Landscape design can be very frustrating because understanding terms within this complex discipline can be confusing. For example, what are the differences between style and influence or between theme and emphasis? Design terminology may seem at first to be complicated and esoteric, but as you gradually come to understand it, vistas will open up for you.
Let’s examine the very basic concept of landscape style. Many factors combine to determine the style of a landscape, not only plantings and hardscape, but also the ratios of various elements, such as the ratio of flowering to non-flowering plants, of deciduous to evergreen plants, of formal pruning to natural pruning, of gravel pathways to paved paths, of moving water (fountains, falls) to still water (ponds, lakes). Add in hardscape elements such as statuary, walls, fences, arbors, gazebos, patios, parterres, dovecotes, follies, to name a few, and the complication increases. Every element introduced into a landscape has a function. The main styles of landscaping recognized today are Japanese, Persian, Italian, French and English gardens.
Japanese gardens are meditative spaces, and are constructed according to very strict rules which govern everything from plant choice and placement through water features, hardscape elements, down to the very types of rocks that may be utilized. They do not borrow elements from any other traditions.
Persian gardens are walled gardens intended to refresh. They stimulate the senses through perfumed plantings, color, texture, and the sound of moving water. They do not borrow from western traditions, though they may owe some elements to earlier middle-eastern traditions.
Italian gardens are formal gardens featuring long vistas, with deciduous and evergreen plantings outnumbering flowering plants, and long, narrow water features leading the eye away into the distance. They may borrow individual elements from other traditions, though they remain Italian in general style.
French gardens are also formal spaces, but they are generally more colorful than their Italian counterparts. They utilize different levels for effect, and often exhibit elements of whimsey, which in this very specific terminology means a pleasantly unexpected element, such as the very irregular timing of the beautiful fountains of the Palace of Versailles.. They borrow elements from other traditions, especially as cultural objects from other lands caught the public fancy.
English gardens are the most eclectic of garden styles. As they vary in size, they also change in nature, from the riot of color which is the English country garden, with the most elements possible incorporated into a small space, to the “room” structures of the larger estate gardens, in which discrete sections of the garden exhibit different functions. A larger garden may move from a formal parterre with urns, to a flower garden, to a water garden with pond, to a walled vegetable or physick garden, to a topiary or knot garden, to an avenue of stately beech trees. Other traditions are borrowed from freely.
The preceding are very general stylistic descriptions. If you wish more details, you can easily find them on the internet. While some purists prefer that a garden adhere to a single style, in modern usage elements are usually mixed. There is no reason an Italian garden should not have a Japanese influence, or an English cottage garden could not have a blue emphasis, or a theme of fall foliage, or sensory stimulation for disabled persons. The great thing about landscaping is the flexibility and adaptability which makes it so rewarding.
So look to traditional styles for inspiration, but then create your own space. Get some ideas down on paper (plan ahead to avoid the “thrown-together” look) and get things rolling – spring is almost here!