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Monday, June 02, 2008
"English Gardens"
New Hope, Pennsylvania is just across the Delaware from my house ... in Bucks County (oft referred to as "Big Bucks" County). There is an annual garden tour, only one of which I've attended. There wasn't much to see. This year two "English gardens" are among those featured. I'm not sure what is meant by the term "English garden" in this context, but it may have something to do with an undefined yearning for something more than the typical American lawn with foundation plantings, or simply with pretension. I can imagine boxwoods and some elements of formality. If English gardens belong anywhere, they belong in England... and perhaps not even there.
Quite right - most English gardens are dreadful and most English gardeners complacent: it shows.
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