Changing style with new house?

19 years ago

This is probably going to be a sort of rambly question, so please forgive me! Anyhow, we are in the process of moving, and of course, I'm starting to plan out my new garden. My old house is on a cul-de-sac, under 1/4 acre, backing up to protected wetlands. The front border is roses and other cottage-y stuff mainly, while the back yard is more prairie-esque to go with the wetlands. (Yellow & purple, mainly - assorted daylilies, yarrow, Joe Pye Weed, purple coneflower, liatris, etc.) The house itself is beige vinyl siding.

So, the new house is a somewhat different setting. It's a half-acre, completely rectangular (100'x200'), with the house towards the front of the lot. The house itself is red brick and reddish board and batten in front, and white siding the other sides. There is a huge maple tree dominating the front yard, and a few trees to the rear and edges of the back yard, but mainly open rectangular space. There is also a small rickety shed at the back of the property.

Anyhow, I'm now getting ideas of wanting to make everything much more geometrical than our current house - making a long double border leading up to the shed, mainly roses but also other perennials (irises, peonies, centaurea montana, etc), ending in the middle of the yard with four benches forming a diamond - 2 to look at the double border, and 2 for watching the kids play in the area closer to the house. Also, adding some fruit trees, and shrubs along the fences. Basically, going more towards a more formal Garden Room structure.

I guess part of what I'm asking is, how is it when you go from more casual to formal. I'm not sure if I'll end up wanting to rebel, or if I'll like the formality.

(This will be done over a period of years, I'm sure - there's no way I can do it all at once, both from a time or money standpoint!)

Thoughts?

Irene

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Comments (10)

scarlettmx5
19 years ago
I think you should do what you are most comfortable with, unless you want a change. I moved into a formal-looking, rectangular house and lot three years ago, but my inclination was the opposite: lots of texture! Lots of curves! No more lines or symmetry! Perhaps my brain has (probably inaccurately) connected "formal" with "higher maintenance". Since I'm not here much, if something gets a little out of hand, it looks fine in a more informal setting. Anyway, congratulations on your new lot - it sounds lovely and full of possibilities.
debbieca
19 years ago
Well, I've only had this one home and garden, but all the really great English gardens have the formal rectangular gardens, but then with varying degrees of control within each bed. So if you put in somewhat formal hardscapes, you can then get as crazy or as not with the plantings as you end up feeling led. Take a look at some of Diana's gardens, searching "angelcub" to get some ideas.
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pfmastin
19 years ago
First of all, congratulations on your new home!
I agree with the previous poster...you should do what makes you happy and what feels comfortable to you.

We moved to a brick ranch a year ago with lots of square and rectangular planes...square front porch, square deck,straight sidewalks at the front and rear of the house...rectangular driveway, etc. I found that I wanted to soften the edges, so I've done the beds in sweeping curves throughout the property. Keep us posted and let us know what you decided.
irene_dsc
Original Author
19 years ago
Debbieca - That sounds kind of like the approach I'm looking for. Where would I be searching for Diana's gardens? (I'm still relatively new to Gardenweb) Would that be the photo galleries?

Irene
debbieca
19 years ago
If you just put angelcub into the search box at the bottom of the forum you should find quite a bit. Diana posts on the California and potager forums as well so you could search all of gardenweb, but just doing the cottage forum will give you enough I think.
busyd95
19 years ago
You might actually find that you can combine the two in interesting ways. Formal doesn't necessarily mean square.

There is house down the street from me, a brick Georgian, whose yard I generally abhor for lack of originality and blah-ness (Think a row of hole-y yews fronted by a line of same species hosta); however, whoever put in the yews originally created a curve of them around the large maple to one side of the front door--the curve "continues" on the other side of the front walk. What makes this especially cool is that this part of the yard is slightly elevated to the rear of the tree, so that you can see both the yews backing the tree and those in front.

Serpentines and mazes have historically been part of formal gardens and add mystery and intrigue to the landscape--and I guarrantee that the kids will love the idea.
irene_dsc
Original Author
19 years ago
Debbieca - I must need some extra search terms, since I came up with plenty of posts from Angelcub, but no pics.

I'm still figuring out what I want to do - I realized that the shed as currently located isn't on axis with the main living room window, which is probably going to bug me if I put a double border about 1/3 across, and then ending at roughly the middle of the yard, since I think I need a better focal point than 4 benches in a diamond to make it read right.

I did have a thought of doing a diagonal double border, making a triangle - leading to a bench at the side of the yard. But dh still likes the idea of doing a forced perspective to the shed...
debbieca
19 years ago
OK, Irene, try this. It should take you to Diana's photobucket page.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v133/angelcub/Potager/?action=view&current=frontofpotager.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1
irene_dsc
Original Author
19 years ago
Debbieca - Thanks! Those are some gorgeous pictures! I love hollyhocks! That's not quite what I was envisioning, but still gorgeous!

I actually don't get to do my fence border quite yet - I was talking to one of my neighbors, and they want to replace the fence between our yards, so we'll be discussing that over the next year or so. We also have to do something about the rear fence - when we made the offer on the house, it was a wood vertical type fence but in bad condition and a huge gap about 8' wide. Sometime before we closed, the neighbor (who I haven't met yet) put up a chain-link fence! At least it will keep my 5 yo off their un-guarded trampoline, but man is it ugly!

Oh, and the neighbor on the other side has no fence - they have a nice low border and a small raised veggie bed along the proprty line. So, I'm not sure what to do about that side.

And of course, we are probably going to put some sort of addition on the rear of the house in the next few years...

Hence - why I'm probably going to start with the middle of the yard!!! (Yes, I see that Angelcub put fences in the middle of hers, but I'm assuming that was to keep critters out of the veggies?)
irene_dsc
Original Author
19 years ago
And now that I'm thinking about it, I think I'm also trying to combine the more romantic stuff and the prairie stuff, but without it looking to schizophrenic. (See my post in the book thread!) I'm thinking I may do the more formal, romantic stuff in the double border, but once we have the fence hashed out and installed, put the more low-maintenance prairie stuff along the fence area.