Jekyll and Lutyens

When they started working together, the works of Edward Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll become very complementary. Strictly speaking, Lutyens was the master architect and Jekyll was the master gardener. However, in reality they worked together on almost everything in their designs together. Of course each had their own specialties in which they were most talented, but they always helped each other out. Lutyens knew that he was very good, but he was also smart enough to know that he needed help when it comes to the siting of his houses, on the general treatment of the grounds, and especially with the detailed plantings of the gardens. Since there was such close collaboration, the result was a closely knit home and garden.  Jekyll believed that “‘the connection must be intimate, and the access not only convenient but inviting’”. The architecture and structure of the  house flowed into the garden with geometrical shapes and inviting landscape. However, without Jekyll’s plantings and beautiful use of color theory in her planting, the houses and gardens would have seemed somewhat harsh. However, with her large and somewhat wild flower boarders the garden softened out the edges of the geometrical shapes created by the walks, steps, terraces, walls, house, and water features.

Upton Grey

The first work that Jekyll and Lutyens did together was Jekyll’s home. Jekyll had purchased the property of Munstead a few years before she decided that she was going to renovate the house. She decided that she wanted Lutyens to design her house. In his usual fashion, Lutyens designed the house to blend in with the theme of the local houses by using only local material. If the area had houses made with brick then his design was with brick. In the case of Munstead wood it was built with locaol Bargate stone, lined inside with brick, with a tiled roof. An example of the connection between the house and garden was the shallow stepped staircase that lead up to a long oak-beamed gallery (the oaks were found locally) that covered the central courtyard. In the garden Jekyll used color theory to express different color themes in her flower boarders, or herbaceous boarder. She considered height, texture, color, and flowering time. 

Herbaceous Boarder

As previously mentioned, Jekyll’s plantings soften the somewhat harsh geometrical shapes of Lutyens’ design. An example of this would be the plantings around the sundial at Pendor House at Buckinghamshire. Lutyens design involved concentric circles of connected semi-circular flower beds. If you look at the design is looks very geometric. However, when looking at Jekyll’s plantings, she does not fill in every inch with flowers and she often goes outside the lines to soften the edges.  Jekyll and Lutyen’s continued the very successful friendship and partnership for the rest of Jekyll’s life until her death in 1932. 

Lutyen's design

Jekyll's Plantings

 Sources:

 Lecture 19 from European Garden art "Munstead Wood et al. Case Study"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munstead_Wood