Types of Gardens: Garden Styles

The concept of Japanese gardening originated in China; and as such, traditional Japanese gardening also strives to recreate the natural environment in miniature. Japanese gardening, however, has evolved to be more stylized often abstractly symbolizing fabled lands.

Originally designed for Emperors and upper-class citizens, the Japanese gardens were created to be visually appealing and recreational. The gardens built around the Buddhist temples were intended for meditation, contemplation, and prayer.

A typical Japanese garden will be designed to contain features such as water, including ponds, with bridges and islands, rocks, lanterns, plants and a teahouse.

Although a Japanese garden will be stylized and abstract, it is based on what can be found in nature. If it can’t be found in nature, it should not be in your garden. For instance, you would never find a square pond or a fountain in nature; therefore, you should not put these in a Japanese garden.

Balance and scale should also be considered as a critical design feature. In the design of your garden, rocks can be used to symbolize a mountain and a small pool proportional to the rock could be used to represent a lake.

A traditional English garden does not have to be in England, it only has to look like it belongs in England. What do you imagine when you think of an English Garden? Most people think of carefully manicured gardens such as knot gardens, the wild flower filled cottage garden, or the English rose garden, which is somewhat of a cross between the two.

If you want to create an English garden, with all of its curves, fragrant flowers and lush lawns, you should plan carefully to incorporate these features into your garden. Decide which features are most appealing to you, what plants can be grown to create these features in your locale, and then make a plan to accomplish your dream.

For authenticity’s sake, your design should be one of a simple yet refined beauty, and should appear as if it could be found in the peaceful English countryside.

The English rose garden is just that – a garden designed to look like it belongs in England containing a profusion of roses. Three words come to mind: lushness, color and fragrance. Roses more than adequately meet the requirements of these three words beautifully and economically year after year.

If you want a relaxed garden area plan to plant ramblers and high Victorian roses. For a more formal garden, you should plan to incorporate floribundas and hybrid teas in well-defined formal design.

If you are looking for a very formal garden, then an English knot garden might be just what you want. And if you like working with herbs … well …. many knot gardens are created using aromatic herbs such as rosemary, hyssop, thyme, violas, mallow, marjoram, lemon balm, germander, acanthus, chamomile, southernwood, costmary, calendulas and Santolina. Although these plants are  typical of what is found in a knot garden, you should be more concerned with what grows well in your garden to accomplish what you are trying to accomplish. Talk to your nurseryman, and consider their recommendations too.

Early knot gardens often copied the patterns found on tapestries. Over time they have changed to what we see today. Many knot gardens are edged with boxwood (Buxus sempervirens), and the paths are graveled.

Since the pattern in a knot garden is never-ending, it is good to consider adding a focal point in the center of the garden to draw your vision to a specific point. This could be a sculpture or a specimen plant. Think about what you are trying to accomplish and decide from there.

An Islamic garden, filled with courtyards, water features, trees, and flowers, is an ideal location to escape from the world. In fact, it is supposed to be a reminder of what paradise is like and as such it is created to be in harmony with nature.

Islamic Gardens, founded by a people who are from hot and arid climes, focus on the cooling features of shade and water.

In fact, water serves many purposes in the garden, including its ability to reduce the arid conditions and the dusty environment, provide calming and peaceful sounds, reduce the sounds of outside noises, and emphasize the architectural elements that surround it.

Islamic gardens are not designed for a lot of walking to occur – no formal paths through the gardens. Instead, they are designed for rest and contemplation, and they accomplishes this through the provision of places to sit and many scenic qualities to inspire and admire.

You may be wondering – what is the difference between and indigenous garden and a native garden? Aren’t they the same? Well in one word – no!

I am going to explain it by using Texas as an example. If I wanted to plant a Texas native garden, then I would be able to choose any plants grown in Texas.

This may work well for some states, or countries, but Texas is big and because of this, it has different climates, different hardiness zones, different soil types, etc. Not all plants native to Texas will grow well in all parts of Texas.

Therefore, I might want to plant indigenous plants instead. Indigenous plants are plants that are local to my area. They grow well with the temperatures that occur in my area, the rainfall that typically occurs, the soil that is found here, etc. This means that growing indigenous plants will be easier and require less effort on my part.

Let’s look at some examples of Indigenous/Native Gardens:

• A southwestern (United States) desert garden – Just looking at the desert garden section above shows many great examples of this type of garden. It would include cacti and succulents.
• An Australian native garden – This garden would contain plants that can be found in Australia such as gum trees, Eucalyptus trees, and other native plants. An Australian native garden should contain enough shade trees to provide relief for those long hot days.
• In a New England area native garden you would obviously want to include maples and other trees known in the area for their glorious colors. Add to that other native plants and shrubs.

You get the idea. Looking at what the area is known for as far as native trees and plants, and then planting those items will create a truly authentic native garden that you should be able to enjoy for years to come.

Now that we have journeyed together through many different gardens of the world, you have been presented with so many garden choices and styles to create a garden that you can enjoy for many years to come.

The next step is yours. What type of magical world will you create just outside your back door?

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©Copyright 2012 Cindy Murdoch

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