Get the look: The Gardens of Versailles

The gardens of Versailles is an expansive grouping of garden rooms and areas, each containing complex designs executed in low boxwood parterres, closely clipped lawns and gravel paths. Long hedges and avenues connect the rooms, and the gardens are studded with water jets and fountains. Plantings are controlled and contained in various manners: rows of hedging line garden areas, evergreens are sheared into conical shapes, a forest of trees and shrubs stand in cube-shaped Versailles planter boxes, and severely clipped boxwood parterres contain colourful summer annuals.

Elements to use in your garden

• Long gravel pathways and hedges to establish the sightlines
• Trees used as focal points to suggest and control distance 
• Balanced framing with plants, con­tainers and ironwork 
• Parterres to create a subtle eleva­tion change 
• Formal water feature, such as a fountain