Gardening Neatfreaks Can Take a Lesson from Versailles

The French protect their language...which makes for interesting attempts to guess at why they landed on certain strange hybrid Germano-English “high tech” terms. But when it comes to the modern French gardens, though, the magnitude of changes truly have been astonishing. Downright playful. Witness what is going on at Versailles. Tourists from earlier eras remember well the formality of box hedges and shrubbery teased into tortuous shapes. A quick slideshow demonstrates how that emphasis on straight-edge design suddenly has taken on a supporting role: a mere frame for the playful pastels and sprawling mounds of perennials inspired by  Monet’s incredible gardens at Giverny.

The results are breathtaking. In our own North Fork backyard, the large lavender plantings on Main Road at Bedells—a utilitarian but lovely herb planted in a severe geometric fashion a la Provence—conjure up a similar feeling. At the moment that particular bed needs weeding (hence, no photo), but then who am I to talk? After weeks away and all our North Fork rain, my own garden is a weed-choked mess. Such a deliberate mixing of formality and informality may be harder to pull off in a small home perennial garden. But I have seen that same marriage-of-opposites principle work, even with tiny kitchen gardens that combine traditional herbs set amid brickwork or paving tiles with edible flowers like nasturtiums or blossoms on sprawling squash plants. As a gardener, I am way too undisciplined to keep up the “formal” part. Hats off to those whose creativity takes them in that direction.