TierramadreLandscape.com

structured gardens get on my nerves. LOL!
anyway, wild gardens in my opinion are soooooo beautiful.
although some groomed type designed gardens look very pretty.

Victorian...but then again, I like mixing “old” with “modern”…it’s quite annoying when I can’t get the two to flow correctly…

2008-04-25 19:49:42 by Auntie Marie SueB

Victorian style house and garden with green labirint...:) made by me

I have recntly purchased a 1905 home in Melbournes Dandenong Ranges in Victoria Australia. I'm currently renovating the house , in a classic traditional style and I want the garden to match. Any thoughts/ideas/ on plant types or style/design tips?

www.justinbishop.com.au

The underlying theme of the Victorian garden, as in much of Victorian life in general, was man's conquest over the elements. Nothing exemplifies this so much as the lawn. A front and rear lawn were considered imperative in a formal garden. The push mower, for more modest lawns, was patented during Victoria's reign.
The previous eras had cottage gardens. This was a garden for the household's use so it contained a lot of medicinal and food plants in as little space as possible. This meant no grand views but a lot of scrap or twig trellises to hold sprawling plants from taking to much ground. Nothing was planned but all was meant for utility.

Trees were also used to frame the carriage drive or approach to the house. In the city, trees were often planted along the street to aid in privacy. This was the era of exploration and discovery in plants so specimen trees with unusual shape or color were popular.
Garden ornaments were very popular. Increasing technology made made ornaments more available and affordable. Cast iron, glass gazing balls, and concrete. Concrete was made into fences, fountains and buildings, often with fantastic detail. A bird bath might look just like a tree stump when made from precast stone.

Carpet bedding, the use of same-height flora, was popular. Most often used to depict a motif or design such as a clock or badge. Old-fashioned plants typical of grandmother's garden cottage garden, such as hollyhocks, sunflowers, daylilies, sweet-williams, blood-red peonies, poppies, nasturtiums, larkspurs, snapdragons, and pansies were out of style. These were replaced in Victorian gardens with large and bold foliage plants such as castor beans, cannas, dahlias, lilies, and ornamental grasses.
Bedding plants included ageratum, celosia, convolvulus, four o'clock, geranium, portulaca, salvia, sweet alyssum, gladiolus, petunia, and begonias.
Foundation plantings are more modern in concept.
The great vegetable gardens of the Victorian era gave us items such as glass cucumber straighteners, rhubarb forcers, cloches and unusual garden tools, all interesting additions to the potager or potting shed.
Then there were the gardening vicars. They bred many of our modern cultivars.

2007-04-29 19:29:13 by bobby

I can find lots of normal height in the DIY shops but wanted to make the sides higher for a very posh veg garden. I live in England.

Roll top re-claimed edging often comes up on http://www.salvoweb.com/forsale.html - you may have to bide your time to find some within 'collecting' distance. Alternatively you could try your Yellow Pages for a reclaimation merchant. Good luck :-)

2008-06-10 00:22:58 by Fiary Godmother

I'm co-putting on a little tea/garden party in a big vicotiran house for a community event, and I'm looking for ideas for a couple things to do at this party besides just eat, drink tea and socialize. Preferably things of the Vicotiran era. Thanks a bunch!

charades

2007-07-09 08:39:19 by beth c

Are there still carpenters out there and artisans that can construct for me a brand new Victorian house? sure with all the modern conveniences too like energy efficient doors and windows, good insulation and weather stripping, and intnernet in every room. Also a solar panel on the roof. I want the house to have 1 1/2 floors with an attic and a basement for the wine cellar. I also want for the attic space a little circular viewing room with telescope and a cone shaped roof.

I want those skinny windows that extend all the way from the ceilings down to the floors. I want the house to be made energy efficient as well. But built as if it's still the late 1800s. Queen Anne Victorian style. :-) My Dream house! Can someone build it for me? 4 bedroom 4 bath, 4 car garage. A porch, a balcony, and a garden!

Absolutely. You probably will not get one of the large builders to do a proper job, but there are many smaller builders that would be perfectly capable of producing anything you can get prints for.

There are stock plans available for victorians, I know Donald Gardner (http://www.dongardner.com/) has a few, check with some of the plan retailers on the web as well. Most have a section where you can search by architecture type. Some have updated versions of historic designs available as well.

You will have to pay a bit of a premium for this. The details involved take a bit more time and the materials you will need to use to duplicate some of the features will be more expensive.

We have done a few projects like this over the last 5 or 6 years and all have turned out beautiful. If it is what you want, it is worth the extra to have your dream.

2007-07-21 21:01:06 by Philladelphia