How to Design a Formal Garden
Assess the lay of the land., Decide how you will use the garden., Choose a focal point., Plan your paths.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Assess the lay of the land.
The design you choose for your garden will be influenced by the contours of the land you are using.
You should also take into account its placement relative to your house or other nearby buildings.
Consider the following factors:
Is the land your are using hilly or flat? This will affect the final look of your formal garden.
Formal gardens are easier to create on flatter land, so you may want to look into leavening some of the hills on your property if possible.
What is the shape of the plot of land? Are you working with a perfect square, or is it more oblong in shape? You'll have to decide whether the garden is going to extend to the edges of the land, or whether you want to create a more contained space within it.
Before you begin, you should test your soil to make sure that it is suitable for planting.
Many plants require the soil to have a particular pH, and you should know if your soil is clay, sandy, loamy, peaty, silty, or chalky.
Assess how much sun and shade the area receives.
You can plant a formal garden in both sunny and shady areas, but it will change the types of plants you can grow. -
Step 2: Decide how you will use the garden.
You may be designing the garden purely for visual appeal, or perhaps you want it to be more functional, a place for people to relax and play.
This is an important decision to make, since it will determine how many open spaces you'll have in proportion to areas with plants and hedges.
If you want people to quietly stroll through the garden, observing all of its details, you probably want to install a lot of paths and intricate plantings.
If you like the formal look but want your garden to be less structured, plan for just one or two paths and more open spaces. , Formal gardens are usually arranged around some type of impressive focal point
- think of a palace garden with a giant fountain in the center.
In many cases the focal point is located at the center of the garden, but it doesn't have to be.
Consider these ideas:
Make a small version of those palatial gardens by creating a focal point out of a pretty fountain or even a bird bath.
Your focal point could be a beautiful tree that's already standing in your garden.
You could buy a wrought-iron bench and place it in a cleared area as a focal point.
Create an arch with a trellis in the center of the garden.
Use your patio or deck as a focal point instead of having one at the center of the garden. , Now that you have a focal point in mind, it's time to plan out the paths that lead to it.
A formal garden may have paved, brick or stone paths.
You could also have paths that are naturally created among hedges that are carefully trimmed.
Paths should be maintained carefully to create a sense of neatness and order, essential elements of a formal garden.Create a map that shows your focal point and the different paths that will lead to it.
Some formal gardens have maze-like paths, all leading to the focal point.
This tends to take up a lot of space, so it's a good choice for larger gardens.
You could have two bisecting paths that make a cross shape, dividing your garden into four distinct parts.One symmetrical circular path with a path running straight through the middle is another good choice.
If you like simple symmetry, you might consider one straight path down the center with plantings along the edge.
If your focal point is a deck attached to your house, consider having a path that leads straight to it, with smaller paths leading off to the sides. -
Step 3: Choose a focal point.
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Step 4: Plan your paths.
Detailed Guide
The design you choose for your garden will be influenced by the contours of the land you are using.
You should also take into account its placement relative to your house or other nearby buildings.
Consider the following factors:
Is the land your are using hilly or flat? This will affect the final look of your formal garden.
Formal gardens are easier to create on flatter land, so you may want to look into leavening some of the hills on your property if possible.
What is the shape of the plot of land? Are you working with a perfect square, or is it more oblong in shape? You'll have to decide whether the garden is going to extend to the edges of the land, or whether you want to create a more contained space within it.
Before you begin, you should test your soil to make sure that it is suitable for planting.
Many plants require the soil to have a particular pH, and you should know if your soil is clay, sandy, loamy, peaty, silty, or chalky.
Assess how much sun and shade the area receives.
You can plant a formal garden in both sunny and shady areas, but it will change the types of plants you can grow.
You may be designing the garden purely for visual appeal, or perhaps you want it to be more functional, a place for people to relax and play.
This is an important decision to make, since it will determine how many open spaces you'll have in proportion to areas with plants and hedges.
If you want people to quietly stroll through the garden, observing all of its details, you probably want to install a lot of paths and intricate plantings.
If you like the formal look but want your garden to be less structured, plan for just one or two paths and more open spaces. , Formal gardens are usually arranged around some type of impressive focal point
- think of a palace garden with a giant fountain in the center.
In many cases the focal point is located at the center of the garden, but it doesn't have to be.
Consider these ideas:
Make a small version of those palatial gardens by creating a focal point out of a pretty fountain or even a bird bath.
Your focal point could be a beautiful tree that's already standing in your garden.
You could buy a wrought-iron bench and place it in a cleared area as a focal point.
Create an arch with a trellis in the center of the garden.
Use your patio or deck as a focal point instead of having one at the center of the garden. , Now that you have a focal point in mind, it's time to plan out the paths that lead to it.
A formal garden may have paved, brick or stone paths.
You could also have paths that are naturally created among hedges that are carefully trimmed.
Paths should be maintained carefully to create a sense of neatness and order, essential elements of a formal garden.Create a map that shows your focal point and the different paths that will lead to it.
Some formal gardens have maze-like paths, all leading to the focal point.
This tends to take up a lot of space, so it's a good choice for larger gardens.
You could have two bisecting paths that make a cross shape, dividing your garden into four distinct parts.One symmetrical circular path with a path running straight through the middle is another good choice.
If you like simple symmetry, you might consider one straight path down the center with plantings along the edge.
If your focal point is a deck attached to your house, consider having a path that leads straight to it, with smaller paths leading off to the sides.
About the Author
James Clark
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow organization tutorials.
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