When meeting a new client and taking a brief, it’s important not just to undertake a tickbox exercise of what features the new garden should possess, but also get under the skin of the project. This means not just matching the design to the house and its particular format, but getting a deeper understanding of the type of garden style that really makes the client’s heart sing. I can often take clues from the interior design as to whether their style is ultra crisp and clean lined minimalism, country florals and boho chic, or richly traditional and formal and sometimes we can borrow these styles and project them into the garden. On other occasions, the client will have magazine clippings or a Pinterest board ready for my visit, to guide me through their favourite looks. Often I will make an initial suggestion of what might work in the space, but without screens or books to hand, it can be difficult to ensure that client and designer are indeed on the same page. What does formal or informal really mean when it comes to a garden? Does it depend on how you will use it or how it’s laid out? And are all garden design styles equal in terms of maintenance and aftercare? Well, no, and this is something I try to convey in my initial garden consultations. Not all gardens will fit cleanly into one style bracket or another, but let me try to guide you through the most well known and used styles, as a handy guide to the subject.

Formal gardens

Strong geometry of clean lines, often symmetrical but not necessarily so, a formal garden is often a restful space. It’s a garden where the hand of the gardener is felt quite clearly – clipped hedges and pleached trees often form the structure, lawns are to be kept neat and green is often the predominant colour, in varying shades. Hard materials tend to be quite traditional: natural stone and gravel feature strongly. Breaking the line, where flowers and grasses lean over the edge of a border and soften it, can be away of slightly breaking the formality of this kind of garden without veering too far away from what makes it work.

Cottage Gardens

Much less reliant on hard landscaping and repeat planting, cottage gardens are full of exuberant planting that seems quite haphazard and is often self-seeded rather than by design. Cottage gardens are romantic, hazy, full of scent and colour, but can be very intensive to manage, as they are heavily plant focused, and require some serious gardening at key times of year. Traditional cottage garden plants like roses, lupins, delphiniums and dahlias often need interventions like deadheading, staking, protection from slugs or from frost to keep them looking at their very best. However if this is the style that makes your heart sing you may be prepared to put in the effort to have a multi-seasonally inspiring cottage garden such as this one.

Mediterranean Gardens

Often inspired by treasured holidays in the sunny Med, this type of garden feels relaxed and effortless. Of course it works best in a sunny spot – there’s no point trying to recreate the Greek Islands in a narrow dark back alleyway – and have good drainage to be able to incorporate the typical plants that are much loved by all – Lavender, Rock Roses, Rosemary and Creeping Thymes to name just a few. Mediterranean gardens can be styled in a formal, symmetrical avenue with a strong focal point at the end such as a terracotta urn, but my favourite type of mediterranean garden is naturalistic, with rock formations, gravel and plants seemingly cropping up just where they please. A fine example of this type of garden would be the new Delos Garden at Sissinghurst Castle, designed by Dan Pearson.

Meadow Gardens

Evoking a countryside of long ago, before giant tractors ripped out hedgerows and meadows became a thing of the past, creating a meadow garden feels like recreating a slice of nature. Filled with a mix of native grasses and wildlflowers, they are a joy to walk through, and sit amidst from late spring to late summer. Early spring meadows can be enhanced with low spring bulbs like crocuses, scilla and miniature daffodils. A mown path through a meadow can weave and create a sense of intrigue, leading to who knows where. But before you insist that you absolutely must have a meadow in your new garden, consider how it will look in the off season. Once the flowers have finished we must wait until they have properly gone to seed before mowing it or strimming, to ensure next year’s flowers. And the strimmed or mown meadow will look quite rough for a few months before the spring returns and growth begins again.

Japanese style gardens

There’s something very particular about the formal yet asymmetrical precise arrangement of a Japanese Style Garden that has so much appeal. Whilst it’s important to capture the essentials that make these usually small gardens successful, it’s key that we don’t simply borrow all the features we’ve seen on travel shows, making a hotchpotch pastiche of what is an ancient and very considered garden style. What we think of as a Japanese garden is probably a mix of different historical eras – tea houses, bridges, stone lanterns and azaleas are not all required to create something that has a slightly mystical and Japanese feel.

So what’s in a name? Ideally we can understand a little better what we mean when we use these terms, but there will still need to be more ‘digging’ to find out exactly what elements of a style make your heart sing, and which really don’t float your boat. Every design is bespoke to you, the garden and its surroundings, so it truly makes a wonderful space for you and your loved ones to spend time in.