HE TRADITIONAL KNOT GARDEN HAS ELIZABETHAN ROOTS

St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
July 23, 2005
Author: MARGE HOLS

Perhaps I was meant to live in Elizabethan England or Colonial America, because the garden I covet most is a knot garden. So you can imagine my delight when I came across one of these patterned treasures during a visit to Judy MacManus' garden in Sunfish Lake.

MacManus, a real estate agent and advertising freelancer, says she has been a gardener "forever." She created the knot garden to complement the early-Colonial style of her home. Her husband, Gary, a retired advertising agency owner, drew the house plans based on a mid-1700s brick and clapboard home they visited in Maryland.

"I've always liked formal gardens and the idea of doing something with patterns," MacManus says. "About 14 years ago, I started experimenting with santolina, germander and different kinds of boxwood that were supposed to make nice little patterns, but they wouldn't grow here. I was about to give up when I tried barberry. It's been a good solution."

The rectangular garden is tucked into an L on the north side of the house and bordered on two sides by a white picket fence. Dwarf red- and green-leafed barberries comprise two diamonds and curved cross pieces that form the knots. Planted within the hedges are MacManus' cooking herbs and scented geraniums. Bordering the garden are old-fashioned perennials including bee balm, delphinium and phlox.

MacManus, who belongs to both the Garden Club of Ramsey County and St. Paul Garden Club, says her knot garden is surprisingly easy to maintain. For the first few years, the diminutive hedges were spotty, but the barberries have long since grown together. She trims and shapes them only once a summer.

"Mine is a simple knot garden, but it provides year-round enjoyment," she says. "It's so cool in wintertime when snow outlines the shape of the knot." Someday, MacManus says, she'd love to plant a more intricate knot garden.

According to historical garden designer Michael Weishan, the knot garden is a type of formal, clipped parterre. In "The New Traditional Garden" (Ballantine Books, 1999, $35), he notes that it's one of the oldest garden forms in America. Inspired by walled gardens of the Middle Ages, it became popular in Elizabethan England in the 16th century. In the 17th century, knot gardens were grown throughout continental Europe and colonists carried the designs to America.

"True knot gardens are elaborate patterns of low-growing shrubbery," Weishan writes. "The several different types of plant material in the borders have contrasting foliage and appear to cross over and under one another like threads in a weave. Interior spaces are occasionally filled with flowers, but the main decorative feature is really the design of the edging pattern itself."

The MacManuses started with a nearly blank canvas when they built their home 17 years ago on the nearly three-acre lot. Today, drifts of tall trees screen their house from the road. A graceful willow arches over a large man-made pond garnished with water lilies. A wildflower prairie sweeps the hillside behind the house.

Closer to the house, MacManus has created gardens that invite you to come sit awhile. A stone bench marks a shady spot at the edge of the formal rose garden, which is centered by a fountain. A short stone walk connects the garden to a brick terrace. Large pots spill over with honeysuckle vine, heliotrope, Rudbeckia and gerbera daisy.

Nearby, an inviting glade featuring a tall, sculpted peacock shelters MacManus's hosta collection along with barrenwort, corydalis, jack-in-the-pulpit, variegated Solomon's seal, a tatting fern and other shade lovers. Tucked into a corner of the glade near an old log is a delightful fairy garden.

MacManus credits her mother as her garden inspiration.

“On the farm where I grew up, Mom and gorgeous flower borders,” she recalls. “My two sisters and I worked in the gardens. I suppose at the time we didn’t think it was too much fun, but now, all of us love gardens and are avid gardeners.”