greengrass wrote:
hello, I live in pennsylvania, u.s.a. and I'm landscaping my yard.
would like to do something akin to an english garden. I thought I
would go right to the source. Can anyone over ther tell me exactly
what an english garden is. how would i start? thank you for your
advice.

Others have made some suggestions. It might be an idea to have a look
at what Auntie BBC's gardeners are doing, via her website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/tv_an...ld/index.shtml
or
http://tinyurl.com/ofqns

They have a number of small demonstration gardens, some of them changed
every year, and some more permanent, and they let you into the thinking
that underlies them. You'll read a lot of criticism of television
gardeners here in u.r.g., but that's just part of the fun -- the
Gardener's World people do actually know what they're doing: they're
gardeners first and TV personalities last.

I doubt if you'll find the engineless Ford and washing machine there,
though: those sound more like a cruelly stereotypical West Virginia yard
than the archetypal English garden!

Your question made me think about what an "English" garden actually is.
Even after thinking, I wasn't at all sure. But I think it's probably
about a sense of timelessness and comfort: Grandpa may not have done it
exactly the same, but he'd still feel at home. That means quite a lot of
perennials and bulbs, and a basic structure provided by trees and shrubs
(I think it was Sacha who mentioned the element of structure). I'd want
an apple tree or two. It needs birds. A big trick to pull off is to
generate the sense that this garden is a home for plants but also for
people -- you don't want a film set, where it would be a disaster if
the kids or the dog knocked a few things sideways. I think of the way
people dress he "I've been wearing this old Shetland sweater for ten
years, and I like it, thank you." There's always a relaxing underlying
theme of green, reflecting the native climate: it's usually calm and
cool, like the people (I don't know which came first!). Individuals grow
an enormous range of things against the green background ranging from
the garish to the understated, but that background is always there even
in a heat wave.

Do keep telling us what you're doing, even where you disagree --
disagreement is what we do best here!

--
Mike.