Gertrude Jekyll designed the gardens of her family home, Munstead, which evolved with every season and her desire to experiment with different border styles and color schemes. Miss Jekyll used Munstead Wood--the home's garden--for experimental ground to use later in other projects and to simply value for its originality. Munstead Wood was also often the highlight of topics in her many garden design writings:
"To plant and maintain a flower border, with a good scheme for color, is my no means the easy thing that is commonly supposed. I believe that the only way in which it can be made successful is to devote certain borders to certain times of year; each border or garden region to be bright for from one to three months...For many years I have been working these problems in my own garden, and, having come to certain conclusions, can venture to put them forth with some confidence (Making..., pg. 25)."
Many designs of her Munstead gardens involved collaboration with Edwin Lutyens, although much of what was crafted was Miss Jekyll's own knowledgeable and creative conceptions.
The house itself was constructed mostly of unwieldy stone with prominent chimneys and sloped roofs (2). Located behind the house is the North Court which leads to many of the most favored locations of Munstead Wood, such as the Pergola, the Grey Garden and the Nut Walk. Richard Bisgrove, in describing Munstead Wood, states, "The larger part of the garden is organized into grassy rides leading into what had been the scrubby regrowth of woodland felled fifteen years earlier, now transformed by skillful felling and grouping of trees into a series of delicate woodland pictures (pg. 14)."
"For my own part I like to give a house, whatever its size or style, some dominant note in wall planting. In my own home...the prevailing wall-growths and vines and figs in the south and west,...China roses have been, and rosemary....The color of the China rose bloom and dusky green of rosemary are always to me one of the most charming combinations...(Making..., pgs. 53-54)."
Miss Jekyll was an expert of garden color. In her own garden at Munstead, the Grey Garden was celebrated for its subtlety and grace. Miss Jekyll had written of color, which applied perfectly to her own Munstead creation. "The grey garden is so called because most of its plants have grey foliage, and all the carpeting and bordering plants are grey or whitish. The flowers are white, lilac, purple and pink (Making..., pg. 30)."
"There is a path near my house where a path leads down through a nut walk to the further garden. It is crossed by a shorter path that end at a birch tree with a tall silvered trunk (Making..., pg. 138)."
A feature that acted as a dominating juncture between the house and the garden was the Nut Walk. Private and peaceful, a nut walk was an element Miss Jekyll applied to many of her commissioned gardens. Indeed, Munstead Wood was a template for many of her other popular gardens--proof positive that the work in her home made her the acclaimed gardener she was known to be today.