2 Ways To Landscape Your Victorian Home
While people tend to think of Victorians as sedate and somber, the fact is that they loved patterns and they loved colors. If you look at houses that have stayed with authentic paint jobs, like the Painted Ladies of San Francisco and other cities, you can see that many times their houses had two or three or even more colors painted on the houses. The bight colors and strong patterns followed into the landscaping of their homes. If you have just bought a Victorian house, or you have had one for awhile and you want to change the landscape, you are probably going to look for tips on what to do.
Lighting
One thing that you are going to need to do is plan out the lighting that you want. That's because you want to be able to enjoy your garden at all hours, especially if you plant sections that have night-blooming flowers like evening primrose or moon flowers. However, you don't want to have jarring lighting elements. Those would include fixtures that look too new. Early Victorian outdoor lighting would have still been gaslights or candle lanterns, while electricity was just coming into vogue during the late Victorian period. So, you can look for lap posts that have lantern shaped fixtures hanging from them and have faux candles inside. With some candle lightbulbs, you can really catch the feeling of the Victorian age, plus you get an interesting new visual texture in your landscape.
Hedge Mazes
Part of the Victorian fondness for patterns showed itself in hedge mazes. The hedges were planted and pruned so that they would eventually form a maze. It was fun for people to do, and also gave people some private corners where they may be able to do some courting in private. While you may not be able to do a full maze in your yard because you don't have a lot of space, there are ways that you can get the same feel. For example, you can create a footpath that resembles a maze and have a patio in the center. Or you can plant flower beds in a maze pattern. That way you are still getting the feel, but you aren't taking up as much space.
Accenting your Victorian house and giving it a true Victorian feel can turn your house into a showplace. Your landscaping is just one part of the whole.