Anyone who knows British garden designer Jo Thompson’s work will not be surprised by the title of her book, The New Romantic Garden. Over the decades that Thompson has been working as a designer she, has always created atmospheric gardens with a softness and sense of atmosphere and mystery. The 30 gardens that fill the book show how a modern romantic aesthetic can be applied anywhere—from a tiny city garden to the meadows of a country estate. Thompson’s text is delightfully laced with romance, too, with references to fairies, sun goddesses, and Narnia.
The “new” in the title reflects the fact that while Thompson’s work may feel nostalgic in some regards (there are many an English rose in this book), it is firmly of-the-moment. A longtime advocate of organic gardening, Thompson designs to support biodiversity and soil health, which are on all gardeners’ minds today. There’s also a looseness and a naturalness that will appeal to fans of the new perennial movement and more naturalistic styles. This book is a fresh perspective on what a “romantic” garden is today.
Photography courtesy of The New Romantic Garden by Jo Thompson (Rizzoli).
1. Start with the story.
For all of her designs, Thompson develops a story for the garden based on her clients’ desires and the place itself. For Thompson this involves “beating the bounds of the place and really getting to grips with the space,” plus trying to understand its history and what might have been there before. But she says, storytelling can be a delicate dance. “You want to avoid creating a pastiche,” she cautions. “If I’m working with a Tudor cottage near Canterbury, I’m not going to create a little Tudor medicinal garden, but there might be elements, like medicinal plants within the planting.” Likewise, Thompson says she trusts her intuition not to take a garden too far from its roots.
2. Let plants take center stage.
“I want the plants to take center stage–not the hard landscaping,” says Thompson, who advocates minimizing hardscaping. For Thompson, a garden is not a success unless it would still work with the hard landscaping removed.
3. Use hyper-local materials.
For inspiration for hardscaping materials, Thompson says to observe the nearby natural areas and materials of the home itself. If possible, stick to natural (stone, timber, clay brick) and sourced from nearby. “Anything that isn’t just doesn’t work in creating a feeling of helping the land along, and appears instead as a massive intervention,” she warns.
4. If in doubt, grow roses.
Roses are front and center on the cover of Thompson’s book, and they are, of course, a staple of any romantic garden. Yet Thompson says she often hears from people worried that roses are not resilient, to which she says, that very much depends on the rose and where it is planted. “Have a look at the requirements that a rose has,” she says. “If it requires full sun, don’t put it in shade.” One rose in particular that she recommends for beginners is ‘The Generous Gardener’, a climbing rose from David Austin. (Thompson is a fan of David Austin roses, in general.) Thompson also notes she also doesn’t plant roses as a monoculture (which can make them more susceptible to disease); rather, she’ll plant them with companions like alliums, parsley, and other plants with pungent foliage.
5. Create a veil.
An idea that Thompson shares in several gardens is a “veil” of tall plants with naked stems that you can see through. “Rather than abiding by the rules of tall plants at the back, medium sized plants in the middle, and low plants in front, I’ll put those taller, but bare-stemmed plants in the front and create this kind of veil that you just look through,” says Thomson. “It has the effect of candlelight: It just softens everything.”
6. Add softness everywhere.
In addition to a veil of tall, wispy flowers you can see through, Thompson says to avoid big chunks of plants with nothing between them to soften them. “There’s nothing romantic about that,” says Thompson, who notes that even roses, if planted all by themselves in a stiff Edwardian-style are unromantic. Thompson advises looking for plants that grow together in nature or look like they could.
See also:
- The Art of the Edge: 10 Perfect Ways to Soften a Path
- Garden Visit: A Wildflower Meadow at the Edge of an English Cottage Garden
- 10 Ideas to Steal from English Cottage Gardens
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