Arts and Crafts garden

People wanted something new in garden design after the High Victorian gardens. There was a battle of styles between the gardener and writer William Robinson and architect and writes Sir Reginald Blomfield. Robinson had a naturalist vision, very informal with no straight lines, and wanted the contents to be strictly plants. Blomfield wanted a formal and geometric, Elizabethian landscape with topiary and plants. They went head to head in writings to find that they had a common enemy, which was to get rid of high victorian bedding. This battle of the styles led to the arts and crafts gardens. 

The goal of the arts and crafts garden was to preserve skills and popularize art and craftsman. The arts and crafts stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often applied medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform-essentially anti-industrial.The major influences and origins for these gardens were cottage gardens, and hardy, old-fashioned country cottage plants/flowers. They were very "pretty" and "romantic whimsey". An example of this is Anne Hathaway's cottage. In this example, the owner/person behind the arts and crafts garden was a big influence as well.

Anne Hathaway's cottage

The gardener, Gertrude Jekyll and architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens found each other during this time of arts and crafts gardens. They began a partnership as they had kindred spirits and knew exactly how one another were thinking. Jekyll had trained as an artist and was inspired by Turner, impressionism and use of color. She lived in Munstead Wood in Godalming where her laboratory was in 1897. It was hand built with local materials and craftsman. It was the first collaboration between Jekyll and Lutyens as Jekyll did the architecture and Jekyll did the garden. The gardens were not formal, they fit into the landscape. They had a long border that was the most famous part of the garden. Jekyll arranged the flowers according to theory of color. She was the first to apply painterly color to gardens and she re-invented the herbaceous border. She could paint with flowers. Jekyll and Lutyens were very popular. In 1897 the new magazine Country Life by Edward Hudson regularly featured Jekyll and Lutyens work. 

Munstead Wood

The arts and crafts gardens were very beautiful. They had a geometric structure that linked the architecture of the house to the garden. The gardens were full of outdoor rooms and were often enclosed by majestic yew hedges, long vistas, majestic pergolas, circular steps and pools, flower-filled rills, arches, and quiet courts all clothed in plants and flowers. These gardens were pretty high maintenance and a lot of work to keep up. In arts and crafts gardens, Jekyll and Lutyens and other arts and crafts designers always consulted the genius of the place. They knew exactly how to plant the garden and where to place the house, they also knew how to incorporate the character of the owners. A couple of examples of these arts and crafts gardens are shown below. Hestercombe is a well known design by Lutyens and Jekyll. You can see the beautiful flower work in the garden in Upton Grey by Jekyll. The deanery was one of Lutyens most well known work for the beautiful architecture and the gardens by Jekyll.

Hestercombe

Upton Grey

The Deanery, Sonning

For more information on these beautiful gardens and where I got some of my information. Also a list of gardens to look at or visit below!

Websites:

http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_ebooks/tom_turner_english_garden_design/nineteenth_and_twentith_century

http://www.independent.co.uk/property/gardening/crafty-business-the-arts-and-crafts-movement-married-house-and-garden-in-a-beautiful-union-8551796.html

Pictures:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Anne_Hathaways_Cottage_and_gardens_15g2006.jpg

http://personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Clarke/Pics/Surrey/Munstead/p2.jpg

http://www.gardenvisit.com/uploads/image/image/163/16318/the_manor_house_upton_grey_1358_jpg_original.jpg

http://www.sonning.org.uk/BiF/img/Deanery.jpg

http://api.ning.com/files/58B8q26tWD4IQfjQeDYSDRbaBrwN91-8yVFzRbIL38TTgs*jOeY8OM4SLnm1Cvf8Xi7KC*FofsFvN0cjn7bOTmlKbVedvFBk/HestercombeGardens09.jpg