Garden type
Formal Garden
Formal gardens are about readable geometry: axes, repeated evergreen forms, and beds that hold a line when flowers are quiet. The look fails when every plant is a showpiece with no bones — or when hedges are asked to do jobs their mature size cannot keep.
In this library, Formal members lean on clipped or naturally architectural evergreens first, then allow seasonal colour as a controlled chapter. Honesty about sun, drainage, and shearable habit matters more than copying a palace parterre in a small plot.
What matters most for Formal Garden
- Lead with evergreen structure before filling every gap with summer colour.
- Match mature height and spread to paths, windows, and the clipping cycle you will actually keep.
- Repeat forms — spheres, columns, low hedges — so the eye reads intent, not a nursery row.
- Keep soil and water honest: many formal evergreens resent wet feet or deep shade.
- Plan winter silhouette; a formal garden that only works in June is not formal yet.
Starter kit for Formal Garden
- Shearable evergreen bones — Boxwood 'Green Velvet': dense form for low hedges and balls.
- Fine-leaf structure — Small-Leaved Boxwood 'Faulkner': tight texture for edges and knots.
- Upright green column — Japanese Boxwood 'Green Beauty': vertical accent without a tree footprint.
Browse sun and height on the cards, then open profiles for site fit. Where companion or pest-smart notes appear, use them to keep structure beds healthy without defaulting to spray.