Guest Author - Hellie T.

The English Knot garden was very popular during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 and following Jacobean era.
Thomas Hill in 1577 incorporated several designs in his book The Gardener’s Labyrinth as did William Lawson in his 1617 The Countrie Housewife’s Garden.

They were made to be seen from above i.e. from the windows of the house and to contrast with the luxuriant planting of the borders.
It was and is a delightful way to create threads of colour with plants and to display different plants in their own plant container.

At Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire there is a Knot Garden, which actually commemorates Queen Elizabeth 1's visit there in 1592.
The design itself is said to have been inspired by the Queen's dress fabric.

Basically knots are designs copied from medieval embroideries and enclosed in a rectangle or square border.
The stitches on the canvas that had been worked in silks became the over and under of the plants on the canvas of earth.

Tightly interlaced patterns with no spaces for additional planting were called closed knots.

Those with a freer design with space for herbs or flowers were called open knots.

The patterns were made of low clipped evergreen hedges, usually box; however hyssop, rue, thrift, lavender or rosemary were frequently used.
The motifs were often similar to the wooden carvings found in the houses of the period or they could be the initials of the Lord and Lady of the house.

At the Museum of Garden History, London, there is a replica 17th century Knot Garden, planted to honour John Tradescants which incorporates the letter T into its design.

English Knot Gardens enclosed by squares, rectangles or circles are distinguished from the French Parterre de broderie whose design was much more complicated.

Parterres have graceful and stylish scroll shapes in box that were often laid out in plain or coloured gravel. Any planting was carefully arranged in perfect symmetry.

Both English Knot Gardens and French Parterres included clipped trees and bushes of topiary to enhance their designs.

Enjoy your garden!