Well, I learned from this that I am creating an English Country middle sized garden. I'd not really thought about it before, so it's useful for me to know this as I can now explore it further for more inspiration, as my fairly new garden develops. It was stripped bare from an overgrown bind weed covered wilderness when I brought the property. I've had to start from scratch. This year it will be in its second season. Thank you. Really excellent and articulate overview of 12 styles in a very short amount of time. Very informative.
Hi Loma! You should document you journey! Us gardeners love to see the transformation in our garden as well as those of others. What a wonderful journal it will be for you to see how it has transformed.
A suggestion for house and garden harmony: I have a cape Cod in the US Midwest. I sided the house in a natural red Cedar, on the back, to harmonize with a warm cottage garden, edged by woods, subduing the blues, and finished the cedar siding on the sides, and front, of the house in a Gettysburg Blue to harmonize with a dominantly blue cottage garden. The blue invites the visitors in, the warmth of the back garden entices them to stay.
I think of mine as a woodland garden. A bit like the jungle/exotic garden with it's layers, but with different plant materials... and definitely all with wildlife in mind. Lots and lots of color near the house, and fun paths that cut between large evergreens and shrubs so that you feel as if you're on a hiking holiday every so briefly.
Thank you for this, Alexandra. Having moved around the U.S., and inheriting the gardening or maybe farming gene, I’ve attempted many types of gardens. Now that I am settled back in New England, I am able to indulge in my favorite, which is what you’d term a version of the English country garden. It has lawns, perennial borders, old roses covering the shed and fences, some spots of formality, and the woodland is covered by the trees and shrubs tumbling down to the cove in back. It suits me and the place. What I think is interesting is my dearest friend, who lives a few houses away through the wood on the same water, has a totally different style which suits her equally well. She tucks what she loves all higgledypiggledy together in the lee of her house and framed by an ancient, huge box and a gnarled dogwood. There are every sort of colorful flower along the old stone walls, and fruit trees and a vegetable patch speak of the farm her land used to be. It is as loose and wonderful and charming as can be. Very different approaches and beautifully different, I think.
The Middle-Sized Garden Hello, Alexandra. Yes, though I am working in the tradition of the Victorian garden that was here when my parents bought the house, I’ve consciously echoed the elements I’ve always loved from English gardens. My place is modest in scale - about an acre - but it can take some much reduced quotations from Tintinhull or Sissinghurst or even Powis. Kim’s place is definitely a version of cottage garden, even though she has more land. One of the wonderful things is a ravine in the woods to one side of her house that leads down to the water. We’ve cleared as we can and have added rhododendrons and azaleas to the native Mountain Laurels (Kalmias) as an understory. It’s our version of the “Happy Valley” from “Rebecca.”
Another brilliant video. Thank you. My very small 26' x 26' garden is kind of Cottagie with a rather large amount of pots ranging from tiny Bonsai pots to very large pots up to around 250 litres of potting mix. My preferred pot colour is Aqua through to Teal x 💜🙏😇🇦🇺
I’ve never really contemplated my garden style or how many different styles there are, so thank you so much for putting all of this together. Very informative and helpful 💝
I agree with many commenters about how helpful and interesting this video is. I'm helping a friend rework her garden and this gives me more things to think about for the upcoming spring. I'm in zone 5 U.S. so we have snow now!
A mix of Cottage gardens and English country gardens is my style. We love many meandering paths and all manner of fruits, roses,herbs and flowers all mixed together in harmonious confusion.
Thank you for this excellent video! While I love and appreciate all the garden styles you highlight, I find I am naturally drawn to the cottage style garden in my own yard. I love the casual charm of it and feel most comfortable and relaxed in a cottage garden.
Fabulous round up and breakdown of the elements of various styles. I see some of my garden (which I’ve never really tried to define other than in the most general terms) in the English country style. I love dry gardens because they are so plant-centric but that would be very hard to pull off in my area.
Interesting! Yes, I think your garden has many ingredients of English Country. Monty Don tried to answer the question 'is there an American garden style'? But your climate and terrain is so diverse and so extensive that I think he decided there wasn't. I love dry gardens too, and here is very dry, but it would definitely look odd in an English walled town garden unless very cleverly done.
It's about time I watched this video. My small garden started off as a formal garden but I added some fun items. Loved your reference to natural gardens as we try to be 100 percent organic. NO insecticide or weed killer of any kind except for what I refer to as my garlic concoctions. I wish I could show you a video of my wifes face whenever we see a frog in our garden. (Which is often) I'll have to watch the video again in order to try and determine my garden style. In the meantime I'll refer to it as a Formal Cross Breed. Regards from South Arfica.
Lovely video. I always thought I was going for a "cottage garden" look but you have helped me realize that my style is more English Country garden, here in Switzerland. Thanks for helping me gain some clarity, I love your channel!
Beautifully done as always. I love your thoughtfulness in including as many areas of the world as you can. Now to figure out what type of garden mine is!
Our garden is quite large, overwhelming so. We have a long way to go but I love the idea of creating’ ‘rooms’. This will help me to work on one room at a time.
I have just discovered your channel and I love it. Thank you for your time and content which must help thousands of people. I have just taken over an abandoned garden and am overwhelmed by the work. But your channel has calmed and inspired me. Mille mercis de la France.
Disneyland is a great place to enjoy a variety of garden styles actually. Inspired me in my youth to appreciate such great variety of styles and to be open to imagination.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden It seems to me that foodscaping does not necessarily need to be its own style. It could be an approach to expand your plant palette while providing organic ways to reduce pest pressure in your space. We are currently exploring the use of garlic to deter pests which when planted en masse in borders blends in beautifully... But it also seems to me, salad greens - particularly decorative heirloom and heritage plants increasingly re-entering the seed trade - could also provide interest in terms of their foliage much like heucheras and heucherellas but in much sunnier spaces.
I love how you take gardening up to the level above the plants and horticultural techniques. Your channel has helped me immensely in understanding the overall style, design and fundamentals that are necessary for any garden to feel cohesive and pleasing. I’m so glad I found your channel. Be well.
Alexandra, congrats on 50K subs! I saved this video to enjoy when I had time ... such a treat this morning. My garden style is quite eclectic: Tropical (Barbados), cottage (love flowers) flowing to English country (huge lawn). Thanks also for tips on furniture to match each style. Great video!
A fantastic trip through the different garden styles in 15 minutes. Really informative video. I can't imagine how long it took to edit that video!!! but well worth it. Thanks Alexandra.
Thank you - about three days! I did wonder if I was ever going to emerge from the thousands of photos I've taken over the years, but it was so interesting to do.
Excellent overview. Thank you so much. Time well spent. I would like one of each, please! Of course, visuals are the dominant features, but I would like to hear a bit about the soundscape, masking traffic noise, or even working appropriate music into landscapes. 😊
What a thorough informative video. Thank you for putting it together. My garden style would actually be an English cottage garden, as all the flowers in the cottage garden photos are all the flowers I love and grow, plus I do have lawn. Altho I certainly wouldn't be against no lawn either, since that means no mowing as well.
Permaculture garden with a mix of edibles plants, herbs, soil amending plants, and plants for pollinators and wildlife is very important as are gardens of native plantings. We should all be very concerned about global warming and stop burning things and instead we should be composting and carbon sequestering I love your blog! Thank you for much inspiration ❣️
An edible/permaculture food forest garden is another type of garden style that I can think of. My garden is definitely a cottage-style stuff in flowers and food and anything wherever it fits garden. I admire formal gardens but I could never be disciplined enough to create one. I'm too much a plant magpie.
Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom; I am new to your channel and finding useful pearls everywhere. I especially appreciate you taking the time to add other links within each style so that we can dive deeper into the style we are leaning.
Lovely video. It is nice to see all the different styles. My garden is small, but I need to add the formal touch in the center. I love the balance and winter interest of a formal hedged area with statuary. Around the edges it will keep the herbaceous border.
Thank you for a great video and explanation of garden styles. This has helped with both my RHS and Garden design style. I love the style of your narration, all the information is there put in a very concise way and your passion for gardening comes through.
Another great video, thank you! Right now, I don’t have a garden style, only a small “backyard” here in NJ. However, inspired by you and a few other channels, I’ll be creating a border borrowing elements from English country & cottage gardens.
Brilliant, Alexandra. I appreciate all the work involved in collating this because I'm trying to restyle my garden and this is wonderful. I've been combing books and trawling the internet for ideas, yet somehow you managed to condense a wealth of inspiration in one video! You are my favourite youtube channel.
Wow!!! That was useful information and I learned that I'm just winging it... My gardening style is "eclectic", just like my interior decorating style. Thank you!!!
Great video Alexandra - thankyou - I'm in Somerset & I have a sub-tropical garden with Phormiums, Choisyas, Yuccas, a Cordyline, Sages, Hebe's & Dhalias etc.
Thank you Alexandra. Very professional video! 👍I also try to organise my garden in my own indivudyal style and after watching your video I think Iam doing well 😊
Lovely overview of styles and great video choices! I look forward to your videos every weekend. I really enjoy seeing how home gardeners overcome challenges such as north facing, space, slope, size, climate extremes and other. Of course you do this already but I find that type of video most inspirational! I recall a video last year of a professional explaining how to plant on a slope and that was so helpful. 🍃💚
An amazing video. Very informative. I can't decide which is my type. I'm buying a home with a large open space out back, and I'm trying to decide what to do with it.
I was rather bracing myself to confess to the style known to the neighbors as Early Slovenly Bachelor. But then you were forgiving about the mismatched furniture in the middle of swaths of wildflowers and volunteer nasturtiums and wild onions ... hah! I have a Cottage Style garden and will cheerfully persist. With the occasional apologetic gift to the neighbors. I and the nasturtiums thank you.
It's your garden and I believe you should have whatever makes you happy in it. Quite a few large gardens have different garden styles in different areas, and also some areas of a garden have different conditions. A friend of mine has a strip of acidic soil in her garden, so she has a rhododendron and azalea walk there, but the rest of the garden is more traditional herbaceous border. So, yes, it is OK!
My tiny suburban garden in Pennsylvania USA Zone 6b is more of a Potege which was not covered in this video. Its a blend of flowering plants, herbs and vegetables that I can successfully grow and enjoy.
Hi I'm in Brisbane . Subtropical are and it's raining here mainly in summer .We have lawn and can grow orchids outside . And I'm trying to do gottage garden . .
Yes, I think those are both good garden styles. They're quite often an element in a garden rather than the whole garden, so could possibly come under 'dry garden'. Patio gardens with only containers is a good one, certainly a big growth area.
Loved your video and such an extensive information. I live in Spain but love English style gardens. Unfortunately in our place the seasons are too extreme. Very cold in winter and very hot in summer. Which type of garden would you recommend me? Many thanks. María.
