The plants, flowers and accessories chosen for home gardens say a lot about individual personalities.
For example, the well-ordered European gardens are for the elegant traditionalist. Embracing the whimsical feeling of an English country garden evokes the carefree and outgoing. And the serenity of a contemporary, Japanese-style space is for the Zen-inspired calm urbanite. To see your personality instantly, here is how:
Elegant European style
For those who enjoy formality and classic symmetry, focus on clean, simple structures, such as a four-square or knot-garden design. Create a centre path laid in stone, gravel or cobblestones with an aged appearance, radiating away from your house. Make separate garden sections by creating additional off-shooting paths. Outline the beds with low, solid evergreen hedges or clipped topiary.
Fill the beds with fragrant roses, violets and lavender – even herbs such as rosemary. Where the paths meet, add a statue or water feature, such as a fountain, low pool or pond edged in concrete or stone.
Country-style charm
Create your own English-country charm by choosing plants in a variety of upbeat colours, such as foxgloves, columbines, daisies, lilacs, lilies and pansies, and planting them in curved beds. Create a snacking ground for butterflies and birds with clusters of cornflowers and sunflowers. Add a white trellis of climbing ivy, and lush, wisteria or trumpet-vine-filled lattice and make a path with stepping-stones. You can also create an English garden using strategically placed containers and planters, either in bright plastics or painted pots that add to the riot of colour.
Urban Zen
Contemporary gardens focus on natural and irregular forms to help achieve peace and harmony.
Focus on minimal and seemingly random rock placements, mass plantings of easy-care grasses, and multiple water features. Strategically placed Japanese black pines or red maples, stone bridges and slab seats are places for quiet contemplation. Achieve this garden style in small spaces using simple pots and containers, ornamental grasses, a portable waterfall and bamboo accents.
You will be rewarded with a slice of nature that brings calm and beauty to your life.
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