An Elizabethan garden design concept, related to the French parterre, low hedgings of box or yew forming a particular pattern with gravel type spaces and pathways, designed to be best appreciated viewed from the first floor reception rooms where the design becomes more apparent.
Knot garden designs were based on lace work, the intricacies of which were slightly lost unless viewed from above.
This style was revived in the last century, notably by the late Rosemary Verey, who was well known for her intricate knot garden frameworks, with the twist that they contained vegetables. Itself a twist on the pottage, the French monastic kitchen gardens in which aromatic plants and culinary herbs are grown in compartments.
By virtue of the knot garden design these look as good empty and spare in the winter as they do in the summer, when they are full to overflowing with abundant produce.