Find out about Gertrude Jekyll's garden at Munstead Wood
Find out more about Gertude Jekyll and this internationally renowned garden - even if you can only see the garden as a virtual visitor or via a book.
The photos and sketches included are from my own visit - on a very wet Sunday afternoon in June 2007.
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All sketches copyright Katherine Tyrrell
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Sketch of the Summer Garden, Munstead Wood by Katherine Tyrrell
The garden at Munstead Wood
description from the National Garden Scheme - see below for how to visit
This former home of Gertrude Jekyll (designed by Edwin Lutyens) is surrounded by a 10-acre restored garden including woodland, rivers of daffodils, paths through azaleas and rhododendrons, sunken rockery, lawns, shrubbery, rose-covered pergola, tank garden, topiary box, clematis garland, borders. Doorway in bargate wall to spring and summer gardens. Primula garden behind yew hedgeGertrude Jekyll started work on her garden of 15 acres in 1883 when she was 40, 13 years before the house designed by Edwin Lutyens was added to the space she had left.
In 1987, 55 years after her death, the present owners traced her original plans and began to carefully restore it. In spring a river of daffodils flows from a birch copse. Later the wide grass path through many flowering rhododendrons creates a vista between the woodland and the house. Nearby are scented walks among vibrant azaleas.
The wide west lawn, edged by the terrace, leads past the sunken rock garden and shrubbery to the main summer border. Backed by an eleven-foot high Bargate stone wall with shrubs and wisteria, the border is approx 200' x 14'. Miss Jekyll planted the border with pale-coloured plants at each end building to strong reds and yellows at the centre and a stone seat. Through the arched doorway in the wall the visitor reaches the spring and summer gardens with displays including tulips, irises and peonies.
Returning towards the house, past the rose-covered pergola and summerhouse, the aster garden and nut walk have been restored. Borders filled with lavender and white planting edge the path to the courtyard and Tank garden. The formal setting for the water feature has topiary box and potted pelargoniums underneath clematis. Across the yew hedge is the primula garden.
The garden now covers 10 acres but still shows her genius for planting and design.
Gertude Jekyll - garden designer
- Gertrude Jekyll Estate website
- Gertrude Jekyll, the official website of the Jekyll estate
Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and America; her influence on garden design has been pervasive to this day. She spent most of her life in Surrey, England, latterly at Munstead Wood, Godalming. She ran a garden centre there and bred many new plants. Some of her gardens have been faithfully restored, wholly or partly, and can be visited.
Her own books about gardening are widely read in modern editions; much has been written about her by others. She contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines. A talented painter, photographer, designer and craftswoman; she was much influenced by Arts & Crafts principles. - gertrude jekyll garden design
- Gertrude Jekyll, 1843-1932, was probably the most respected gardener of her time and her influence on the art of gardening is evident throughout the world today. She designed about 400 gardens (three of which were for clients in the United States) but, because so few survive and only a handful are accurately restored, it is by her books and articles that she is best remembered. She taught the world the full craft and art of gardening. She appreciated the beauty of both natural and formal styles and explained the importance of structure, proportion, colour, scent and texture in gardens of almost any scale.
- A Biography of Gertrude Jekyll
- Gertrude Jekyll, a biography from the landscape and gardens guide
- Surrey History Centre - Gertrude Jekyll Collection
- Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) of Munstead, Godalming, was one of the most well known garden designers of her time. Born in London, her family moved in 1848 to Bramley Park in Surrey and, except for a brief period (1868-1876) when the family moved to Berkshire, she lived all her life in the county. Life in rural Surrey made a lasting impression on Miss Jekyll, and her work and interests as a painter, gardener, photographer and writer are reflected in the collection held at Surrey History Centre.
- The Lutyens Trust - Gertrude Jekyll Gardens open to the public
- The Lutyens Trust - To protect and promote the spirit and substance of the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens O.M.
Gertrude Jekyll (Wikipedia)
article on wikipedia
Gertrude Jekyll (29 November 1843 - 8 December 1932; surname ) was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.Bisgrove, Richard. The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll.London: Frances Lincoln, 2006.
Gertrude Jekyll was born at 2 Grafton Street, Mayfair, London, the fifth of the seven children of Captain Edward JH Jekyll, an officer in the Grenadier Guards, and his wife Julia Hammersley. Her younger brother, the Reverend Walter Jekyll, was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, who borrowed the family name for his famous novella Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In 1848 her family left London and moved to Bramley House, Surrey, where she spent her formative years.
Munstead Wood - The Garden
- Munstead Wood Garden | GardenVisit.com, the garden landscape guide
- To historians, this is one of the most famous gardens in England. It belonged to Gertrude Jekyll and she employed Edwin Lutyens to design the house. The house is in excellent condition and the garden, though greatly changed is being restored. One of the problems is that for her 'small garden' of 15 acres, Jekyll employed 14 gardeners.
- Munstead Woods
- Gertrude Jekyll designed the gardens of her family home, Munstead, which evolved with every season and her desire to experiment with different border styles and color schemes. Miss Jekyll used Munstead Wood--the home's garden--for experimental ground to use later in other projects and to simply value for its originality. Munstead Wood was also often the highlight of topics in her many garden design writings
- Munstead Wood, Godalming, Surrey, England, 1883-1902 - Photographs of the Garden
- From: Munstead Wood, Godalming, Surrey, England, 1883-1902
Collection: Gertrude Jekyll Collection, 1877-1931
Contributing Institution: Environmental Design Archives, 230 Wurster Hall #1820 , University of California , Berkeley, California 94720-1820 - Travels with a Sketchbook - Sketching at Gertrude Jekyll's home - Munstead Wood
- A record of my own visit to Munstead Wood on a very wet afternoon in June 2007.
Munstead Wood - The House by Lutyens
- Munstead Wood
- Munstead Wood, 1896, is Gertrude Jekyll's own house designed for her by Edwin Lutyens and completed in 1896. It is set in a large wooded garden developed by Jekyll over many years. At Munstead Wood Lutyens's distinctive free Tudor style is already fully formed - though not fully worked out- in a kind of small-scale anticipation of the masterpieces of the next few years. The house was built of local Bargate sandstone and weathered tiles so that the house would not look 'new'.
- Environmental Design Archives - Munstead Wood
- (University of California, Berkeley)
Munstead Wood
Godalming, Surrey, England
1883-1902
Client: Gertrude Jekyll
Architect: Edwin L. Lutyens
Munstead Wood was Jekyll's own residence where she spent the majority of her time. During the last twenty or so years of her life, Jekyll rarely left Munstead Wood, designing her commissions from her home without ever visiting the sites. Munstead Wood was also the site of her plant nursery, as well as the subject of the majority of her photographs. - Munstead Wood - Drawings
- Munstead Wood, Godalming, Surrey, England, 1883-1902 - Drawings
- The Lutyens Trust
- The Lutyens Trust - To protect and promote the spirit and substance of the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens O.M.
- The Lutyens Trust - Lutyens Houses & Gardens Open to the Public in 2009
- The Lutyens Trust - To protect and promote the spirit and substance of the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens O.M.
Lutyens Houses & Gardens Open to the Public in 2009
How to visit Munstead Wood
The address is:
Munstead Wood,
Heath Lane,
Busbridge,
Godalming,
Surrey GU7 1UN
England
- National Garden Scheme - Munstead Wood
- 2009 Opening dates and times: Suns 26 Apr; 17 May (2-5).
- Google Maps - Munstead Wood
- location of Munstead Wood - house and garden
BOOKS: About Gertrude Jekyll and her gardens
books on Amazon
The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll holds a unique place in the history of English gardens and greatly influenced garden planting throughout the world.
Here are the best of her planting plans, illustrated by an accomplished watercolourist and enhanced by colour photographs showing how, even today, her designs may be replicated.
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Gertrude Jekyll: The Making of a Garden--Gertrude Jekyll - An Anthology
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Gertrude Jekyll's Colour Schemes for Flower Garden
A beautifully illustrated edition of Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden, one of the most influential gardening books of the 20th century. With an approach as fresh and relevant now as when it first appeared in 1908, this book, by the great garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, is an eloquent expression of her painterly ideas on colour, and takes the form of an inspiring and instructive tour of her own garden at Munstead Wood.
Beautiful and delicate illustrations of some of Gertrude Jekyll's favourite plants augment full-color interpretations of her planting plans to convey an instant impression of her aims. This edition - with a preface by Richard Bisgrove - does full justice to the author's vision of the use of color in the garden.
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Gertrude Jekyll
In this remarkable biography, Sally Festing shows us how impressions of Gertrude Jekyll have become distorted in the popular imagination: how her real contribution to garden design is underrated, especially the profound influence she was to have upon the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.
The plain, myopic figure who stares sternly from Victorian photographs was, the author suggests, altogether more complicated, abrasive, autocratic, impatient, fun-loving, and lovable than she has ever been made out to be. An illuminating portrait of a formidable and admirable woman.
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Munstead Wood by Helen Allingham
giclee prints on Amazon
Gertrude Jekyll's Garden Munstead Wood by Helen Allingham. Art Print Giclee on Canvas Rolled 20.5 inches width by 24 inches height. Highest Quality
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- Victoria Baker Victoria Baker Oct 10, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
- hope my daughter visits this beautiful garden in surrey.is it near Shipley bridge
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- makingamark makingamark Jul 21, 2009 @ 11:51 am
- Thanks Claire
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- Clairwil Clairwil Jul 15, 2009 @ 5:01 pm
- Excellent lens on a fascinating subject. *****
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I'm an artist with a very wide range of interests who enjoys learning about art, making art and sharing information about art. I've combined all my information sites with sections of my other websites and blogs to highlight my main interests and acti...
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