Gertrude Jekyll

Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote over 1000 articles for magazines such as ''Country Life'' and William Robinson's ''The Garden''. Jekyll has been described as "a premier influence in garden design" by British and American gardening enthusiasts.

She was one half of a powerful artistic movement in the UK towards the Arts and Crafts Design Style, along with Sir Edwin Lutyens. In 1882, Gertrude Jekyll purchased a piece of land near Godalming in Surrey, where she built her home, Munstead Wood. More than just a residence, Munstead Wood was a living laboratory for her ideas—a place where she could experiment freely with plantings, structure, and spatial composition. Every inch of the garden was considered, evolving over time into a seamless blend of cultivated artistry and natural landscape. The house itself, designed by a young Sir Edwin Lutyens early in his career, was a direct reflection of Jekyll’s vision. Modest in scale and deeply connected to its setting, it embodied the Arts and Crafts ideals of craftsmanship, material honesty, and harmony with the environment. Its informal, asymmetrical form sat low to the ground, grounded by the surrounding gardens and softened by carefully placed plantings that blurred the distinction between built form and nature.

According to Gertrude Jekyll: "There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare, or ugly, that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight." Provided by Wikipedia