period.
One example is Georgian gardens (1714 to 1830) offered an informal layout designed with natural features such as lakes created to reflect the landscape with added interest of cascades flowing into and out of the lake. A walk around the garden would take the visitor on a journey to include buildings that were only glimpsed at, such as temples, grottos and follies which doubled up as tea-rooms and viewing towers. Large clumps of evergreen shrubs, such as laurel were to provide shelter and privacy to the parkland, with occasional shrubberies planted with newly introduced exotics from abroad.
Another example are Victorian gardens (1837 to 1901) where exotic plants from around the world were brought home to gardens by Victorian plant collectors. The bright new colours were offered as bedding displays, which is a more formal garden style. The largest plants collect are trees, these were planted in what are called Arboretums to display the owners collections of trees. Walled kitchen gardens produced an ever increasing range of fruits and vegetables grown in neat rows for display. With tender plants being grown in heated greenhouses to offer both exotic fruits such as peaches and melons to tropical plants such as orchids.
If you own a house that requires traditional landscape garden planning and wish professional horticultural advice the do please contact Barry Holdsworth, who has many years experience in caring and planting for such gardens as your traditional garden designer. Many Listed property gardens have been designed and cared for by Barry .