The Knot Garden

As you know from my last post I've been doing a bit of work on the bed I now call the knot garden.  This bed was already here when we purchased the property and was quite perplexing to me at first.  Initially it was so covered in weeds that I had a hard time just diciphering what shape it was.

It was hard to tell where the weeds ended and the flower began

After much walking about and scraping away at things I finally concluded the original shape of the bed looks like this.

The larger rectangle and green edging marks out the future boundaries of this area.

A long rectangle with triangle and diamond patterns made using brick and large pieces of wood.  Flower beds were created inside the triangles and diamonds and the spaces between were used as walkways, covered in smooth river stone.

Beneath the falling malva you can make out the stone path

Initially I found this area to be a conundrum.  Located midway between the house and the garage but closer to the road than anything else.  It is surrounded by nothing but lawn in a kind of a no-man's land.  I wasn't partial to the design of the bed or the location and for a while considered actually dismantling the entire bed and starting over.  This is one of the problems when you inherit a garden.  Sometimes ideas don't translate.   Do you keep the garden inherited or do you try to change it?

One of the issues that bugged me about this garden was the plants contained in it.  Large shrubs like spirea, potentilla, hydrangea and wygelia stood out sharply against the lawn.  Perennials like maltese cross and jacob's ladder seemed an odd mix with rock plants like candytuf and rock cress.  The plants lacked cohesion to each other and to my brain.  Nothing seemed to fit together and against the vastness of the lawn I was perplexed.

Candytuft is all but hidden by the weeds and dwarfed by the potentilla

Over the past year I've been letting this garden percolate in my mind.  If I remove the large shrubs and perennials the entire look would change.  The small rock plants would shine among the rocks and look like a rock garden?  That might be interesting.  It would also show off the intricate pattern of the bed.  It would certainly be a lot less work than trying to remove the bed entirely.  During my internet travels I came across the knot garden made by Frances @ FaireGarden.  Inspiration struck and the fuzzy outline of an idea began.  I searched more.  Proper knot gardens seem to be particularly fussy and not quite what I envision.  I saw the term italian garden and it rang some bells.  A search for herb gardens found less complex designs and appeared more accessible.  While I haven't solved the riddle of this garden bed I have noticed one particular item.  Many of the gardens I have been looking at have a frame and that is something my bed seems to be distinctly lacking.  This bed appears in the middle of nowhere with  nothing to introduce it and give you the sense that you are looking at a separate area.  If you look at the drawing above you will see that I have outlined the knot garden area in a very large rectangle and added green rows on either side.  Adding a border would create the necessary frame to make this garden it's own area and define it.  I think I'm on to something but obviously there is much more thinking to be done here.  All in good time.  I am in no hurry to tackle this area.  There are other areas that need my attention right now and I have years to define exactly what this area will become.  It's nice to dream though.


Do you have a knot garden?  Do you dream of one?  What does it look like?