Knot garden
A knot garden consists of a variety of aromatic and culinary herbs, or low hedges such as box, planted in lines to create an intertwining pattern that is set within a square frame and laid on a level substrate.
Traditional plants used in knot gardens include germander, marjoram, thyme, southernwood, lemon balm, hyssop, costmary, acanthus, mallow, chamomile, rosemary, calendula, viola and santolina.
Most knot gardens now have edges made from box (Buxus sempervirens), which is easily cut into dense miniature hedges, and stays green during winters when not all of the "filling" plants are visible or attractive.
Knots were a key theme in the art of medieval England and can be seen in a range of media prior to their incorporation into the garden, such as on embroidery, carpets, metalwork, Celtic crosses, leatherwork, and paintings.
Many early English knots have designs similar to those developed in Italy during the Byzantine period and are closely associated to the introduction of Christianity in England.
[8] The close association to knot gardens and Christian symbology may also explain the use of a square frame as a representation of the heavenly plane on earth.
They were planted exclusively in low growing herbs and flowering herbaceous perennials that were clipped to maintain the shape of the frame and knot.
[1]: 46–48 The knot patterns surviving in text and archaeological records from this period could be highly complex and they were always symmetrical and set within a square frame.
First, there was a growing interest among the English in botanical exploration which saw the incorporation of more plant varieties in knot gardens and a greater range of bloom colours.
The book, Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestis, also provides the first English recommendation for boxwood as the preferred plant for knot and parterre designs and from this point it is seen throughout gardens of England.
The traditional design features of knot gardens were slowly blended with the newer French styles until they fall completely out of use at the end of the seventeenth century.
