Prés du Goualoup
36. Le jardin anglais
The English Garden
published at 26/01/2017
Chaumont-sur-Loire’s English garden spans tradition and contemporary invention.
If there’s a country where the art of the garden is truly exalted, it’s certainly England. The notion of the “English garden” first appeared in the 18th century, calling into question the hitherto symmetrical organisation of parks and the pruning of trees into cone, ball or pyramid shapes.
The designers of the day did away with walls, hedges and fences, opening up their gardens to the landscape and horizon beyond, so turning all of nature into a garden.
Seemingly uncontrolled plant life develops at nature’s own pace, changing with the passing seasons and times of day. Unlike French gardens, their English counterparts aim to imitate nature rather than master it, preferring to give an impression of disorder and allowing free rein to the imagination. What is sought above all is a balance of volumes, harmony of colours and diversity of vegetable textures.
Seemingly uncontrolled plant life develops at nature’s own pace, changing with the passing seasons and times of day. Unlike French gardens, their English counterparts aim to imitate nature rather than master it, preferring to give an impression of disorder and allowing free rein to the imagination. What is sought above all is a balance of volumes, harmony of colours and diversity of vegetable textures.
The Prés du Goualoup's English Garden is composed of lawns, magnificently colourful “mixed-border” flowerbeds planted with combinations of annuals and perennials, winding pathways and scented rose walks – a contemporary reinterpretation of an English garden’s essential features.
