What's Your Garden Design Style?

We are using the terms 'garden', 'landscape' and 'yard' as all the same as applicable to people's homes and property. Some people think of a "garden" as a designated area within the "yard" to grow vegetables.

Other people refer to their landscapes as referring to their entire "yards", front, back and all the elements within it. The term landscape is the more appropriate all encompassing space. Landscapes can be residential, commercial, industrial or the "natural" landscape.

Some people refer to "landscaping" as the care and maintenance of the grounds. While others think of "gardeners" as the guys who they pay to mow their lawn and trim their shrubs.

Professionally, landscapes are typically public spaces designed by Landscape Architects. Whereas, gardens are residential spaces often designed by Landscape Designers as well as Landscape Architects. So for simplicity sake, gardens are usually private, and landscapes are usually public, but the definitions are not strict.

So use whatever term you want. For simplicity, I am using the term garden because we typically are discussing residential settings.

Garden Styles vs. Garden Themes

Most people have preferences for the way a garden is designed and maintained. There are many categories you could use to define the way a garden looks and feels. Here are a few that I would say are common:

You can see that there can be an overlap between the style and the theme of a garden. A well manicured, clipped hedge garden can both be formal and informal, as a Japanese garden can look very neat, at the same time look informal and natural.

Having some sort of criteria to go by as far as style or theme is important in the planning and design stage, as it drives the process of determining the look and feel of the spaces, the elements chosen and their arrangement.

A garden or landscape that was put together without any particular theme other than the essential elements of say, a grass play area, a bbq station for grilling, a patio area for table and chairs, trees for shade and screening and shrubs to fill up the rest of the open area, could end up looking unremarkable.

Even a garden without a specific theme or style can look well thought out and pleasing to the eye if basic design principles are followed. That is why a garden with a relatively low budget can still look good if planned properly.

In speaking in terms of themes, we are implying that there is a certain unifying idea around which we organize the design.

For instance, the theme could be sculpture, garden art, statuary and therefore we call this type of garden a scuplture garden, provided it had a recurring element of the theme or multiple art pieces placed throughout the garden.

Since the style and the theme of a garden can have some overlap, I shall call them all categories rather than trying to classify them into style vs. theme.

An herb garden can have an asian flair. A cactus garden can have a Mediterranean theme, so you see that adhering to a strict label can stiffle creativity. Following good design principles will eliminate the likelihood of combining too many styles and themes and end up in the "catch all" style known as "Hodge-Podge" and legitimized by chic designers as the "Eclectic" look.

John Stuart Leslie is creator and founder of Virtual Garden Designer. Now you can work with an experienced landscape desiger online to have your garden or landscape designed professionally with ease and convenience. He holds a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture and has been a landscape designer and contractor for over 20 years.