What makes a classic English garden look so timeless and beautiful? In this guide, discover the key features of classic English garden style — from herbaceous borders and rose arches to pergolas, lawns and topiary.
I’ve visited some of the best English gardens and have adapted their ideas for smaller and middle-sized Gardens. And you’ll find out what the difference between English gardens and cottage gardens is!
Whether you’re starting from scratch or updating an existing space, these ideas from real gardens, along with tips from professional gardeners, will help you achieve the classic English garden look in a practical, achievable way.
Note that ‘English Garden’ is a style, not a geographical place. Not all the beautiful gardens here are in England!
00:00 What’s the difference between cottage garden style and English Garden style?
00:48 Classic herbaceous borders. Find out more video: https://youtu.be/SQRTVeCLHmE
02:12 ‘Garden rooms’ – different zones
02:43 The parterre
03:06 Video on Gorgeous English Garden Ideas from 5 Country Gardens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4sRH7UlXhU
03:20 How to do English Garden roses – advice from Peter Beales Rose Garden: https://youtu.be/5OSf7ZvwpIU
04:16 Focal points
04:59 Clipped hedges and topiary
06:03 Quirky touches – stumperies, follies, collections. For stumpery video see: https://youtu.be/vqQMq_RuiAs
07:00 How to create ruins and follies in your garden: https://youtu.be/LEa9vtQlJuE
07:55 Lakes, ponds, water features.
08:46 The lawn! Helpful video on lawns: https://youtu.be/ABX-1FhZCtk
10:11 The meadow lawn
10:38 Meadow lawn videos: https://youtu.be/akVORa8BPG0 and https://youtu.be/FMkoW2-dk8k
10:49 The vista!
11:01 Using colour English garden style
12:06 Seating – helpful video on choosing garden furniture: https://youtu.be/YP06H2A_qD4
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27 Comments
Hi Alexandra. I always enjoy watching your videos. I totally agree that there is nothing more beautiful than an English Garden. So much colour when flowers are in bloom, with bees and butterflies flitting around. It looks like something out of fairytales, romantic. Being Australian, I enjoy my native garden. Bottlebrushes, Grevilleas, Correas, Croweas, Wattles and Banksias. How to landscape is tricky but rewarding.❤💐🌹🥀🌻🌷
Great video. Enjoyed the distinction described between English gardens and cottage gardens. What you say about the English garden should be taken into consideration when designing one in another country. In the United States, it’s true that in many places lawns are very hard to maintain. But honestly, the alternatives maybe equally difficult to deal with ! And many alternatives get really hot in summer. But you do help us visualize an English garden – allowing for climate and landscape , one can allow some aspects to florish in May garden.
Instead of calling ours a Cottage Garden, we call ours a Grandma’s Garden. We dislike the soul destroying sterility of an immaculately conceived Designers Garden and so ours is more of a playful romp. Some simple repeated English box shapes to anchor it, but the overall scheme is just bog ordinary, but well loved plonkiness. Beautiful vid though Alexandra, always enjoy your take on all things gardenesque.
I've always thought I had a Cottage garden, but after watching this video I think mine is actually an English country garden.
This is a superb video, it’s brilliant. You are a natural teacher. Thank you so much.
Stumperies and fake ruins are delightfully dotty.
Alexandria, you look fabulous. Not surprisely green is your colour!
My garden is only a little over 100 square meters, but it has 7 seperate rooms! My friend recently commented on how my garden feels much bigger than it is and I think the rooms are a part if that 😊😊
Hi Alexandra, thank you for the lovely video.
Last summer I visited Blandford for their National Garden Scheme open day (the yellow book thing) and it was inspirational – really beautiful. Do you, or any viewers, have particular recommendations for towns/villages to visit this year?
Am in the SW but would you possibly able to do a video on this from the SE where I believe you're based? Just an idea.
Thank you!
A great summary of garden ideas. Thank you Aleexandra..
I work with landscaping in Kenya.. we have some wonderful and varied landscapes and gardens. When will you come and visit us ? We have a vibrant and active Horticultural Society . Karibu!
I love to watch your videos, especially because they are for middle-sized Garden! I live in southeast Europe and we have in summer very hot and dry months. But in Winter the temperature can be to -15C for a few days. I would like have a little pond, but the mosquitos plague in spring and summer would be too much. All my rain barrel are covered with mosquito nets. Only one vessel with water in it is a little vessel for insects or birds.
Hi Alexandria, i found some very reasonable tree stumps local to me on fb marketplace 😉 All I need now is a topiary area for the miniature garden (allotment) of my dreams!! 😊
I always love all the images you use in your videos…so beautiful!
Great ideas, Alexandra. When people talk about a small garden, I often wonder how they define small. My garden is approximately 30 x 30ft and in it there is a shed, a 9ft x 7ft garden cedar and glass garden room, and a patio at the top and bottom. My lawn is tiny, merely a place over which to walk to the garden room and hang my washing over. I love that Great Comp garden, it's amazing what people come up with. When I lived in Barbados, some people actually did grow lawns but chose a specific type of grass, e.g. Stenotaphrum secundatum and it never looked as beautiful as the lawns we can grow in the UK.
Wow, that reused church window was inspiring. Haven't seen that before. Thanks for the video. 😊
Video idea from the comment section: garden pond fish. 😃🐟🐠 What species are available in Europe, what are we allowed to keep in ponds, how big of a pond do they need, etc. 😊
Great video! I’ve been following you long enough to immediately know the difference between formal, English garden and a Cottage garden, but this video really outlined the wide range of essentials for an English garden. I’ll be increasing the depth of my borders and I’ll be looking for a bigger central piece for my Mediterranean room. THANKS so much!
Oh, how I love an undulating English garden border! The use of herbicides and pesticides concerns me, but I wish I understood them better. For example, copper fungicide on a rose may be different from slug bait. The organic vs inorganic nomenclature doesn’t mean what consumers think either. It’s a confusing situation…
Lovely video. Thanks.
What a great and inspiring video! Thank you! Deanna @gardensglory
I ❤ your channel because my name is Alexandra too 😂❤🎉
Hello! It would be very interesting and a pleasure for us if you could make a video how your garden evolved over the years since you run your youtubechannel. When I look some of your older videos it is quite interesting how your garden looks now and in earlier years. I would be very interested in your thoughts about your eolvement, insights, gained knowledge, your failures, your successes etc. And I am sure that I am not the only one who is interested in. Warm regards!
A wonderful refresher! And it helped me decide what to do with a couple of problem areas.
Such a phenomenal video!!!!
This is what I was looking for but this is more than I was searching-all combined. Thanks for sharing
This channel is so magical, informative, and inspiring that I watch each video over and over when I can.
Thanks Alexandra, great video as always. 💚