Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
Take inspiration from a formal garden with modern touches
Tweak the traditional to create your own design
there’s a lot to love about formal gardens. The hedges that can be trimmed into any shape – from a ball to a wall or even a maze! The sound of water gurgling in a fountain, or the sight of fish in a pond. Even the paths that wind through lush plantings where statues peek out from shrubbery. If you want to go classic at your place, you don’t have to worry about a lack of space. Simply note the key elements of this beautifully formal landscape and scale it down to suit.
Formal gardens are very structured and green with white-only blooms, but you can add zing with Syzygium australe ‘Big Red’. This lilly pilly has shiny green foliage, crimson new growth and white flowers in summer! It likes full sun and is easy to clip into standard shapes.
Make it lush and leafy for a luxe and lovely landscape
1 Anyone for chess? A life-size board takes the game outdoors. Paint your pavers in two colours and make the chess pieces from cardboard, or something equally lightweight, so you can pop them away when not in use. Chess not your thing? Go for another game – backgammon, checkers… it’s up to you!
2 Add the soothing sight and sound of a water feature to your garden. All you need is a sealed urn-style pot and a pump from the hardware store – go for the fountainhead output. Put it at the end of a path and attach weathered doors to an arbour to create a garden room.
3 Another staple of the formal garden is ornamentation – urns on plinths, statues, fountains and arches. Choose statuary in keeping with the theme, such as this classical lady. Stick to scale, whether that’s a mini cherub, knee-high nymph or life-sized figure. Bronze and stone are the materials of choice.
4 Both repetition and symmetry are central to the look, as is creating a focal point. Feast your eyes on this stunning scene for a moment. You can re-create the feeling of enchantment at home with a smaller pond, potted trees and matching statues. Don’t forget the fairy lights!
5 For a tropical-look garden you can’t go past bromeliads, ferns and palms. Here, Cordyline fruticosa adds a gorgeous splash of crimson to a nearly all-green scene.
6 Create one-of-a-kind art like this sweet little bird or beautiful butterflies. It’s as easy as twisting galvanised tie wire into a shape and securing it to a timber stake.
7 Layer for lushness with strappyleaved grasses, upright cordylines and over-arching palms. You can do this in beds or pots, and can also frame the view, as here, with a simple store-bought arbour. Or, to style up an existing patio or pergola, add lacework or fretwork.
Stepping stones lead the way to beauty and adventure
Want your own forest pool? Make this in miniature. Lay stepping stones on the lawn to lead to a pretty pond. Plant densely around a preformed pond shell, or cheat with pots, and add koi carp – they come in vibrant colours and have gorgeous markings.
PS, Himalayan weeping bamboo (Drepanostachyum falcatum) is the feathery green stunner seen here.