Parterre Garden Design

The word “parterre” means “on the ground” in French. It refers to a type of formal garden created by French nursery designer Claude Mollet in the 1500s. Mollet had been inspired by the English knot gardens he had seen, and he wanted to expand their basic elements into something appropriate to the opulent and massive estates of the French Aristocracy. He decided that the parterre garden would look better if viewed from above, as opposed to a ground-level perspective. To make it visible from a higher vantage point, he expanded the one square into four squares with gravel paths that intersecting in the center. From an elevated position, this would create a sense of linear movement combined with balance and proportion.

Because parterre gardens were designed to be viewed from above, Mollet decided that clipped box and other similar shrubs would work better as visual elements than aromatic herbs and flowering plant. The English, of course, objected to this, with herbalist and poet Gervase Markham denouncing box as having a “naughty smell” that had no place in a garden. The English were missing the point. Mollet was creating something for the Elite to quietly admire from the opulence and comfort of their balconies and open windows- not stroll through the garden and smell.
Parterre gardens reached the zenith of their form under the reign of Louis XIII, at the Palace of Versailles. King Louis’s head gardener, Jacques Boyceau, defined the best elements of the parterre gardens as follows:

• Borders made from box and other shrubs.
• Compartments and pathways within shrub elements
• Passements-French for embroidery patterns
• Arabesque elements (repeating geometry)
• Interlacing patterns clearly visible from windows.

The parterre garden fell out of style after the French Revolution and the introduction of the 18th Century English naturalist garden. However, in the 20th Century, it returned as a popular element of residential landscaping design. The same basic aesthetic principles of Boyceau and Mollet are still followed, but the use of four squares divided by gravel paths is typically not used except on very large, private estates.

In most Houston neighborhoods, parterre gardens are planted adjunct to an architectural or landscaping feature. They can be either linear or contoured to compliment the architecture of any outdoor structure or landscaping element. For example, a West Houston couple with a passion for all things French had us plant a partier garden around a paved parking area that was shaped like a horseshoe. Later, this area was used to place an outdoor sculpture, and the greenery surrounding it added a natural, embellishing touch.

Typically, landscaping companies use a combination of boxwoods and holly trees for modern parterre garden design. The boxwoods provide the boundaries for the garden, and the hollies add a three-dimensional element. This simple combination makes such a garden an excellent addition to a yard that has no fence. When planted along the property line, it can create a superb and highly aesthetic natural boundary between a residence and a neighboring property.