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The Knot Garden
by Véronique Goblet dAlviella
In March, last year, I invited all the Belgian members to the creation of the knotgarden in the walled garden or potager. I thought that by dividing the well-structured and very old potager in 4 sections, I could easily play with those, and designed special rooms for each of my projects. Some documents dating from 1450 were found recently, describing the existing potager.
The knotgarden found its place in the new section I want to become The Rose and Topiary Garden.
A very good friend of mine and young landscape architect, Alexandre Vaxelaire, helped me to design it and together we discussed the various plants to be used, taking in consideration that they should belong to the ones used in the art of topiary.
The plants used to give the knot its swirling lines were:
A Taxus baccata Aurea Group
B Santolina chamaecyparissus
C Buxus microphylla Faulkner
D Euonymus fortunei Emerald n Gold
E Berberis thunbergii Atropurea Nana
F Ilex crenata Golden Gem
Alexandre has a good eye for colour combination, and it quickly showed off its subtle mix of grey, yellows, green, silver, dark reds&very effective! To fill the space between the knot, we used: Salvia officinalis Tricolor Salvia officinalis Purpurascens Lavendula angustifolia Rosea Allium schoenoprasum Ruta gravedens Thymus vulgaris
This will be the first year and lets hope our Buxus will survive the dreadful Cylindrocladium!
The day started with a visit to the garden rain obliged - and by introducing the members a group of about 15 attended.
The layout had already been done with pegs and string. Taxus b. Aurea was already planted in the four corners and we started by laying out the remaining plants in their final positions. The planting took place, while explaining to our guests the choice of the design and the different steps involved in how to create the Knotgarden & cold rain, sun shining timidly&We all went in for a friendly lunch&a good way of getting together and chatting, exchanging views, experiments etc.
In the afternoon, we did the tour of the Park a listed arboretum promising to get together next spring for checking on the garden and its evolution.
I just thought, by saying this, that you may find it interesting to invite your fellow members (check the list!) when starting a project, which is in line with the society purposes, using
Buxus or other plants regarded as eligible for topiary.
Any occasion will be a good excuse to have a good time, between good friends to be and connoisseurs! |
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The Art of Topiary 
