6 ideas for creating a knot garden in your own backyard

Known since Elizabethan times, knot gardens were common features at monasteries and aristocratic estates. Today, they are enjoying a revival among home gardeners who want to create distinctive gardens in a formal style.

• Because the pattern of a knot garden is best viewed from above, it's usually best to locate the garden where it can seen from a raised deck, porch or balcony.
• You can also put one in a sunken garden. Sketch your design to scale on graph paper to determine the shapes and the number of plants you need.
• You can use a number of geometric designs, including interlocking circles, squares, triangles and other shapes formed by low, narrow hedges.

Knot-garden plants must be both hardy and tolerant of regular shearing.

• Popular choices are dwarf boxwood, Japanese holly, gray or green santolina, lavender, germander and rosemary.
• Use several kinds of plants with different colours and textures to accent the interlocking design.

Before planting, make sure the ground is absolutely level, or the pattern will be distorted.

• As you set plants in place, exaggerate the design slightly so it will keep its definition once the plants mature.

Spread crushed marble, red shale chips or pea gravel for permanent mulch, or use fine-textured organic mulch, such as shredded bark, and renew it annually.

• Clip plants lightly with sharp, thin-bladed shears every three to four weeks during the growing season.
• Clip conservatively at first so that you can judge the results as you proceed.
• Stop trimming four to six weeks before the first frost so the plants can harden off before winter.

Historically, knot gardens are permanent garden features, but you can use annuals to create a one-season garden.

• Take a painterly approach by planting a knot using different colours of coleus, or use herbs, such as parsley, red basil and soft gray sage.