The Victory Garden Companion Michael Weishan, host of America's oldest and most popular gardening TV show, shows you how to create a beautiful landscape for your home.
The New Traditional Garden
A Practical Guide to Creating and Restoring Authentic American Gardens for Homes of All Ages.
From a Victorian Garden
Creating the Romance of a Bygone Age Right in Your Own Backyard.
The
knot garden, or more accurately, the parterre, is one of the oldest
forms of garden in America - a direct descendant of the walled
gardens of the Middle Ages. At its most basic, a parterre is a
symmetrically-designed garden of richly patterned shapes, which
relies on strict geometry to achieve its charming effect. These
gardens rose to prominence during the late Renaissance, and soon
became common in slightly different variations all over the continent
by the 17th century. In America, a simplified form of the parterre
arrived with the first colonists, and ever-more elaborate versions
rivaling their European cousins became common features in prosperous
American gardens by the Revolution. Long a staple of the formal
or architectural garden, parterres are the perfect compliment
to most house styles (including, somewhat surprisingly, many modern
houses). They are remarkably simple to lay out if you keep some
basic concepts in mind. (See the How-to Section later in this
piece.)
Although
historically classified into many sub-types, there are really
only two types of parterres of interest in today's American garden:
the true knot, and what is often called the cutwork parterre (I
say true knot because the term "knot garden" has come
to include most types of geometrically arranged flower gardens,
though this is not actually the case. Parterre is the correct
general term. True knot gardens are essentially elaborate patterns
of low growing shrubbery in which the several different types
of plant material used for the borders have contrasting foliage.
In this way, the various different plants can be so planted as
to appear to cross over and under one another like threads in
a weave. (The garden in the How-to Section illustrates this type.)
The interior spaces of these gardens are occasionally filled with
flowers, but the main decorative feature is really the design
of the edging pattern itself.
The
second type, the cutwork garden, is the form of parterre more
often seen in the U.S. Although equally geometric and symmetrical,
here the pattern is formed by raised beds, often edged with a
single type of low-growing shrub such as dwarf box or santolina.
The edging material is generally wood, cobble or some type of
stone. The space in between the beds forms pathways, usually constructed
of hard paving - stone, brick or gravel, although turf is another
possibility. (The drawback to grass paths is that they have to
be mown and sharply edged quite often or else the design loses
its crispness.) The inside of the cutback garden also differs
from the true knot in that the interiors of the bed are as important
as the patterns themselves - plantings of a single bulb or annual,
mixed perennials and annuals, or a wild profusion of herbs, vegetables
and flowers are all possibilities.
Although this type of garden is considered "formal,"
remember that the way in which the beds are planted will actually
determine the degree of formality. The geometric nature of the
design does not determine a "formal" garden. For example,
cutback knots spilling over with flowers and herbs are hardly
what we would call formal! So go ahead and experiment with these
historic gems. Knots and parterres, some of our most traditional
garden features, remain fresh and integral parts of the modern
American landscape.
Other
Articles from Traditional Gardening - Spring 1997
The
knot garden, or more accurately, the parterre, is one of the oldest
forms of garden in America - a direct descendant of the walled
gardens of the Middle Ages. At its most basic, a parterre is a
symmetrically-designed garden of richly patterned shapes, which
relies on strict geometry to achieve its charming effect. These
gardens rose to prominence during the late Renaissance, and soon
became common in slightly different variations all over the continent
by the 17th century. In America, a simplified form of the parterre
arrived with the first colonists, and ever-more elaborate versions
rivaling their European cousins became common features in prosperous
American gardens by the Revolution. Long a staple of the formal
or architectural garden, parterres are the perfect compliment
to most house styles (including, somewhat surprisingly, many modern
houses). They are remarkably simple to lay out if you keep some
basic concepts in mind. (See the How-to Section later in this
piece.) 
Although
historically classified into many sub-types, there are really
only two types of parterres of interest in today's American garden:
the true knot, and what is often called the cutwork parterre (I
say true knot because the term "knot garden" has come
to include most types of geometrically arranged flower gardens,
though this is not actually the case. Parterre is the correct
general term. True knot gardens are essentially elaborate patterns
of low growing shrubbery in which the several different types
of plant material used for the borders have contrasting foliage.
In this way, the various different plants can be so planted as
to appear to cross over and under one another like threads in
a weave. (The garden in the How-to Section illustrates this type.)
The interior spaces of these gardens are occasionally filled with
flowers, but the main decorative feature is really the design
of the edging pattern itself. 
The
second type, the cutwork garden, is the form of parterre more
often seen in the U.S. Although equally geometric and symmetrical,
here the pattern is formed by raised beds, often edged with a
single type of low-growing shrub such as dwarf box or santolina.
The edging material is generally wood, cobble or some type of
stone. The space in between the beds forms pathways, usually constructed
of hard paving - stone, brick or gravel, although turf is another
possibility. (The drawback to grass paths is that they have to
be mown and sharply edged quite often or else the design loses
its crispness.) The inside of the cutback garden also differs
from the true knot in that the interiors of the bed are as important
as the patterns themselves - plantings of a single bulb or annual,
mixed perennials and annuals, or a wild profusion of herbs, vegetables
and flowers are all possibilities.