Gardening Flowers Plants and Trees

When gardening, flowers, plants and trees form the basis of many landscapes. However, there are many other creative garden ideas that incorporate vegetables, fruit and even herbs into the landscape, so gardening flowers, plants and trees aren't your only options when creating a beautiful environment.

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Many people begin planning a garden by thinking about the flowers, plants and trees they want to include. It may be helpful to quickly review some of the more popular garden styles to see if any can guide your design choices. Each one of the following can be easily adapted for most home landscapes.

The quintessential English garden makes one think of quaint English villages and gardens tended by little old ladies that resemble Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. In truth, the original English garden style used greater swathes of lawn and naturally occurring features such as boulders and ponds around which trees and shrubs were planted.

When most people refer to an English garden, they are actually referring to what is now known as cottage garden style. In a cottage garden, annual and perennial flowers are clustered together in informal plantings. Typically, peonies, iris, hollyhocks, pinks and foxglove are used in a cottage garden, alongside old favorites such as geraniums, petunias, marigolds, impatiens and begonias. Paths tend to meander rather than run in straight lines and are frequently made of brick, slate or flagstone, often planted with creeping thyme or other ground covers to create the mossy illusion of an older pathway. The beauty of the English or cottage garden style is its informality. Tall, blowsy perennials mingle with shorter flowers with equal ease, and while some like to plant hues of similar colors, many cottage gardeners just fill their gardens with a profusion of blossoms in whatever colors strike their fancy.

For more about the English or cottage garden style, the Landscape Design site offers free tips, advice, photos and plans to create your own cottage gardening style. Graceful Gardens also offers numerous colorful photographs and plant suggestions to create a cottage garden look.

The Japanese are expert gardeners, creating tranquil settings using elements of water, stone, wood and plants. The Zen garden is a masterpiece where minimal elements come together to form a tranquil setting. Other aspects of Japanese zen gardens include incorporating natural features, such as a distant mountain, into the landscape plan by using trees or archways to frame a noticeable natural element.

Many gardening flowers, plants and trees can be used in a formal garden. Formal gardens are often used in period homes. They tend to be symmetrical and clipped, with neat hedges, straight pathways, and traditional plants such as boxwood, azaleas, and containers. Formal gardens look elegant and stylish near formal structures, such as Colonial, Federal or Georgian style homes or other buildings with traditional architecture. For more information on formal gardens, Mary Palmer Dargan shares tips on attaining a formal look on Southern Accents.

Kitchen gardens are a fun blend of flowers, herbs, vegetables, and even fruit trees. Based on the formal gardens of Medieval monasteries, when many flowers and herbs were grown as a natural pharmacy in the sheltered monastery walls, kitchen gardens create an edible oasis in the yard. Some kitchen gardens are formal with pathways and symmetrical beds while others are more whimsical. The key is to plant edibles among flowers. Use red leaf lettuce as an accent instead of red flowering begonia, and use the lovely flowers of many herbs such as chives and basil to accent spots among the borders. Kitchen gardens are excellent places to try companion planting techniques such as marigolds among tomatoes to ward off insects, since the flowers look perfectly in place in the kitchen garden. More information about planning a kitchen garden may be found at Kitchen Gardens International.

As you can see, there are many styles to choose from when planning your garden. There are even more types of gardens to research, including butterfly gardens, water gardens, container gardens and more.

The best advice when starting a garden is to know yourself. Your likes, dislikes, color choices, time available and interests should guide your own unique garden style. If you go with what you like rather than what the experts tell you, you're sure to create your very own unique look. The most important thing when gardening is to have fun, so create your own natural masterpiece and let it shine with your own unique vision.

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