Formal Garden Ideas

Formal garden ideas vary widely according to culture and historical period of origin. Nevertheless, all share a common humanistic sense that man is the center of creation. Because of this, symmetry and geometry are the essential ingredients of any formal garden style, no matter what shape or size

Geometry is normally based around the key motifs of home architecture and points in some way toward the direction of the house. Many gardens are built around a central axis that lines up with an entryway or window. Others have bisecting axes that lead to a central courtyard built around focal point like a fountain or sculpture. This focal point can be seen from the house, and you can see the house as well when standing or sitting near the focal point. This creates a synergy of elegance between the house and the garden that establishes a feeling of order and system throughout the entire landscape.

Most formal garden ideas are based around the geometry of quadrilaterals. Depending on size or position, the borders may be in the form of a perfect square or a rectangle that follows a linear progression through various zones of greenery, flowering species, and special decorations. Pathways running through the garden can be built of stone, brick, or gravel. Material choices are mainly based on cultural or historical relevance to the particular design being developed.

To make any formal garden idea work from an organic perspective, you must approach vegetation with an atypical mindset. It is very hard for do-it-yourself gardeners to create their own formal garden designs because they have taught all their lives that more is better when it comes to the number of plant types you put in a garden. In formal design, however, the exact opposite is true. Too many different plant species makes the garden look out of control even when constantly tended to.

Professional gardeners, on the other hand, carefully choose first a style, and then select only a limited number of plant materials to use. Rather than having countless plants and flowers that overwhelm the senses, landscape professionals will create repeating patterns of geometry by using same types few shrubs, trees, hedges, and special flowering plants. By connecting these zones together in spirals arms, circles, rectangles, or squares, landscape professionals can create a nearly infinite number of forms with only a handful of plants that are easy to maintain.

Always make sure you work with a company like Exterior Worlds that knows botanical science, drainage, and irrigation methods. The Houston landscape looks deceptively plain, but in reality can be quite tricky and problematic when it comes to water management. Always work with an experienced team who can safeguard your formal garden ideas against the floods and droughts that can hit our part of the world without warning.

French Formal Garden

What is the ultimate theme of the French formal garden?
It uses carefully sculpted vegetation, planted in straight lines, as organic architecture. This emphasizes man’s dominance over nature through a strict control of all plant material. The disciplined symmetry of this form is precise in its planning and layout, and runs along long axes that inspire the viewer with a sense of sublime infinity.

What type of house does this garden work best with?
Historically, French formal gardens were built beneath a terrace that allowed the visitor to overlook the entire garden. If a terrace was absent, the garden would be viewed from either the top of a wall or a large window that provided sufficient overlook.

This approach can easily be modified to our contemporary location because the French countryside is remarkable similar to the flat terrain of the Houston landscape. French forms can be developed here in much the same way, with the intended vantage point for the garden being a balcony or second story window overlooking the parterres and axes of the garden.

Where on the property do you normally install a French formal garden?
The French formal garden uses the home itself as the garden focal point. Trees are planted away from the home to give it special emphasis. Low parterres and trimmed bushes closer to the home help distinguish it further.

The garden is built around a central access that is perpendicular to the house. Normally this runs opposite the front entrance and moves toward either a horizon point or a classical statue. The main axis is most often made of gravel and is edged by trees. Perpendicular axes cross the main axes to provide aesthetic balance and human transit points.

What types of geometry does this garden style use?
The most sophisticated parterres are square, circular, oval, or scroll-like in shape. They are juxtaposed against the home in such a manner as to compliment the architectural motifs that distinguish its build out. The parterres near the residence are normally created with low boxwoods that hug the ground. As the linear movement of the French formal garden progresses away from the home façade, the hedges rise proportionally. Trees may be planted in larger gardens to enhance the sense of heightened perspective and drama.

Does the French formal garden use water features at all?
Yes. In fact, water features are among its most important elements. Canals, basins, custom fountains, and waterfalls lend not only a touch or elegance, but also have a mirror-like effect that makes the garden appear larger than it actually is.

What types of decorations does the French garden use?
To further emphasize the theme of order, system, and human dominion, classical sculpture is used in the garden to establish Greco-Roman or mythological aesthetics. Sculpture is normally placed at the intersections of axes or by water features.

English Formal Garden

What is the intent of the English formal garden?
Its purpose is to present an idealized view of Nature. This style originated in England during the 18th Century. Its inspiration came from the panoramic landscape paintings of that time. It sought to create in microcosm the aesthetic equivalents of groves trees, lakes, rolling lawns, and pastoral vistas.

What geometry characterizes this style of gardening?
An English formal garden is built around a central dividing line that runs the entirety of its length. On either side of this line, plant materials and inorganic forms are equally balanced, giving the garden a sense of symmetry and order. Elements are typically arranged in interlocking geometric shapes. These can be squares, triangles, or rectangles. In the very center of a garden, a focal point is placed.

What focal points do English gardens use?
A variety of elements can be used as focal points. The exception to this is sculpture. English gardens are slightly less formal than their French and Italian equivalents and as such deviate intentionally from the practice of using sculpture as a centering device for garden design. Topiaries are often used, however, to add vertical impact and form to the scene. Another technique is to use a water feature as the focal point. In some English styles, a lush flower bed can also be used to center the design with color.

What types of vegetation are used in an English formal garden?
Climbing plants are often used to cover fences or boundary walls with greenery. Shrubs and trees often populate the interior designs and spill over slightly into the bed edges. This creates the sense of relaxed formality this style is known form. Herbs are often very popular elements to use in creating the rich geometry English design is known for. The interlocking patterns of the style are derivative of ancient Celtic art which is easily duplicated by plantings of colorful flowering herbs throughout the interior segments. Flower beds can also be used for this effect, or, as we have already mentioned, as focal points in the center of the garden. Common species include Columbines, Aster, Carnations, Cornflowers, and Black-Eyed Susans.

What types of inorganic elements are featured in an English formal garden?
Inorganic forms are found in three primary places: the central dividing line, the focal point (if a non-organic element is chosen), and in boundary fences or walls. Walls are intended to reflect the English love of containment and privacy. Masonry walls are often used for this effect. In traditional Tudor gardens, stone walls were often used, but in America, fences have been substituted in many cases.

The central path is usually either made of red brick or gravel, lined with small trees or shrubs that edge into the hardscape in order to create a sense of loose formality that is neat, but never stiff, per se. Because the path is more than decorative, but also a thoroughfare as well, people need to walk through and feel as though they are surrounded by vitality and life in a comforting and personable manner.

Larger English formal gardens may also use topiaries to create the equivalent of an arbor or pergola, although these terms do not strictly apply in the sense of the typical outdoor buildings we associate with these names. The intent is to create a shaded area (or two) where a small bench can be placed so people can sit and survey the garden from a comfortable position within its interior.

How important is water to the English formal garden?
Water is not an absolute must for this design, but it never fails to make a positive aesthetic impact. Because the first English gardens were inspired by sweeping landscapes with lakes, any number of water features can be used to emulate the presence of water in a natural setting. A small rectangular reflecting pool can compliment both garden form and home architecture. A birdbath or fountain can add vertical impact, or a natural pond can be placed in the center simply to lend a sense of tranquility to the moment.

Formal Garden

What makes a formal garden formal?
Order, neatness, geometry, and symmetry are the defining features of this style that traces its origins all the way back to the dawn of recorded history. Formality is a tradition honored equally in Western, Middle Eastern, and Eastern Cultures. We have all heard of Greek and Roman Gardens, and most of us as well have heard of the Hanging Gardens of Ancient Babylon. Since the beginning of history in the East, both China and Japan have perfected formal gardens as expressions of Taoist, Shinto, and Buddhist ideals.

Formality is like artistic diplomacy. It takes what would otherwise be a divergent and conflicting array of individual forms and brings them together into a working relationship where every contributing element plays a part in making up a greater whole.

What feeling should this type of garden create?
It should establish a sense of stability—something of an island of respite from the daily grind of life. Formality means elegance and that which is elevated above the mundane. Nothing mediocre should enter in to your garden, or even come to mind.

What types of formal garden plants are most commonly used?
Vegetation is selectively chosen so there will be something for everyone to enjoy. Different species of shrubs, trees, hedges, perennials, and annuals are arranged in cultural and historical motifs.

It is not a matter of the amount of plant material, but in the way that it is arranged. Some gardens are very simple and consist of only boxwoods enclosing a flower bed. More formal designs integrate and intertwine organic elements with inorganic elements. All forms must appear balanced and done to scale, be they trees, shrubs, or flowers. Inorganic elements are used to center attention on its midpoint, or to draw attention to a particular aspect of its geometry.

How many different types of formal gardens are there?
The most prominent types are based upon historical and cultural traditions. Others are based upon style or size. A few examples follow.

Formal French Garden
The French garden is intended to inspire awe and wonder, much like a grand chateau on an Elite estate. It uses carefully sculpted vegetation as organic architecture. The disciplined symmetry of this form is precise in its planning and layout, and runs along long axes that inspire the viewer with a sense of sublime infinity.

Formal Italian Garden
Like the French garden, the Italian garden is a controlled, linear, symmetrical form. Unlike the French garden, its intention is to create retreat and repose rather than awe and wonder. Italian gardens appeal to multiple senses and invite the viewer to step into an alternate realm of contemplation, surprise, and a rich diversity of shape and color.

Formal English Garden
The English garden presents an idealized view of nature. It was originally inspired by pastoral landscape paintings that emphasized rolling hills, trees, and lakes. It is a geometrically balanced design built around a central pathway and a central focal point. Around the center grows a variety of trees, shrubs, and flowering plants arranged in geometric, interwoven patterns.

Formal Small Garden
This is an ideal style for small yards and townhome properties. It uses small squares or circles of yard in areas where larger landscape elements cannot be created. Its disciplined symmetry lends itself well to complimenting the architecture of surrounding homes and buildings, and the richness of floral and vegetation patterns can be just as diverse as those in larger formal garden designs.
Formal Flower Garden
Formal flower gardens are designed as elegant beds with straight lines. The intent of this form is to mix annuals and perennials together so that as some flowers seasonally die and come back, others are continuously blooming at various times. This maintains continual floral growth that gives color and vitality to the Houston landscape throughout the year.

Where can I get formal garden ideas?
The best place to begin is by looking at garden pictures on the Internet and any print media sources you have available. Although many of these pictures will not depict formal gardens per se, you will see a wide range of vegetation, hardscapes, and decorative elements that you can select as a sort of collage of ideas. Bring these to the table when you meet with your Exterior Worlds garden designer.

How is a formal garden plan developed?
Your designer will look at your visual wish list and then talk to you about what you expect to see, smell, and feel when you experience the new garden we are planning. We will also take extensive time to study your home and yard so we can adapt your desires to appropriate landscape elements that truly compliment the house and surrounding yard.

The plan is sketched out as a preliminary draft, which you have the freedom to change or approve. Upon final approval, a more sophisticated draft is created that is part of the landscape master plan. Installation is either done directly through our team or through specialists we contract and supervise under our invoice and guidance.

Home Garden Landscaping Design

How would home garden landscaping design benefit me?
A professionally installed garden will add curb appeal to your home and transform your yard into a beautiful outdoor living experience. It will also serve as an island of tranquility that you can retreat from the stress factors of work life any time day or night.

I can’t seem to think of any good ideas for home garden landscaping. Where should I start?
Start by doing image searches on the Internet to see all the millions of gardens that are posted online from all over the world. Go back through your stacks of magazines and newspapers and circle the pictures of gardens that catch your eye. You may see only one or two things about a garden that you like. That’s ok. Keep in mind that many different types of gardens still often use the same plants and motifs to create design.

It is also a good idea to drive around Houston in the springtime and simply look at what people are doing in their yards. If you see a home that reminds you of your own, the garden design around that home will give you an excellent frame of reference in terms of what will best work with your home architecture.

Should I really hire a landscaper to install my garden for me?
It’s a good idea. Call us and sit down for a consultation and share your design ideas with us. We can help you refine those ideas into a detailed home garden landscaping that will work in relationship with other landscape elements, and, most importantly, the architecture of your home.

What if I have a limited budget to work with?
Home garden landscaping does not have to cost a fortune in materials to be aesthetically appealing. Sometimes less is more. We recommend that you observe the following guidelines when brainstorming ideas for your garden design.

• Think of your favorite types of plants and flowers. What looks pretty to you? Forget, for the moment, what other people are going to think about your garden. Your obligation is to please yourself with what you look at. Our obligation is to take what pleases you and make it appealing to your friends and family. Working together, we can accomplish this.
• Find pictures of homes similar to yours that have gardens visible in the scene. Understand that such pictures are a beginning frame of reference, not a recipe for duplication. However, it is important you share such images with our team so we can help you determine the nature and contents of your garden.
• Give serious consideration to having a garden installed that is more than something to look at. Any lawn services company can plant rose bushes or flowers around your trees. In fact, you can do such simple plantings yourself. Professional home garden landscaping offers you so much more than this. It offers you the opportunity to turn a garden into an activity center where people can spend an evening outdoors in celebration, conversation, or quiet retreat.

I never thought of a garden as an activity center. What are some examples of what you can create?
We can build custom patios as seating areas, lighted fountains in the center of courtyards, play areas for kids, and pathways for moonlit walks. The key is to make such areas easily accessible by combining custom pathways and walkway designs with landscape lighting.

Garden Design Ideas

Garden design ideas can be based on geometry, type, or style. Geometry is necessary to tie the architecture and hardscapes in with the organic elements of the Houston landscape. By using repeating patterns common to both the living and the manmade, we can establish common motifs that tie the two together.

Garden type, or style as many call it, are designations based on the proximity of the garden to certain structures (such as a patio garden or courtyard garden), or the actual contents of the garden itself. Sometimes too, a garden type is named after what the garden is used for. A good example of this is a morning garden, which is a garden you sit by in the morning as you drink your coffee and read your paper.

While it is possible for a do-it-yourself gardener to come up with very good garden design ideas on his or her own, making those ideas work with the rest of the yard is another matter. That is why you need a professional landscaper to come to your home and take a good look at your property. Identifying opportunities for garden design is the first thing we do. The second thing we do is point these opportunities for design out to you and match them to your plans for a future outdoor lifestyle.

Once our consultation is complete and the landscape master plan is in process of development, there are many garden design ideas we can introduce into that plan to make your yard into the equivalent of a second home just outside your home. Just of few of these ideas include the following:

Small Gardens
The intention of small garden design is to make use of ignored or overlooked spaces and to transform them into something aesthetically pleasing. This works to bring home architecture into a better relationship with surrounding yard elements.

Asymmetrical Gardens
Another popular garden design idea is an asymmetrical garden. At face value such a thing may not sound attractive, but it can work very well a small lot that is not shaped perfect to square, or where the house may be too close or too far away from the street.

Shade Gardens
When you have to sit under the trees to withstand the Texas heat, it is always nice to have greenery and flowering plants around you under the trees. This adds to the warmth (instead heat) to your outdoor living experience.

Formal Gardens
Symmetrical balance is the foundation of all formal garden design ideas. The garden is always centered on a geometric shape, statue, or custom fountain that brings all of its linear and radial elements together in focus. Plant life is also controlled and balanced, and trees and shrubs are planted at regular intervals with mathematical precision.

Contemporary Gardens
Contemporary gardens are unique in that they actually work to minimize vegetation and favor the man-made over the organic. They are very precise, abstract, and mathematical so as to communicate the exaltation of human though above instinct and organic impulse.

Small Gardens

Why should I consider a small garden?
If you do not have a lot of space around your home because you live on a small lot, this form of garden design creates interest and variety regardless of your actual square footage. It is a particularly useful form around townhomes and patio homes.

Many people with Italian style two story homes also like this form because it is an excellent way to decorate a balcony.

Where are small gardens normally planted?
They can be planted near any form in a yard. Their primary purpose is to accent another form. Examples include gazebos, summer kitchens, architectural walls, small arbors, and iron gates. Adding a small garden to any of these places brings color, dimension, and a sense of organic framing to the scene.

What plants are best to use for this form?
We choose plants whose color, sizes, shapes, and textures create an illusion of enlarged space. One technique we heavily rely upon is to use several different shades of green. This layers the design and keeps it from looking like a monotone patch. In most cases as well, we use more than one color of flowering plant for the same reason.

Do you use exclusively small plants?
No. The actual size of the plants themselves will vary based on where the garden is planted. If we are installing plants near a very tall wall, for example, we want to use something that will compliment the vertical impact of the structure. On the other hand, if we are lining the circumference and radiuses of a small circular courtyard patio, we want to create a border around the hardscape that will enhance its appearance without overpowering its appeal.

How can illusions be used?
Small garden design is all about illusion when you think about it. This is especially true in contemporary garden design where the avant garde is the norm and anything normal is challenged or diminished. Gardens here have more inorganic elements like stone, white walls, black rocks, mirrors, decorative glass, and even stainless steel. Minimalist plantings of greenery then create a complex interplay between non-living and living elements that challenges one’s ideas about what life itself is and the true nature of thought and its place in man’s evolution.

Is water an important part of small garden design?
It often is. The morning garden fountain, for example, is an excellent form to add to any landscape as a private island of tranquility or meditation. The amount of vegetation needed here does not have to be very much at all. It is best to use multiple shades of green to prevent the sense of monotony, but the colors of the flowers can be singular if that contributes to the design and size of the fountain itself.

Can small gardens be planted within a patio itself?
Yes. Any style of patio can have a portion of its surface removed to work as a planting area. In contemporary gardens, dark green bushes or small trees bordered by gravel are popular. In more traditional forms, everything from special grasses to tropical plants are frequently used.