Designing a stunning landscape is more than just planting a few flowers and shrubs around your home. A well-thought-out garden design can add significant value to your property. Here, we present seven captivating garden styles that will have you dreaming of spring and transforming your outdoor space into a visual masterpiece:
1. Cottage Garden
Picture yourself in a nursery, surrounded by vibrant trumpet lilies, lush fuchsias, and an array of colorful blooms. A cottage garden is a whimsical paradise, always in bloom and brimming with fragrance. Incorporate dramatic tall accent flowers like delphiniums, foxgloves, and hollyhocks. Fill in the gaps with romantic heirloom roses, cheerful daisies, and breezy baby’s breath. A couple of climbing vines like clematis or wisteria can provide a beautiful backdrop for your retreat.
2. Outdoor Garden Room
Imagine the comforts of your favorite indoor retreat – candles, pillows, blankets, and comfortable seating – combined with the freshness of the outdoors, complete with flowers, butterflies, and birdsong. Creating an outdoor room can be as simple as defining an area with a trellis and adding a bench with cushions to encourage relaxation. A container garden makes it easy to switch out fading plants, ensuring your outdoor room stays in bloom all season.
3. Woodland Garden
The beauty of a woodland garden lies in the patience it requires. Spring brings forth a glorious display with azaleas, rhododendrons, primroses, and bleeding hearts stealing the show. If you want to attract butterflies to your shaded oasis, consider planting bugbane or goat’s beard. In wetter areas, opt for flowering bog plants to illuminate your space.
4. Formal Garden
For those who prefer a clutter-free home and a palette of monochrome or two-tone, a formal garden is the perfect match. Symmetry, simplicity, and order are the hallmarks of formal flower gardens. While some formal gardens may have fewer flowers, flowering plants with a mounding habit, like lavender, can be suitable. Roses, especially those that can be trained into standards, thrive in formal garden designs.
5. Wildflower Garden
Are you knowledgeable about the top 10 birds that visit your landscape? Can you distinguish beneficial insects from pests? If preserving native wildlife is a priority, consider planting wildflowers as the foundation of your natural habitat. Modern wildflowers, such as ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ coneflowers, offer both beauty and floriferousness. Other ornamental native wildflowers like columbine, fleabane, and penstemon are excellent choices. Embrace organic gardening methods that are gentle on wildlife.
6. Front Yard Garden
Why hide your prize flowers in the backyard when you dedicate so much time to them? A front yard garden is a gift to your neighborhood and community, a seasonal spectacle that brings joy month after month. Be daring and plant a large swath of giant sunflowers with annual morning glories twining up their stems. If your front yard receives the most sun, consider mixing in a flowering vegetable garden. By starting from seeds, you can fill your plot with easy annuals like zinnias, cosmos, and bachelor’s buttons.
7. Rustic Garden
If words like flea market, country charm, cast-off, and salvage yard excite you, then rustic garden design is your style. The inspiration for your rustic garden can come from various sources, making it uniquely yours. Start with vintage license plates, a reclaimed garden gate, heirloom farm implements, or a repurposed chandelier. Add low-maintenance flowers like daylilies, yarrow, iris, and clematis to complement the rustic charm. These plants establish quickly, lending a timeless appeal to your rustic garden.
Each of these garden styles offers a unique experience and an opportunity to express your personality and creativity. Whichever style you choose, it’s sure to captivate and enchant all who visit your outdoor oasis.