Formal English Gardens
Style Guide

Table of Contents

Formal English Gardens: the Overview

The roots of the Formal English Garden can actually be traced back to the early Roman times.

Formal English Gardens as we know them today originated during the18th Century, from about the 1740’s.

These gardens represented a relaxation of the formal, symmetrical, and highly ordered gardens of the French Renaissance periods.

In the later years of the 19th century there was a return to more formal, symmetrical and geometric shapes, and today’s English Garden often mixes these elements first seen in the Italian and French Renaissance periods with the more relaxed, but still highly formal English Gardens of the 1700’s.

Formal English gardens in the true tradition embody, above all other things, an idealized view of nature. They draw heavily upon classical elements rooted in Greek, Roman and Chinese history.

Characteristic Garden Elements

Formal Water Features juxtaposed against natural elements
Lakes, Ponds, and streams modeled after natural water elements
Park like expanses of rolling lawns
Groves and clumps of trees
Straight or gently winding garden paths
Re-creation of classical elements as focal points

traditional landscape — Traditional Landscape by Atlanta Landscape Architect Howard Design Studio

Stone Elements with classical lines – such as garden walls, stone paths and formal benches
Columns, statues and balustrades with elegant, classically derived character
Generous pathways and large expanses of grass, gravel, or stone
Massed plantings and restrained plant palettes
A mix of asymmetrical and symmetrical elements
Heirloom Plants
Perennial borders
Defined Beds and Hedges
Garden Follies
Scented Plantings
Topiary