Chateau Landscaping

Formal French Chateau Gardens

• French formal gardens, also called jardins a la francaise, are always symmetrical and their principle is to impose order on nature. Formal flower beds are edged with carefully tended hedges of box or privet, trimmed into an even line. Graveled paths run between the beds, and there may also be a water feature such as a fountain. One feature of these gardens is that they were originally designed to be seen from above, such as from the chateau windows. The flower beds are elaborately shaped and the low hedges provide a strong visual border. Many chateaux in France and elsewhere still have these formal gardens, but they are generally considered too labor intensive for the private gardener.

Other Garden Styles

• Chateaux would often have many acres of landscaped gardens, each one set out in a different style. In addition to the obligatory French formal garden immediately in front of the house, the English landscape garden began to become popular in the late 17th century. These English-influenced gardens created an idealized nature. They consisted of a natural looking landscape such as a lake surrounded by trees, but the lake would be artificial and the trees carefully planted. Other gardens consisted of decorative flower beds or gardens containing only one type of flower such as roses or lavender.

Famous French Gardens

• The most famous of all chateau gardens is at Versailles, the royal palace in northern France. Commissioned by Louis XIV in 1661, the gardens took 40 years to complete and were the brainchild of Andre Le Notre. It was a massive undertaking. Thousands of men shifted vast quantities of earth and rock by hand, and planted trees imported from all the provinces of France. The grounds include so many fountains that there has never been sufficient water pressure to run them all simultaneously. As well as huge formal French gardens, there are ornamental lakes, a canal, sunken ponds and woodlands.

Other Features of Chateau Landscaping

• Chateau gardens have evolved through the ages, as successive owners made changes based on fashion and personal taste. Many chateaux have an orangery, a building similar to a conservatory, built from stone with large windows. Designed for the propagation of delicate and exotic plants, they were a status symbol as only the wealthy could afford to build and run them. Large chateaux also sometimes have a maze made from clipped box or privet bushes. The maze at Versailles boasts 39 groups of hydraulic statutory designed to emit jets of water at the startled visitor.