Updated on April 23rd, 2026 Posted In: Garden Style & Living
Author: Alexandra Campbell

12 Classic English Garden Elements – and How to Use Them in Your Garden

The classic English garden look is recognised all over the world.

But there are several myths and misunderstandings about what it is and how to achieve it.

A classic English garden is a combination of structure and wildness.

To many people the English garden style looks informal and full of colour, like a cottage garden.

But a cottage garden has no rules. It really is a mass of easily grown plants and mis-matched pots or furniture.

The classic English garden has an underlying structure that gives the lush borders contrast and richness.

So here are the key elements borrowed from the grand gardens.

You don’t need to have all of them (and you don’t need to be English or live in England. In this context, it’s a name of a style rather than a geographic area).

Classic English garden herbaceous borders

Nothing says ‘English garden’ like a sweep of a herbaceous border, full of colour. They are the showpieces of the great gardens – for example, the Long Border at Great Dixter.

English style herbaceous borders may look like a relaxed riot of colour, but there is an underlying structure.

a) Real herbaceous borders are deep.

You can’t have a proper herbaceous border with a narrow little strip. If you have a smaller garden, then go for one deeper border on one side rather than two thinner ones on either side.

Or you can have two deep borders with just a path between, as seen below at Cloudehill gardens in Australia.

And for an even narrower space, then have one border with the path running down the side. The border needs to be at least 3-6 plants deep, so that you can plant the traditional taller plants, medium plants and smaller plants.

Classic English garden herbaceous borders at Cloudehill (top) and Gravetye Manor Hotel. They are deep, with plants repeated in large groups. The layering of tall, medium and smaller plants is not a strict rule but does give an underlying structure.

b) Plant in large groups, not individual plants.

In How to Create Stunning Garden Borders, head gardener Tom Brown says that he plants in groups of 5,7 and 9. He never plants single plants or even in the oft-recommended groups of three. The plants will have much more of an impact when they’re in flower. And if one dies, you don’t lose much of the effect.

Position your key plants first, says award-winning grower Steve Edney in How to Create a Stunning Perennial Border.

This used to mean placing your shrubs or evergreens first, then building up the flowering plants around them. Today, many gardeners start with ornamental grasses, which offer structure but in a more airy way. See 7 Brilliant Ornamental Grasses to Give Your Border Light & Movement.

c) Repeat your groups – repetition means that your borders ‘speak to each other’.

This is another of Tom Brown’s tips from 8 Inspiring Ideas From A Stunning English Country Garden (Parham House).

Areas with structure – the parterre

The parterre is a classic English garden feature that came from France in the 17th century.

English Heritage defines a parterre as a formal garden on a level space, with a geometric pattern laid out by paths and beds. They are often marked out with low, clipped hedging and the pattern is designed to be seen from the upstairs windows of the house or another high point.

This means that a parterre is almost always close to the house. Parterre fashions changed over the years, from stone or gravel paths to mown sections of lawn, colourful geometric bedding and a central focal point, such as an urn or sundial.

In Inspiring Garden Ideas From 5 Garden Visits, Jenny’s garden has a classic parterre, with box hedging and a central urn.

We have a geometric area of lawn, divided by paths which we call the ‘parterre’ because it has a geometric patterns of lawn and stone paths.

The top photo shows a parterre of clipped mixed evergreens overlooking the city of Norwich. See it in An Evergreen Garden With a Touch of Grandeur. The other photo is our parterre when it had the sundial at its centre.

Typically box (boxwood) is used for the low clipped hedging around the parterre, but box blight and box moth caterpillar make box an unwise choice. Try euonymous or yew instead.

See The 3 Best Alternatives to Box.

The RHS is trialling alternatives to box in its Walled Garden at Wisley. There are some interesting coloured varieties. See 11 Clever Ideas from RHS Wisley.

Classic English garden rose arches and walks

In a grand garden, you can find a series of arches planted with roses. In a smaller garden, one arch covered in roses can make an inviting entrance to a different part of the garden.

At the Peter Beales Rose Garden in Norfolk, head rosarian Ian Limmer has planted several rose walks. ‘When you’re planting an avenue of rose arches, make sure that there are plenty of gaps left as the roses grow overhead. These let the light in further down.’

And secondly, he recommends starting a rose walk by planting the same rose on either side of the first arch. ‘After that you can vary the rose types.’

Rose walk (top) at Hever Castle Gardens where there is a Festival of Roses every year. The other photo is a rose arch at Peter Beales Gardens in Norfolk.

Ian recommends using rambler roses over arches, rather than climbing roses. Climbing roses will always try to climb up and reach for the sky, but ramblers will cascade over the arch in a romantic fashion.

And no rose will climb up one side of an arch, then down the other. To make sure the whole arch is covered in roses, plant one on either side. See Ian’s advice on roses in Rose Garden Ideas – The Best Roses for Obelisks, Arches, Fences and Pergolas.

Also see advice from Neil Miller, head gardener at Hever Castle Gardens in Growing Roses – Expert Tips From Hever Castle Rose Garden.

Obelisks also create dramatic structure in a garden. They can range from rustic to contemporary or classic. See 10 Obelisk Ideas That Add Instant Structure & Style.

Pergolas and gazebos

Think of walking under a long pergola, clad in wisteria, roses or vines. At Gravetye Manor Gardens they have white wisteria, which looks stunning on a long pergola in early summer. And the gardens at West Dean have a beautiful stone pergola, also planted with wisteria. At Hever Castle the colonnade of roses is a joy in summer.

For those of us in small and middle-sized gardens, a smaller pergola can offer striking vertical interest. It’s also a way of growing wisteria, as many people don’t want this vigorous climber on their house. But it’s a stunning sight growing over a pergola.

When I wrote How to Choose the Best Climbing Plants for Your Garden, I discovered five questions you need to ask before choosing a climber for a pergola, fence or trellis.  They are:

• Is the climber in sun or shade?
• How big will the climber get?
• How does it climb – will you have to tie it in?
• Is it slow or fast-growing
• What are its flowers like?

It may be tempting, for example, to choose a fast-growing climber because you want to see your pergola covered in flowers soon. But a fast-growing climber will need regular clipping.

Good ‘English country’ climbers for your pergola include clematis, wisteria and rambling roses.

My pergola (top) and a pergola at Peter Beales Gardens in Norfolk. Pergolas add vertical interest to a garden and create structure.

Also see: How to Turn a Pergola Into a Simple Gazebo.

Focal points: sundials, urns and statuary

Sculpture, urns and sundials create another layer of structure in the English country garden. Lining a path, placed at the end of an avenue or centred in a clearing, they give you a reason to enjoy both the art and the natural world around it.

You can re-create the look by placing a sculpture at the end of a path, adding an urn to a border or breaking up a lawn with a sundial or a statue.

The key is to think about how big it should be. Don’t automatically think a small garden needs small ornaments. Garden designer Paul Bangay has always been influenced by the English country garden style of Sissinghurst and says that you should go big in a small garden to create maximum impact.

He is the master of creating garden rooms and vistas. See Paul Bangay on garden design inspiration. 

See this post to find out how to choose art and sculpture for your garden.

Top: an urn at the end of an avenue at Doddington Place Gardens gives definition to the planting and a focal point. The photo below shows an urn creating punctuation in a long thin town garden created in classic English garden style. See A Clever Evergreen Garden With a Touch of Grandeur.

Clipped hedges and topiary

Clipped evergreen hedges are an important element in the structure of an English country garden. They provide a green, plain background to the riot of flower colour.

And, along with topiary, they give definition and winter structure.

Good hedge choices are yew, hornbeam, beech. Hedge specialist grower Morris Hankinson of Hopes Grove Nurseries says that the two most important factors in choosing a hedge plant are:

a) if you’re planting it in shade, choose a hedging plant that can cope with shade. Some plants, such as beech, will grow more slowly in shade.

b) if you’re planting into ground that is often damp or wet, make sure your hedge can cope with it. Yew won’t thrive in damp ground.

Wilder parts of an English country garden would have a mixed hedge, especially a mixed native hedge which would be allowed to grow naturally. But a shaggy hedge is harder to fit into smaller gardens.

See Which Hedge Is Right For My Garden.

Topiary can be expensive. But you can either make a big investment in just one magnificent piece of topiary or grow the topiary yourself over the years. See How to Buy Sensational Topiary on a Middle-Sized Budget.

At the very simplest, you can use topiary cones and balls (in yew, pittosporum, lonicera or beech) on either side of your front door, as Diane and Robbie Perry did. (See  How to Use Simple Topiary Shapes in Stylish Ways)

Clipped hedges and topiary on a grand scale at RHS Wisley (top) . The picture below it shows Rob and Diane Perry’s use of low clipped hedges, cones and balls to create a classic English garden effect.

Quirky, individualistic elements: follies, ruins or a stumpery

Almost every classic English garden was originally created by an individual or a partnership over a lifetime or even several lifetimes, rather than designed and installed by a professional designer.

Think Vita and Harold at Sissinghurst, Christopher Lloyd at Great Dixter, Eric   at Great Comp, King Charles at Highgrove, the great Victorian William Robinson at Gravetye Manor and more.

So they wove their lives and personal tastes into their gardens. Think of Great Dixter’s massive topiary, Highgrove’s stumpery and Great Comp’s ‘ruins’ which were created out of flints dug out of the borders.

A stumpery is a Victorian garden element. In large gardens you collect tree stumps, logs and old roots to display them like sculpture, usually in shady woodland areas. This is naturalistic and eco-friendly because decaying wood is a wonderful habitat, and it is also an unusual decorative feature for a shady corner.

In smaller gardens, you can collect or two smaller tree stumps or roots as Posy Gentles does in her small front garden (see Transform a Shady Corner of Your Garden With a Stumpery). The unusual shapes make a great partner for shade-loving plants, such as hostas.

Top shows the beautiful stumpery at Doddington Place Gardens while the picture below it shows how you can use one tree stump and some pots of hostas to create a mini display.

A garden ‘ruin’ adds an air of mystery or nostalgia to a garden. But it also has a genuine horticultural use as well.

You can build a ‘ruined’ wall to create a micro-climate or some shelter for a windy spot. At Great Comp Gardens in Kent, Eric Cameron created a hill with a ‘ruin’ giving him the option to plant vertically and also to enjoy the view from the top of the steps.

He started with lots of flint he’d dug out of the borders to clear the soil. Then he hunted down job lots from builders, architectural salvage and ‘seconds’ from building and stone yards. Underneath the old stone, there are fillers, such as old washing machines! With his own bare hands he created a stunning collection of ‘ruins’ around the garden.

For a smaller garden, you could buy one element, such as an old church window, from a salvage yard. Bill and Lynda Rudgard bought the church window you see below. Their garden isn’t large but it overlooks fields, so they rebuilt the window to overlook the countryside and create a romatic focal point. (See Garden Ruins & Follies Add More to Your Garden Than You Think)

Top shows the raised space created by Eric Cameron’s ‘ruined monastery’. The picture below it shows the Rudgard’s salvaged window overlooking fields.

Garden rooms – different spaces connected by vistas and paths

By ‘garden rooms’ I don’t mean chalets and huts. I mean that an English country garden is divided up into areas or ‘rooms.’ This, of course, makes perfect sense if you have four acres.

It can be less easy if your garden is only 40ft. But it is still helpful to create different areas even in a small garden, with paths as a journey from one to the other. The different areas can have different themes: cutting garden, wild patch, veg garden, seating area etc.

But in a smaller garden, make sure you have a vista or vistas. You need to be able to see something from one area to another. Dividing a small garden into boxy rooms with high hedging probably wont’ work as well.

I was lucky enough to visit Highgrove in the early 1990s. It was the first garden that made me aware of the importance of the ‘vista’.

A vista is a framed view, often directing the eye to a distant feature, such as a statue or even a building.  It draws you round the garden on your journey because the path or avenue is pointing to a focal point. You may even cut a hole in a hedge so that you catch a glimpse of another part of the garden before you enter it.

Paul Bangay is an Australian garden designer who is a master at creating a vista. His own 15 acre garden is made of a series of garden rooms, each with a different theme or style and each leading onto the next with an inviting vista through gates, doors or gaps. Note the repeated use of the same blue paint. See more of this garden in Paul Bangay – Garden Design Inspiration.

Think of creating a vista from your back door.

He also unites his garden by using the same blue paint on any features that need painting. As well as looking good, this is a practical step in large gardens and estates. Having the same paint throughout ‘the estate’ cuts down on the possibility of mistakes.

This also works well for those of us without ‘an estate. Having one or two colours and using them on everything in a smaller garden look more defined and less cluttered.

Lakes, ponds and water features

English country gardens always have a source of water. The house may originally have been built because it was close to a source of water, such as a lake. And an increasing number of major gardens, such as Borde Hill, now aim to be self-sufficient in water through their lakes, ponds and bore-holes.

Getting a decent sized pond, let along a lake, into a middle-sized garden is a challenge. Jackie Jones-Parry lives in a converted farmhouse in Gloucestershire so the original farm pond, which was essential for the farm animals is just by her back door.

But the rest of us can create smaller ponds. See 5 Raised Ponds Myths That Stop You Helping Wildlife and How to Create a Beautiful Container Pond.

And if you only have a tiny patio or balcony, you can Make a Mini Wildlife Pond In a Barrel or Bucket.

A small formal garden pond in Gloucestershire fits into any size of garden. And if you have a little more space, you can create a naturalistic garden pond.

Classic English Garden Lawns

One of the biggest differences between classic English garden style and cottage garden style is the lawn. Cottage gardens do not often have the space for a lawn.

But if you have the space, a sweeping lawn offers a peaceful, green contrast to the riot of colour in the flowerbeds.

And those who say that lawns are ‘green deserts’ have not seen the birds pecking away on my lawn. A lawn can contribute positively to both the environment and biodiversity but there are two factors that need to be considered:

a) Lawn grasses in the UK and Europe are mainly based on native grasses. Native grasses thrive in the climate and soil with relatively little care. A lawn absorbs carbon and heavy rainfall. It has an eco-system of worms, microbes and other organisms that are hugely beneficial to diversity.

However, if we use too many machines and chemicals to maintain those lawns, we can cancel out some of the environmental benefits.

b) In some parts of the world, such as the Southern US,  grasses have been imported to create a ‘classic English garden’ lawn. These are NOT suited to the climate or soil. Such lawns need too much care and too many resources to keep them going. Plus their contribution to local biodiversity is negligible or even negative. These are the ‘green deserts’.

It is important to know the difference, because lawns can be so valuable if they’re in the right part of the world.

Neither of these lawns are intensively treated and both are in middle-sized gardens. It’s hard to get this effect in a very small garden.

See Do You Need a Perfect Lawn- And Is It Sustainable? for lawn advice.

We only mow our lawn every 2-3 weeks. We never use fertiliser or weedkiller. It’s not a perfect lawn but it’s good enough. And the birds love it.

And meadows

A sweep of longer, meadow grass is now a classic English garden element.  Most of the gorgeous gardens I’ve visited, such as Great Dixter, West Dean, RHS Wisley, Doddington Place Gardens, Hole Park and many more now have meadow grass in areas that were clipped lawns.

This is almost impossible to do in a small garden but it can work very well in a middle-sized one.  My friends Amanda and Julian Mannering have a square town garden, probably around 40ft/12m square. There are borders and fruit trees around the edges and they used to mow the middle. Now they have a patch of meadow lawn.

Meadow lawn is easy and it means less mowing, but you do have to give it some care. Find out more in How to Create a Beautiful Mini Meadow Garden and Top Meadow Lawn Mistakes & How to Avoid Them.

Two mini meadow lawns in middle-sized gardens – both lawns are about 25ft/8m square with paths mown around or through them.

You may wish to experiment with this by trying No Mow May. See Should You Do No Mow May – the Pros and Cons.

Garden seating or benches

The English Country garden has many places where you can stop and sit. But these benches are more than just a place to rest. They’re a focal point.

‘Think of a bench as sculpture’ says garden designer James Alexander Sinclair in Top Garden Designers Reveal the Biggest Garden Design Mistake. ‘You’ll be spending a lot more time looking at it than sitting on it.’

This advice is even more true for smaller gardens. Invest in a garden bench or seating that you really love.  It will make a big difference to how you enjoy your garden.

See How to Choose the Best Garden Furniture.

Top shows a bench at West Dean Gardens in Sussex and the picture below it is a classic Lutyens bench in a narrow town garden. Both benches fit their gardens beautifully.

Pin to remember classic English garden elements and how to use them in your garden

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