Creating A Jane Austen Inspired Garden

Hello sweet friends, I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Saturday. This weekend I am featuring two posts and two YouTube videos inspired by all things Jane. Today I hope you will enjoy Creating A Jane Austen Inspired Garden.

Creating A Jane Austen Inspired Garden 

Regular readers of DTA may recall that I began the process of creating a Georgian garden in my backyard way back in January. You can read the post HERE.

The accompanying video can be seen HERE.

Jane’s Favorite Plants and Flowers Printable

In early winter I began making notes as to what plants and flowers Jane Austen specifically mentioned in her books as well as her letters to friends and family members. 

This list was transformed into a printable for you to enjoy. Just left click on the image to save it to your computer. Then simply print it out by whatever means you prefer.

Here is the PDF version. However, if you do not have the Jane Austen handwriting font downloaded it will print in a basic font. But that may be easier to read for some people.

Jane Austen printable

Seeds, Tubers, Roots and Plants

With the list in hand I then consulted the growing zone for where I live and selected varieties that would grow well here. I continued to work in the garden over the winter months planting roots, tubers and finally in the spring I began to sow seeds. 

Whenever possible I tried to use heirloom or non GMO varieties of seeds and plants as these selections would have been closer to the varieties Jane Austen would have enjoyed. 

Because we have such amazing garden centers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area I was able to source all of my seeds and plants locally. But if you google “Heirloom seeds/plants” and “Non GMO seeds/plants” you can find a wide variety of selections online. 

Early February “Before”

Early May “After”

Inspirational Films

Here are a few of my favorite inspiring gardens in film. I’d love to hear your favorites!

• A Little Chaos
• Howards End (1992)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
• Pride and Prejudice
• Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• The Secret Garden (2020)

Georgian Garden Literature

Some of the preeminent English landscape gardeners during the time of Jane Austen were Lancelot “Capability” Brown, William Kent and Humphry Repton. Dozens, if not hundreds, of books and articles have been written about these men and Georgian era landscaping. 

I found the following books at my local library and quite enjoyed them.

Capability Brown and the English Landscape Garden

In The Garden With Jane Austen

Georgian Gardens (Historic Gardens)

The Hidden Horticulturists

For serious botany enthusiasts you can find circa 1830s archives of Paxton’s Magazine and Botany and Register of Flowering Plants HERE, HERE,  and HERE. 

Jane’s Garden Pinterest Board

Over on Pinterest you can find my Jane Austen’s Georgian Garden board. 

Regency Short Gown

In the video I am shown wearing a Regency era short gown and suspendered skirt. This clothing combination was a popular choice with the Regency era working class.

I have several images pinned to my Regency Pinterest board. 

Amsterdam Museum, 1800s.

Simplicity 8941

I used the American Duchess pattern by Simplicity 8941 to create the short gown. How the pattern was altered and the short gown sewing process is shown in the video.

Some readers may recall that I have used this pattern once before to create a 1790s dress. 

It turned out beautifully.

 

Creating A Jane Austen Inspired Garden video

For the interior shots of this video I created a Regency inspired backdrop.

This floral filled video shares how to create an English country garden look and Regency era gardening clothes. 

The various segments were filmed over a 5 month period.

 

Be sure to come back tomorrow for A Jane Austen Inspired Garden Party. 

Have a lovely day,

Laura