Classic Garden Plans

This re-creation of the gardens designed for William of Orange, later the joint ruler, with his wife Mary, of Britain, at the woodland hunting palace of the rulers of the Netherlands has become a classic showpiece of the Dutch baroque garden style. The original designs were drawn up by Daniel Marot (1661-1752) in the early 1680s; documents describe him as a mathematician, which he may have considered himself to be, though he is best known for his designs for gardens and interior decor. Though he worked mostly for aristocratic French patrons, in Holland he adapted to Dutch sensibilities and designed a garden that, though grand and costly, was entirely scaleable - the same idiom and the same planting could be used in the backyard of a tiny house in Amsterdam or Haarlem, and looked as good as it did at palace scale. Many pretty examples can still be found. In France, the immense schemes of André le Nôtre, or even those of Marot for French patrons, worked only at the very grandest scale, and so were of no use to minor gardeners. The charm of these Dutch baroque gardens is that they not only make a showground for interesting plants, but are attractive throughout the year. Their structure lasts almost unchanged through the seasons. They can look as entrancing under snow as they do in highest summer. They are as pleasing from a window as they are to wander through, or to view from a trellis-shaded seat. And for lovers of symmetry and order, they are perfect. They do, though, require work. Dutch gardeners were, and often still are, exceedingly diligent. In the scheme suggested, the planting spaces need clearing and refilling twice a year. The bulbs need drying and sorting, unless you plan to repurchase every autumn. Plants need raising from seed for some of the summer planting. The box hedges need at least one pruning a year to keep them sharp. The gravel needs to be kept clear of weeds and fallen leaves. Trellis, unless you have rot-proofed it, needs maintenance and repair after its first few crisp seasons. The grass, if you leave the pair of topmost sections empty, needs constant cutting and weeding. It is a garden of artifice and effort. Though the garden at Het Loo has some exciting waterworks, the plan shows none. If water is important for you, then narrow canals could be cut running the length of the two central sections, and between the topiary obelisks and globes. The plan also does not commit itself as to the nature of the centrepieces for the lower pair of parterres, or the upper grass plat areas. Princely gardens used statuary, but good garden pieces now cost princely sums. It is hard to find good reproductions at all, and impossible to find anything worth using at most garden centres. Good reproduction urns, in both concrete (even if called reconstituted stone) or fibreglass, are much easier to find. Better still, the larger garden centres sell, or can order, quite good pieces of topiary, often grown in traditional shapes that fit perfectly into parterre gardens. Alternatively, you could centre the parterre on a large earthenware pot, filled with a dramatic plant - something too large or too floppy to go in the narrow planting beds edging the parterres: for example, an oleander, or a brugmansia or even a luxuriant planting of dusky red nicotianas. The corners of the garden are planted with trees to give some suggestion of the wild landscape beyond the artifice of the parterres. The woodland of the landscape at Het Loo has formal rides cut through it for hunting. In a garden like this, modern plastics are a huge help. The woven nylon sheeting called 'landscape netting' is especially good. It makes a perfect base for paths, for the gravel infill of the box curlicues, as a weed suppressant, wormcast deterrent and much more. Most sorts even have a grid of coloured strands to help with the placing of the design. Paths first: brick, as usual, can look enchanting, ideally antique handmade bricks, a bitStuart, David is the author of 'Classic Garden Plans', published 2004 under ISBN 9780881926439 and ISBN 0881926434.