I was having a funny thought while out pulling weeds in my Northwest Japanese garden. What sorts of garden styles do you all prefer? Formal, neatly trimmed orderly gardens, or ones that are more "flung"? Gobs of roses or a joyfully muddled cottage garden? I'm a very moody person, which is why I have several different areas, from my wildflower field to my raised veg-beds. My gardens very much reflect my personality that way. Kinda the way they say people's pets look like them! Anyone else have a style preference?
I think you could safely call my garden style the joyfully muddled cottage garden too....just one reason why I would never hire a landscaper, I know what I want and where I want it and I am usually right too. I started with a Fig tree planted where I thought it wanted to be, a cotton patch to one side and everything just grew from there. No way can I plan too far ahead, I buy plants I want and then let them tell me where to dig their hole.
My back garden is sort of flung together but as Toni says the plants tell you where they want to go. :-D The front garden will be slightly more formal as I want something that's easy to keep and eye-catching. Then we have our third garden which will be all veggies in time.
A joyful muddled garden, I don't really know about cottage. I buy what I like and I plant it where I like. I do like theme gardens, one day I will have an angel garden, and a fairy garden. I want a secret garden too. I have the room, just not the time.
I'm probably a non-gardener's worst nightmare, because I like lots of roses and a muddled cottage garden....together. Better be wearing gloves if you are at my house, or you'll regret it!
Wheee, we're all muddled, lol! I'm soooo glad I don't live in one of those housing developments where every yard & garden has to look like it was made with a cookie cutter, i'd just shrivel up!
I have my yard divided into sections. The garden section for veggies which the hollyhocks are claiming as their own. Chance's yard with the bridge and the table and chairs. The little yard where Chance can get out to in the night. The lower yard which is where we put the apple trees and butterfly bushes. There is a long flower bed there. it's 50 ft by 2 ft. When we moved here it was full of junk cars. There's the sideyard where things get stored and the woodsheds are. The herb garden area which has no herbs. It does have the flagstone path and arbor with bench. That's where I put the glads. It's surrounded by apricot trees and rose bushes. The lower drive area. Parking and wood piles and two Arizona cypress trees. The front yard which is patio and the front yard that's raised and has the terraced flower bed. There is one more storage yard where dr has his storage trailer for flea market stuff. Plants just go where ever I find a space for them. Dooley
Oh, I'm a cottage gardener from way back. A riot of growth is what I aim for with everything Almost to the point of being too much. I like to Very Gently trim things. I love the old fashioned flowers like hollyhocks and phlox and salvias. The Romance of vines is everywhere here. Trying to get rose campion to add to this mix. I like to embrace the rural in my yard and complement it. I don't mind admiring more formal lanscape but I want to LIVE in the real world, the little world I created. 8)
I love having the best of both worlds in the yard I have now. Formal in the front to accent our very formal old home and freestyle in the sides and back for my sense of wimsey oh and forest glen on the creekbank lol can you tell I love my new yard
I run things together, sort of muddled but thought is given to the season and color of bloom when plunking something into the ground - a bit more like 'painting' with plants on the canvas of the yard, except my style of painting is a bit out of focus and impressionistic rather than formal.
Mine is muddled as well. I buy what I like and then find an empty spot some place to plant it. I once had an all white bed and an all blue/purple bed but color specific has gone by the wayside and now anything goes.
