Growing up, I was a "food can't touch" kind of kid when it came to my dinner plate, so it should come as no surprise that my favorite style of gardening is neat, tidy, and leaning toward formal. All of the plants I choose have some sort of structured foliage. I avoid wispy and floppy foliage plants.
My victorian-styled home is screaming for formality in the form of neatly trimmed boxwood hedges and sculpted shrubs. But, I live in the country, so that's not a practical or fashionable look for my garden. Oh, if I only had this same house in an urban setting with a perfectly rectangular yard, the formal garden I've been dreaming of could come to life. But then I'd also be a sad, crabby garden gal, because I love the peace, serenity, and privacy of the country.
Country gardens are often hap-hazard, random plantings of loose, breezy flowers. Not my style. But I have found a nice way to blend the two worlds together.
I have boxwoods all over my property. They are neatly trimmed into sphere shapes. I don't clip them too tightly, and the key to keeping them nice and natural looking is to hand shear them with manual clippers. Electric shears would get out of hand pretty quickly and damage the overall shape. Trimming takes place 2-3 times a year.
I have used boxwoods in a semi-formal setting directly by the house and that has worked well. As you move away from the house, I get less formal. There is a garden in the back of my house on a very steep slope that I keep looking tidy by having the boxwoods line the front of it. It creates a wonderful green fence all year, especially in winter, when all of those country perennials are no longer standing. In summer, the perennials can lean against the boxwoods for support. It's a win-win situation.
Another trick I've employed to keep my wild spaces looking more formal is to repeat the same plant over and over -- plant in mass. When you have the same flower blooming in large drifts, it's comforting on the eyes. One flower here and there just looks like a jumbled mess. If you have this problem, it's easy to fix, but time-consuming. You need to dig up those plants and move them closer together.
Another way to ensure you get enough "mass" is to purchase plants in a minimum of 3, and when purchasing more than that, always buy in odd numbers. They always end up looking more natural when planted that way. There is something about dealing with even numbers that makes us want to line them up like a corn row, which is not the look you want.
Anyway... I continue the journey with finding the right balance between formal and wild spaces, given my location. And it will continue to evolve for as long as I live here.
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