What's your garden style? Part One

Plants are arriving every day now in local stores and nurseries. It's so exciting! Spring is here! Before you go wander around wondering to yourself what would look good in your yard, take a second and think about what kind of yard and garden you want. There are all kinds of garden styles. The trick is finding the right one that goes with your house and your personal taste. Your house needs to match your garden, somewhat.

An ultra modern home and an English cottage style garden are not a good match. A Tudor style home with yuccas and cacti adorning the front lawn looks much to awkward. Plus, if you personally don't like the look of yuccas, clipped hedges, or flowering crab apple trees, then you shouldn't have them in your yard.

So here are a few garden styles and the plants that make them up for you to read and look at BEFORE you go shopping and you put who-knows-what kind of plant in your cart. 

An alpine garden is considered to be one in colder climates and higher elevations. Even though that is isn't EXACTLY our conditions, it's fairly close. When you think of an alpine garden, think rocks, and think small and dwarfish because that is the kind of plants that really grow in true alpine climates. 
You can easily pull off an alpine rock garden in your yard. It's easy to turn an ugly mound, slope, or side hill into a gorgeous alpine, rock garden. If you have a spot that is prone to erosion, an alpine rock garden may just be the perfect answer.
To create an alpine garden you must start with the base - rocks. Cool ones. Big ones. All kinds of rocks. If you think a rock is too big, it's not. Once it is in place and foliage is growing around it, that rock won't seem big at all. So get the biggest, coolest ones possible. Once the rocks are placed how you want them you get to fill in with plants.

Conifers are the trees in alpine climates, so if your garden space allows, plants some taller conifers in the back and smaller, dwarf varieties in the middle and towards the front. Then place some shrubs in the back and middle areas. The fun part is placing the perennials in the little gaps and filling things in to look nice. 
Your alpine rock garden is not going to look super full when you first make it. Actually it may never look full, it's just the nature of an alpine garden. It will take a few years for it to really fill in and look like it's always been there. If you want to add some gravel in the emptier spots along with smaller stones from your yard, that would be great.

Betty Ford Alpine Garden in Vail, Colorado

Plants that give the alpine feeling are conifers of course, holly, azaleas, cotoneaster, phlox, aubrieta (rockcress), columbine, irises, snow in summer, iceland poppies, and creeping thyme. The best part about most of these plants is that deer usually leave them alone. 

The true Victorian age is from about 1840 to 1900.  When you think about this age and this kind of garden, you think about a prosperous time where people had more time to really garden for pleasure rather than just work to exist.
To achieve a Victorian garden feel, the lawn is very important and then you work out from there with trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Trees in a Victorian garden are placed where shade is desirable like patios and outdoor living spaces. Trees are also placed along the street to add privacy to the yard. Weeping trees as well as other interesting specimen trees have a very Victorian feel. Shrubs are used as fences along property lines or along walkways and paths.
If you place yourself into a Victorian garden, you think of iron benches and other seating arranged in a cozy layout, and some wicker furniture used on the porches and in the sun room or under the gazebo. Wrought iron furniture and wrought iron garden accessories like trellises and arbors are used throughout the Victorian garden. 

The Victorian age was full of chubby little cherubs, angels, and Victorians loved whimsical fairies. Empty urns and sundials are the sort of garden design elements you'll want to add. Window boxes and vines like morning glory and clematis are very Victorian. Try to avoid using wood in your garden design elements, but if you can't, paint it a crisp white. Victorian gardens are about clean lines and everything in it's place.
Good trees and shrub varieties to use are weeping trees forms (willow, cherry, birch, etc), hydrangea, barberry, spirea, peony, and yew. Perennials and annuals that fill in and help with the feeling to create a Victorian garden are ferns (Victorians LOVED ferns and yes, they will grow here), all kinds of sages (meaning Salvia, not sagebrush!), periwinkle, campanula, pansies, impatiens, begonias, primrose, and all kinds of bulbs. 

When one thinks of a cottage garden they usually think of an English cottage, romance, reading in the garden, lazy summer days. The cottage garden is usually somewhat small, compact, and filled to the brim with color. It often surrounds a house, a porch, or a shed. There usually isn't room for lawn, just pathways. There is an informal and breezy look to the garden, but it is very well planned, especially in the heights of the plants.

Taller plants are in the back, along the fence, porch railing, or house. Mid level plants are in the middle and the shorter ones are in the front. Sometimes the beds are lined with bricks that really add to the cottage feel. Many cottage gardens have a color theme with pinks and whites or blues and yellows. 

This cottage garden is in Cedar City at a bed and breakfast.

You can make your own cottage garden in your yard. All you need to do is find a spot that fits, that matches the garden's style. Pick a spot near a shed, a chicken coop, the garage, a fence or wall, and start with tall plants. The trick to getting a cottage garden to look right, is you need to plant in small pockets rather than large drifts. Plant two or three plants of the same kind together, side by side; that's a pocket. Decrease the height of the plants you place as you move towards the front of your garden bed. Add a birdbath or an old wheelbarrow. Pathways and arbors are great if you have more space as well as a few benches.

Start in the back with tall perennials like lupines, hollyhocks, larkspur. If you have the room for a larger garden, a snowball bush (Viburnum), honeysuckle, lilacs and climbing roses are wonderful backbone plants. Coreopsis, bleeding heart, English lavender, sweet peas, geraniums, day lilies, heliotropes, daisies, forget-me-nots, wallflowers, and canterbury bells are mid and small sized for the front portion of the garden.

The beauty of a farmhouse or countryside garden is the chance to appreciate the vistas of a pastoral landscape and rural area. To make the most of those great views, the landscaping plan needs to accentuate the views. They should be kept unobstructed and available to see from multiple vantage points on the property.

To get the farmhouse garden feel, chose local stone and other materials native to your region so your rural home and garden fits in with the surrounding area. Stacked stone walls, irregular flagstones, rustic garden accessories add to the style and ambiance.

To achieve this kind of garden at your home, avoid man-made edgers in the garden; no plastic or metal dividers. Cut a deep edge between your lawn and your garden beds and maintain it with a string line trimmer. The best way to control weeds is to mass plant ground covers. Stay away from modern design elements with sleek, cold lines and keep the added elements fitting with the landscape like wooden chairs and benches, a rope swing with a wood seat, and wooden barrels for plantings. Rustic is the word. Birdhouses and wishing wells are right at home.
Garden beds filled with shrub roses, willows, lilacs, hydrangeas, black-eyed susans, cosmos, catmint, lambs ear, lilies, fountain grass, daisies, and rudbeckia are perfect for the farmhouse and countryside garden. Large shade trees are of course needed for that rope swing.

The modern/contemporary garden is usually a simple and water-wise garden plan and style. This type of garden is usually a smaller area with a mature feel. There is alot of hardscaped areas of stone, wood, and concrete. Sleek materials are used with a minimalist design. Water features and incredible outdoor lighting are a good possibility as well as artsy sculptures. There is a contrast in colors, shapes, and materials that gives the garden that modern feel. Most plants used are bold, architectural plants that make a statement.

You can create a contemporary garden by using neat and tidy containers with topiaries, sedges or fountain grasses planted in them. Use plants that have incredible, dramatic foliage rather than flowers. There are many beautiful perennial ornamental grasses available on the market that bring out the modern style you can purchase. Keep the lines of the garden clean and crisp and consider using spheres as a contrasting design element. Concrete spheres, glass spheres, ceramic spheres, any kind of sphere shape just yells 'modern'. Also try using a decorative repetitive element like empty terra cotta pots all along a walkway, or concrete pavers perfectly spaced along the patio, or arrange furniture in a repetitive order.

Using plants with a lot of foliage is the key to planting a modern garden. Hostas, cannas, New Zealand flax (Phormium), sedum, yucca, yews, boxwoods and all the ornamental grasses you can handle are perfect.

We've shared 5 different garden styles with you. Next week in the part two portion of this post we'll share four more - high desert, butterfly and bird garden, formal garden, and suburban/family garden styles as well as some helpful design and garden tips.

Keep in mind that these styles are just somebody's guidelines. They aren't your style. You get to decide what works best for your yard, your lifestyle, and include what YOU like. These style highlights are just to give you ideas so that you can create what you love in your own style.

Watch for Part Two next week and happy designing and planting in the meantime.

Brought to you by Heath Harvey @ HeathsHomes.com