Contemporary Garden Design is an eclecticism of classical and naturalistic styles, reflecting both the eastern and western traditions.The typical suburban plot (which has no sense of design) is located among other plots of approximate size where the front yards run together to form a common park. Most of the plants in the yards are plants, dreadfully butchered by loppers or secateurs stuck at the base of the foundation like a regiment of so many soldiers standing at attention. The foundational plantings idea developed in the United States around the turn of the 19th century, when houses were high off the ground and the foundations were often ugly. However, these yards are ridiculed by present day gardeners and designers alike.
One reason being that small properties look better when separated by a border and the house framed by trees.
Second, since there are rarely houses built these days high off the ground, there is no need for a heavy foundation planting, just a few choice shrubs and vines around corners and entrances.
Third, The majority of planting in the public area should be confined to borders along the property line.
In the private area, there are many more ways to create garden pictures. The public area should be simple in line and easy to maintain.
You may wish to do up your home garden in the English Cottage style first espoused in England in the late 1800's by William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll and popularized by Rosemary Verey, Penelope Hobhouse, and Ryan Gainey in the 1990's. If you have plenty of time to work in borders of perennials, annuals, herbs, antique roses, heirloom shrubs, and such, you can create lovely garden pictures.
A contemporary naturalistic style espoused by Piet Oudolf in Europe and John Brookes in England, made popular in the United States by Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden uses great expanses of ornamental grasses, bamboos,and perennials in juxtaposition to manicured lawns.
The California style began in the 1950s in the Bay Area by Thomas Church and Garrett Eckbo and addressed the typical suburban small lot with very good,functional design and easy to maintain. Low maintenance became the mantra.
Perhaps you want your home garden to be a study in classicism, very structured and orderly as seen in the design work of Russell Page and Sir Roy Strong,influenced by the French and Italian Schools of Western Garden Design as practiced in the west before the influence of China, known in design chinoserie (naturalism) in the 1700's.
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