Column

28-03-2024

CREATING A FORMAL GARDEN

Formal Gardens date back as far as ancient Egypt and begin to spread across Europe during the 16th Century. While garden styles have come and gone formal gardens have remained a popular garden type. Formal garden design is all about order and balance. Symmetrical plantings, well-defined paths, and pruned plants are all key elements of the formal garden style.

A traditional formal garden design features geometric shape, usually right angles. Pathways in a formal garden design must be well-defined. If space allows create a main axis and branch paths from this to define a hierarchy of garden spaces. Use garden ornaments such as urns, water features or rotundas at the termination of paths to create focal points and encourage movement through the garden.
One of the easiest ways to create a formal garden is to rely on symmetrical plantings. Create a central line or axis that runs through your garden area, starting from a focal point at your house and arrange plantings on either side of that axis that are mirror images of one another. Traditionally these beds are edged with a low box hedge to better define the geometry and hold the shape of the planting within.
Formal garden designs usually include trees with specifically pruned shapes. Gardeners often use techniques such as pleaching or espalier to craft trees into a more orderly form. If you are considering pleaching some trees to create a formal garden room, use Manchurian Pear (Pyrus ussuriensis) or Ficus Hillii var. ‘Flash’. You can avoid some pruning chores in a formal garden design by selecting trees that offer a tidy look, such as Ornamental pear (Pyrus calleryana), Pyrus Capital for smaller spaces, Juniperus ‘Spartan’ or Acer x freemanii ‘Armstrong’ for larger avenue planting.
Hedges are a key feature of any formal garden. Japanese box (Buxus microphylla) is a slow-growing shrub with dense foliage, perfect for shaping into classic low hedges, parterres, or small topiaries. If you have the space and want to create distinct garden rooms, then chose a Camellia sasanqua or a robust Lilly Pilly such as Syzygium ‘Resilience to sculpt these garden dividers. For smaller hedges us Syzygium ‘Straight and Narrow’ planted at 70cm centres or Michellia Coco. This will also provide you with a beautiful perfume.
If you want some formal elements to give more structure to your garden, then consider using native shrubs that are happy to be topiarised. Acmena ‘Allyn Magic will produce a very neat dome or shape if pruned hard. Westringia ‘Blue Moon’ will make a great 1m ball when regularly clipped and can be used to add a formal aspect to a more relaxed garden working well with vertical accents such as Lomandra ‘Tropic Cascade’ or Dietes ‘White Tiger’. For larger shapes try Westringia ‘Zena’ or ‘Wyanabbie Gem’ as these can be shaped to form a larger dense mound of about 1200-1500mm. Repeating these shapes across your garden can give structure and establish a pleasing and relaxing rhythm though the garden.
As far as colour is concerned formal gardens tend to use a very restrained colour palette. Green should be the dominant shade in a formal garden. Select a range of plants and repeat these across the garden. Consider the full range of leaf shape and texture to provide interest. Don’t be afraid to use mass planting a single species. This can be extremely effective when used to accentuate an avenue of trees or axis of a path.
Visit Clark+Granger at
www.cplusg.com.au
or phone 0456 111 120 to find out more.