A quick walk through modern English Gardens

 

The arithmetical clipping of shrubs into hedges is present in many English front and back gardens. However, the idea is pure French. The notion of a proper English garden does not comply with the neat, geometrical outlines.

The front gardens of so many English households often represent the true spirit of the 18th-century invention - to let nature simply 'be' - with the emphasis of a least landscaping effort.

The first purpose of a garden is to give peace of mind and joy, this is the English philosophy. Less is more. 

Let the flower bloom in Spring in a wide and wild variety of colours - after the archetypal floral cottage gardens. As suddenly as they come to be, as quickly as they are gone later on.  

And when the Spring bloom is gone, we are getting back to the roots of the garden design - let the man take control over nature - in the fashion of the French.

The Spring can be indeed abundant with the contrast of colours in the English villages. 

The borders are planted with rhododendrons, camellias, forsythias, azaleas, loropetalum, magnolias - to give a maximum display each and every year. 

For the rest of the year, however, there is little happening, we are entering the 50 shades of green. 

Usually, quite a different story is in the back gardens, where the spirit of an informal woodland garden often prevails. 

Closer to home and patio doors, the immaculate lawn is at the centre of vision - this is a reminiscent space of formal garden parties. 

The domestic garden is a small leisure retreat that had been replicated from the big extravagant manorial parks. 

It assumes the owner's identity and his materials means. 

Let's not forget the wild suburb gardens, the parks and nature reserves. 

They are truly the buzz of the warm summer weekends. We have walked many of them and there is always a point of interest to be discovered. 

We love the Pagan-like sculptures in many of them. And we always wonder why they are allowed to rot - with none of any preserve coat layer on. 

It has something to do with the philosophy of the English garden perhaps - all things must pass away - let them.