Nw Gardens: It's knot just a BIG deal

Labyrinths, mazes and knot gardens are focused, often formal, garden designs. They are old, and when you include one in your own garden, you become part of a long story of gardens.

We think of them as existing in expansive landscapes, but you can create them in spaces smaller than you would think. In fact, you even can plant one in a container.

We'll get to that shortly, but first a little history and background on this fascinating tradition.

Labyrinths and mazes are both puzzles of sorts, because you must figure out how to get in or out or, in some labyrinths, you must figure out what the puzzle is. Labyrinths often have mystical connections and are not connected necessarily to gardens; in fact, you can buy a labyrinth rug for your living room.

Mazes, on the other hand, are all about plants -- tall hedges of yew that form walls on either side of a path that leads you to ... somewhere.

America has taken the maze, a 16th-century garden element, to heart. In midsummer all over the country, cornfields, such as the one at Biringer Farm in Everett (biringerfarm.com), planted in intricate patterns, play host to thousands of children running through the tall plants.

American cornfield mazes are a revival of a revival. Although the triangular-shaped maze at Hampton Court Palace in England dates from the 18th century, it is thought to be a joke of Queen Anne's, as by that time mazes were thought to be unfashionable. It was the Victorians who revived the idea, and evidence can be seen all over England.

At Hever Castle, the Kent home of Anne Boleyn's family, there is a traditional yew maze, modeled on the design of a maze from the 16th century that had been swept away during the 18th-century landscape movement.

William Waldorf Astor caught the tail end of the revival when he planted it in 1906. The maze is 80 feet by 80 feet and the hedge 8 feet tall; visitors can wander around a quarter-mile of path inside.

Hever also has a more modern take on the maze. It requires more space than most of us have, but could be the inspiration for a small-garden maze -- it's the water maze out on Sixteen Acre Island.

This maze keeps you on your toes -- you must walk through without setting off one of the fountains. When triggered, they shoot out from underfoot, so if you visit, try it on a nice warm day when you won't mind getting sprayed.

You'd think that small gardens wouldn't be able to hold a maze, but some people get "garden room" crazy, making tiny spaces and sharp turns in hopes that this will make the garden seem bigger. It doesn't, but it does make you feel as if you're in a maze.

Before tall hedge mazes came into fashion in the 16th century, intricate patterns were created with low-growing plants, and it's those styles that can work in a variety of garden circumstances.

The knot garden at Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds is a 1995 installation, recent in the history of knot gardens, but it is based on a dress design worn by Elizabeth I in a portrait hanging in the castle. It is a traditional design of boxwood, seeming to weave over and under; the spaces between are filled with gravel.

Knotted designs in gardens, cloth, stone and jewelry have been around for centuries. The earliest representation of a knot garden is from the late 15th century. Although in many designs the plants appear to weave over and under one another, there's plenty of evidence from the past 500 years that shows the plants as low hedges, not tying a knot.

Knot gardens are never large, certainly not as big as mazes, and so they are a design that's fun to play with in any garden. Jay Williams, of Fremont Gardens in Seattle, installed a 12-foot-by-12-foot boxwood knot garden at a friend's house 20 years ago using 110 1-gallon pots of dwarf boxwood (Buxus sempervirens 'Suffruticosa').

Shaping the plants took at least two clippings a year, but after a few years, maintenance was reduced to once yearly in about August. That's the nice thing about dwarf boxwood -- it doesn't get away from you easily.

Clippings can be left a few days to dry out, at which point, Williams says, they are easy to suck up with a wet/dry vacuum cleaner.

Alternately, the clippings can be used for propagation. Boxwood roots do it easily; "We say that we take 1,000 cuttings and get 1,200 to root," Williams says.

If a knot garden still sounds too big for your space, there's hope yet. Plant a tiny knot garden in a container, as is done at Fremont Gardens. The pots fit on a patio, deck or balcony. When placed on a tabletop, you don't even have to bend over to clip.

Williams has used other plants for tiny knot gardens, such as a dwarf variegated euonymus (Euonymus japonicus 'Microphylla Albovariegatus' -- the name is bigger than the plant).

You can plant a bit of history in your garden, whether you have half an acre, 200 square feet or room just enough for a table and chair.

Create your own

Fremont Gardens invites you to create your own tabletop knot garden at a workshop Aug. 25, 10 a.m.-noon. The cost is $60, which covers materials. To sign up, call 206-781-8283.

Gardeners will be sad to learn that this is one of the last events at Fremont Gardens, which will close in the fall. Owner Lorene Edwards Forkner decided to close the business after 12 years so that she can pursue other interests. Forkner is author, with Linda Plato, of "Hortus Miscellaneous: A Gardener's Hodgepodge of Information and Instruction" (Sasquatch, 256 pages, $16.95). Fremont Gardens has always been a source of fabulous plants, a slightly funky attitude and great inspiration; it will be missed!