An English Knot Garden

Gardening is something I have always loved and spent hours pursuing. In my younger days I regularly rose at 5:30am so I could have a couple of hours in the garden before work. Just before I retired I studied for three years to take the Royal Horticultural Society’s exam in General Horticulture, and in 2001 passed their exam, that was just to make sure I knew my subject. I have designed several gardens, but the one that gave me the most pleasure was an English Knot Garden.

The ground in front of the farmhouse was a mess. Part was planted out with potatoes and overgrown. Part had been a chicken run which had fallen down and was hidden by the weeds etc. First it needed clearing, then levelling and finally turned over and prepared for the Knot Garden.

But this was to be a knot garden with a difference. Well not that much of a difference but I felt it was. First the hedging was laid out, but with a fairly open design. My intention was not a close intricate design with a variety of hedging plants giving different colours and fragrances; but a pattern for a vegetable bed. Each species of vegetable was to be contained within its own hedge. But a Knot Garden it was, and with a small circular bed in the centre with a contorted willow to give it elegance!

The hedges were kept trimmed and low. And if you are to try the same idea Dwarf Box is the easiest, but hellishly expensive. The seeds were sown, and as the soil was very fertile everything grew to order. Visitors would look with curiosity as the garden was laid out, from what was now a long gravelled drive at the front of the house,

‘Err; you’ve got cabbages in your flower bed? - Did you know that there is some asparagus in that plot?’ Strange when you have a plot of vegetables growing in your front garden that your guests seem to think you may not have noticed!

But I was more than happy – by the way did you know how to cook asparagus? You walk slowly down to the asparagus bed, study it closely – decide which stalks to pick. Then pick them quickly run back to the house and cook them. That last bit is very important as you want them as fresh as possible.

So I had an English Knot Garden that I could eat as well as look at.