EVERY GARDEN I VISIT offers a multitude of lessons, all there for the taking, and nearly free of charge. The only requirement? Seeing.
Italian, French, Spanish, and English are all one language amid trees, shaped hedges, alluring allées, and borders of colorful, frothy spires of flowers. On a recent tour of the 17th-century Château de Brécy in Normandy, France, I was reminded that simplicity is always the guiding force. A castle garden doesn’t seem like the best place to find concepts—used to establish hectare upon hectare—that can be brought home on an iPhone and put into practice in your own backyard, terrace, or window box. But it is. As Edith Wharton said, the principles of gardening are “to escape, to enjoy, to behold our patch of beauty and pleasure.” Easy…
