The Victorian Garden

The Victorian era brought many changes to social habits,
and it also brought about a new concept in gardening.

Due to the Industrial Revolution, there was a great increase
in population, especially in urban areas and the wealthy
class that emerged were distinct in background from the
landowners who created the English gardens.

In a book printed in 1806, Humphrey Repton stated that the
four principles of landscape gardening should be;
1. The garden should display natural beauty but hide natural defects.

2. The garden should give the appearance of freedom by disguising
    or hiding boundaries.

3. The garden should carefully conceal every interference of art,
    making the whole look as if it were totally produced by nature.

4. The garden should have no objects of mere convenience or
    comfort.

It is interesting to note that these principles went against the
views of ” Capability Brown“, the reigning horticultural planner
of the Victorian garden.

Mr Brown, operated on a grand scale, he said that his work was
done  with a poet’s feeling and a painter’s eye. 
He was the master garden artist, under his influence parklike
gardens abounded, and he liked to incorporate lakes and hills
into his designs.

However Mr Reptons idea was to take the idea of a garden park
and miniaturize it, making it every person’s own floral and
foliage display.

John Claudius Loudon , a Scot, with his wife, published the
Suburban Gardener( 1838) for many years the bible of the new
and rapidly rising middle class.
It was becoming clear that the garden was no longer the exclusive
domain of the privileged few, but the delight of the middle class.

The flowering gardens in present day London and its suburbs,
owe a great deal to this one man.

 A typical Victorian Garden of yesteryear, would have  a green
 lawn, shrubs appropriately placed for mass
 and dimension, and an incredible array of
 walls, levels, and steps all combined to
 create a pleasant scene.

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