Every field has its own trends. Landscape design is no exception, which is also subject to change. fashion trends. Every year, experts try to offer new options for plot design. They reflect not only the mood of our time, but also the views of the masters, their amazing abilities and talent.

general information

Landscape design can be considered a concept that has been known for quite some time. Previously, it was used when it came to decorating fairly large land areas or public areas, including parks. But today, in this regard, the situation has changed quite dramatically. For contemporaries, landscape design has become relevant in many cases. And first of all, specialists in this field are in demand among private owners buying large areas land to build a house on.

Landscape design in such cases should be thought out very carefully so that every corner of the site is used. Many home gardens today contain interesting decorative items; from a design point of view, they are luxurious and rich. Modern styles Landscape designs allow you to transform areas into fashionable and original places. But in order to get such a wonderful garden, you need to invest a lot of serious work and costs, including not only financial, but also time. The specialist must first decide on the style, install an irrigation system, select materials for paving paths, plants, fencing and much more. The right approach to the design of the territory is a guarantee that the personal plot will turn out to be a truly unique place.

Landscape Design Styles

The choice of direction primarily depends on the area of ​​the land plot. If the territory is small, then chic massive monumental compositions will be inappropriate. Moreover, when design work the degree of natural light must also be taken into account personal plot. Today, a sufficient number of different styles of landscape design are known. Most often, experts use country, Provence, Scandinavian, landscape. Rustic and regular styles in landscape design are no less popular. Each of them has its own history, characteristics, forms and goals.

Many people perceive the garden area as a personal corner of nature. After all, spending enough time in the air allows a person to relieve stress, refresh thoughts and improve mood. Therefore, a beautiful and at the same time functional arrangement garden territory can confidently be called a guarantee both for peace of mind and for a great time. In this article we will talk about what constitutes a regular style in landscape design, photos of which are presented below. It has already gained great popularity not only in Europe, but also in our country, so many will be interested in getting to know this area better.

Peculiarities

This method will be an ideal solution for those people who love symmetry and prefer to see order in everything. Regular style in landscape design implies the presence of many clear compositions, which are made in the form of ideal figures and geometric lines. It is more suitable for large spaces. Only the presence of a large-scale territory makes it possible to demonstrate all the features of a regular or French garden.

Regular style in landscape design: description

There are no small details in this direction. Regular style involves taking into account even the slightest nuances, which should be in very subtle harmony with in a general way plot. A clear layout is provided here. At the same time, you need to know that arranging a garden in a regular style is not as easy as it seems: such work requires a lot of effort and time, and caring for it is quite labor-intensive. However, the result completely pays for everything. A garden in a regular style, laid out on a country plot, will resemble a real park of French aristocrats. At the same time, every detail and image in it must be thought out to the smallest detail. A regular landscape style in a garden can be recognized by symmetrical plantings of shrubs and trees, regular geometric contours, straight alleys or paths, clear and measured compositions, complex parterres, pronounced center lines, as well as multifaceted water elements and numerous sculptures. All this gives the formal park orderliness and sophistication with notes of grandeur and solemnity. The French regular style is the complete opposite of the naturalness expected in an English or landscape garden.

History of origin

Initially, the process of formation of landscape gardening art was strongly influenced by the prevailing views and government system country, as well as the type of thinking of the ruler. They set the tone for landscape design. After all, gardens and parks, in which the utilitarian function did not have a leading role, were only allowed to be owned by the richest people at that time.

Regular landscape style has a very long history. It dates back to the ancient Romans, who, contrasting the aesthetics of geometric shapes with the natural environment, achieved in this art high level. IN Ancient Rome plastic and floral compositions were combined with fountains and cascades. The gardening art of this powerful empire used at that time almost the entire arsenal of decorative gardening known today. Historically, the garden in a regular style was a place for processions and walks, as well as for sitting recreation.

Heyday

It was widely used in France in the seventeenth century. The regular style at that time was used to create parks and gardens laid out at palaces or castles. It is closely associated with the name of King Louis XIV. The formal or regular style reached its heyday in the 17th century, during the era of the apogee of absolutism. That's why it is also called French.

Regular gardens and parks, due to their compositional complexity, were used primarily for the design of castles and palaces and were designed to further emphasize the monumentality and splendor of the ensembles of the elite. A huge contribution to the formation and development of this style was made by Andre Le Nôtre, the court gardener of Louis XIV. He is the author of unique landscape solutions in such famous parks as Versailles, Chantilly, Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, etc. One of the most striking examples is the country residence of Louis XIV - Versailles. The magnificent palace is the center of the composition, from which straight, well-groomed alleys and evenly trimmed lawns radiate. Each flower bed in a regular style occupies a thoughtful place allocated for it.

All this turned into a delightful corner of paradise with intricately trimmed trees and shrubs, magnificent flower beds, shiny surface artificial ponds. Louis IV thus sought to once again demonstrate his power, not only over his subordinates, but also over nature itself.

Implementation methods

The French or regular landscape style is often considered an example of European classics. However, many call it sunny and artsy, avant-garde and even pretentious. After all, the French or regular style of the park implies anything but ease of maintenance. Aesthetics and expressiveness are the main objectives. This feature of this trend in landscape design can be seen in modern incarnations.

The main elements of a French garden are a parterre, including a lace one, a flower bed in a regular style, a parterre lawn, topiary and flower beds.

The dominant color of any regular garden is green. Neat, trimmed lawns and other varieties are like a frame and background for “playing” with symmetry and geometry. Green tunnels connecting flower beds and lawns, framing trimmed borders and trimmed hedges along the perimeter, entwined facade of the building, numerous topiaries in the form of spheres, pyramids, etc. - all this should dominate the design of the landscape.

The main element is the parterre - the open part of the garden, divided into sections with regular shapes, most often separated by sandy paths. It may contain patterned ornaments collected from low or cropped ornamental plants combined with coarse sand of various shades, gravel, etc. The word “parterre” is derived from the French par and terre, meaning “on the ground.” It can be floral, lawn and lace.

Scale

The regular style was mainly used to decorate the grounds of castles, palaces and castles, which can hardly be called modest. Therefore, such gardens are traditionally associated with scale. They are intended primarily for long walks, so that new views constantly appear before your eyes and picturesque scenes alternate. On small area it is quite difficult to organize such a thing, and besides, there are numerous decorative elements will begin to clutter and therefore burden the space.

In addition, a mandatory requirement for implementing a regular style when decorating a garden is a flat, level area, without the presence of relief irregularities. And this requires thorough excavation work.

Geometricity

The regular style is characterized primarily by an axial composition. Most often, the main structure in the garden acts as the axis of symmetry. Straight lines coming from it allow you to organize the space and emphasize the impact on nature. This style does not allow any chaos. The main element of a regular garden is the parterre - an open part of the territory with lawns, borders, flower beds and flower beds, consisting of areas of regular shape. The main background for flower beds and tapeworms - the parterre lawn - requires especially careful care, since it is considered the face of the park. Characteristic feature A regular garden consists of ornamental flower beds with intricate patterns and compositions, which are particularly complex not only in design, but also in subsequent care. In this case, you cannot do without a professional. Center flower arrangement often a fountain or sculpture.

Hedges, topiary and ponds

When zoning a regular garden, arches, hedges, pergolas and trellises are widely used. Some of the best decorations are those created by trimming trees and shrubs and giving them various shapes. An essential element of a regular or formal garden is a body of water that has a clear shoreline. Its shape can be in the form of a square, circle or rectangle. The reservoir must be framed by vegetation planted in a strict order.

Plants and materials used

If possible, the decorative effect of a regular garden should be maintained all year round. Therefore, experts prefer evergreens. Liana or ivy is most often used to create picturesque vaults. Monogardens that consist of only one type of plant, for example, rose gardens, sirenariums or iridariums, fit perfectly into the regular style. As a rule, in such a garden it is customary to use plants with decorative foliage. Another selection criterion is the longest possible flowering time.

Trees that are given interesting shapes by pruning are yew, privet, thuja, boxwood, barberry and juniper. However, experts recommend not to get carried away: it is enough to use two or three types in compositions.

The flower garden should have classic, strict forms. This type of French garden is also characterized by arabesques. Moreover, a flowerbed in a regular style should consist only of low-growing plants, for example, bright awl-shaped phlox, lobelia, coleus or ageratum.

Parterre

The garden in a regular style has required element: ground floor - a single ceremonial composition consisting of flower beds, lawns and a pond. He is the face of the garden. A real front parterre should occupy a large space, so that the entire composition can be seen only from the top floor of the house. However, today they have become widespread simple options, which are often performed next to private houses or cottages. We are talking about a well-groomed lawn of regular shape, limited around the perimeter by a border or green flower beds.

A garden in a regular style, as is known, should have large territory. Nevertheless, some elements of this direction of landscape design can also be used on small areas. For example, a regular style of the site can be achieved by creating flower beds decorated with trimmed shrubs. They do not require a large space, but bushes arranged symmetrically will influence the style of the garden.

If there is a gazebo on the site, then it is recommended to use forged metal or even wooden decorative carved elements in its design. Similar fragments would be appropriate for fences. A good option as an element of a regular style on the site would be a cast fence, executed in a classic, strict manner.

Regular style, that is, universal, characteristic of a particular area, without frills and additional inclusions. People who are conservative in their judgment and do not tolerate unnecessary bells and whistles prefer to decorate their plots in this style. This style can be described as “strict and tasteful.”

However, the lack of additional decorations that are not in style does not mean that the area will be boring and dull. By decorating it in this style, you can remember the traditions of other countries, use the appropriate decor, and the beautiful site will delight you with its simplicity and exquisite taste.

General characteristics

The regular style is characterized by calm combinations of colors, consistency in the range and harmony in the combination of colors. Here you won’t see rainbow-colored flower beds or cheerful plastic flowers. Symmetrical and regular forms, brevity and minimalism, this is what characterizes the general regular style.

The plants are dominated by carefully formed, trimmed shrubs, a smooth carpet of fresh lawn, and calm and discreet flower beds. Therefore, a universal or parterre rolled lawn will fit perfectly into a regular style. It will add freshness and will not spoil the view, caring for it will not cause inconvenience, and peace and harmony will reign in the area. You can also glue carpet flower beds into parterre lawns, and the rugged outlines of a rolled lawn will help create a unique pattern and original approach in such a conservative decision.

Decor

On garden plot, made in a regular style, modest and graceful fountains, sculptures, smooth stone paths and strict lanterns fit very well. They will decorate the area very much and ceramic products However, you should not get carried away with them, especially if the area is relatively small.

Under the motto “Down with clutter!” The design of the site in a regular style can be considered completed. The owner of such a plot will stand out among the rest and will once again prove the advantage of consistency and classic solutions over pretentious and tacky dachas.

I wrote a tragic and ironic poem. “What street is this? // Mandelstam Street. // What a damn name - // No matter how you twist it, // It sounds crooked, not straight. // There was little linear in him, // He was not of a lily-like disposition, // And that’s why this street, // Or rather, this pit // So it’s called by the name // Of this Mandelstam.” I believe it is a variation on the theme of Horace's Monument. The monument turns out to be a pit (grave) - due to its physical irregularity. And also, I apologize for the urbanistic view, it seems to me that this is a very extraordinary reflection on the nature of linear and free planning. Oddly enough, in history we do not observe an evolution from irregular to regular cities. It would seem that first a free-form settlement should appear, then it should be given geometric order. However, in Babylon, and in Mohenjo-Daro (the main city of the Harappan civilization), and in Giza (Egypt, the Old Kingdom), that is, in all the centers of the invention of urban civilization, we are faced with regular plans from the very beginning. It's even fascinating. The invention of a regular layout turns out to be contemporary with the invention of the city in general. It is worth recalling that cities appeared at about the same time as writing. I don’t know how original this comparison is, but for an archaeologist or a person with philological experience, the visual similarity of the regular plans of ancient cities with the oldest written monuments is obvious - be it Hittite cuneiform tablets or Egyptian reliefs and papyri. Writing and the regular plan are contemporary inventions and, as it seems to me, relatives. If you like, a regular plan is a text written directly on the ground. It is all the more amazing that regular and irregular cities exist at the same time. The invention of regularity looks like a colossal civilizational leap, but it turns out that it can be used or not. It's like reinventing the wheel and rolling it aside. From a semiotic point of view, the rectangular blocks in the territory are indexical signs in the classification of Charles Peirce (that is, those in which the signifier is physically connected to the signified - like, say, the label of the bottle on which it is pasted). This indexing in ancient times took place literally, by marking the city plan on the ground, drawing boundaries with a plow (as Romulus did at the founding of Rome). To a certain extent, the same thing still happens (with the difference that the plan is first drawn on paper or on a computer). Question - what do these rectangular signs drawn on the ground mean? And why can’t they be used, what replaces these signs when there is no regular layout? This is what Mandelstam is talking about. The street gets his name because it (the pit) and he (the poet) are “non-linear.” The index for irregular territory is man. A trace of this human designation of a place is our naming of streets - even the same Mandelstam Street, which did appear in Voronezh, or the Nemtsov Bridge, which has not yet appeared in Moscow. It is from such places, inhabited and marked by death, that an organic, irregular settlement is formed. Behind this lies the idea of ​​an inextricable, sacred connection between man and territory. Remember the prohibitions on the sale of land in the feudal economy, the principles of primogeniture - living index signs cannot change or be split up. By the way, a funny rudiment of this idea in modern economy is the need for notarization of the purchase and sale of real estate (which does not need to be done with food, clothing, or machinery): land is a commodity the purchase of which for money is not entirely legal, violates the order of things, and a legal procedure for its restoration is required . What does a regular rectangle of a territory mean if, with a free layout, the site is indexed by a specific person associated with it? If, say, there was “a lot of linear” in Mandelstam, if it was such a standard, “rectangular” Mandelstam, then his name would not say anything about the place. His human quality would be reduced to a square. Here it is worth remembering the role of geometry in ancient civilizations. The Pythagoreans, and after them Plato, saw in geometry the expression of the metaphysical order of the universe. This is where the esoteric consequences of the teachings on proportions flow, but in the case of a regular layout we're talking about about the most elementary geometric order. However, its meaning is not so much elementary as it is very generalized. The very act of relating territory to geometric order makes it part of the order of reason. Nature knows no right angles; regular territory is not just terra, but terra sapiens. If you like, the irregular city consists entirely of proper names - it is marked by the unique destinies of those who lived and died here. A regular city is a city of pronouns. In each specific block, anyone can live, or no one can live; for rectangular territories, only one of their properties is important - the presence of consciousness. Spiro Kostof spent a lot of energy trying to prove that regular city planning makes no political sense. His arguments are not without persuasiveness and wit. Democratic (like the Greeks or Americans) and authoritarian (like in Ancient China, Rome or the USSR) cities are organized on the basis of a grid - the shape of the city says nothing about the structure of power. “A grid is a grid and nothing but a grid” is Kostof’s formula. She sounds great, but I can't agree. The grid has no specific political meaning, but the grid has political meaning as such. The grid is power. This is not necessarily an authoritarian government. In the tradition of American urbanism, it is customary to associate a regular grid with a democratic structure, and this is natural for people who have New York. The Founding Fathers of the United States believed that the landowner had the right to vote, and the land legislation of that time prescribed that the land should be marked out in an orthogonal grid, so that together we got a vivid spatial image of democracy - all citizens are equal, everyone has equal plots, everyone can be reduced to a square. However, it is worth keeping in mind that Madison, Jefferson, Jay, and even Hamilton were men of the Enlightenment and classicism and, when inventing the country, were inspired by the model of ancient Greek colonization. By themselves, the people who settled nearby, due, I think, to the impossibility of balancing two basic herd instincts - the right to equality and the right to primacy - cannot divide their territory into equal rectangular parts. For this, an external factor is needed to carry out this division. Of course, the cities of Mormons (Salt Lake City), Greek colonists (Miletus, Priene), Roman military camps (Timgad, Split), Stalinist and Mussolini cities had different political systems. However they have one common feature- all of them were means of colonizing the territory. I believe that this right - the right to transfer space from terra inconscia to terra sapiens - is the prerogative of power. Colonization is the transformation of wild territories into civilized ones even before civilized townspeople settled on them. Colonization can have the most different goals- economic, administrative, religious - but these goals are achieved with the help of political power. If a town is founded by a railroad company (such as Galva, Illinois) for speculation land plots, then this means that political power in the city belonged to the railway company, and if in 1833 Joseph Smith drew the ideal plan of Zion, embodied, as a result of the exodus of the Mormons, in Salt Lake City, this means that political power in this city belonged to the Mormons. Colonization is a powerful gesture. If we come across examples of adding a regular part to a city with an irregular layout (as in Naples) or are faced with regular redevelopment of a historical city, this is evidence of government intervention. Perhaps one of the most striking examples in the history of urban planning is the redevelopment of Russian cities by Catherine the Great, established by her commission of Ivan Betsky, when most of them received regular plans. This grandiose experience can be associated with the idea of ​​“internal colonization” expressed by Alexander Etkind as the main strategy of Russian statehood. The regular plan was both a means of modernizing the country and a sign of political dominance. On the contrary, if we are faced with a gradual loss of regularity in the city - and this is the history of most European cities that grew up on a Roman basis - then we have a trace of the “departure” of power from the city. This happened until the twentieth century - and suddenly everything turned upside down. Endless new areas of the USSR, partly Europe (France, Germany), Asia - colonization by residential areas occurs in the form of occupation of free spots without any signs of regularity. On the contrary, the block development of historical centers is beginning to be associated with free urban life, traditions and the “right to the city” (Henri Lefebvre’s 1968 term, emphasizing the rights of urban communities in opposition to power and speculative development). How is this possible? It seems to me that to answer this question it is worth remembering that in a traditional city the rectangle of the block was built up relatively freely. We find a wide variety of forms there - from city villas to multi-storey car-shaped houses, from courtyards-wells to ceremonial internal streets. The free layout of sleeping areas is inseparable from standard residential cells of apartment buildings. A multi-apartment industrial building is a regular city, reduced to one volume, a square of a block, turned into a cube of an apartment. That is why, it seems to me, industrial multi-apartment housing has a rather noticeable flavor of representation of power, and authoritarian regimes - like Russia or China - give a noticeable preference to this form of settlement. This is how power becomes closer, more intimate: it comes to your apartment. Compared to this, the neighborhood cells seem to be symbols of civil liberties and informal communities of city residents.

You should start planning your garden by choosing a garden style.

What is garden style

To decide on the choice of style, you first need to understand this. In landscape design, garden style is the use of certain techniques and methods of garden planning, united by a common idea. In this case, small architectural forms(sculpture, fountains, trellises, pergolas), decorative compositions (ponds, rock gardens, flower beds), various types of coverings, fences, certain types of plants and their combinations characteristic of each style.

Currently, there are two main style trends in landscape design, from which all the others originated: regular and landscape. To do right choice, you need to get to know the characteristics of each.

In a garden designed in a regular style, everything is subordinated to geometry, which is the main source of beauty and harmony. The regular style is characterized by rigor, symmetry, solemnity, pomp, and the desire for a higher order. In such a garden, a person strives to subjugate nature and establish ideal order.

Main features of the regular style:

• the presence of an axis of symmetry in the garden;
• straight paths;
• geometric shapes (circle, square, hexagon, rectangle) of lawns, flower beds, ponds;
• the use of ancient sculpture and fountains;
• trimmed forms of trees and shrubs.

Often fountains and sculptural compositions are bordered by borders

from annuals or structural perennials such as hostas

Regular style in garden art has a rich history dating back thousands of years: it originated in Ancient Egypt and Babylon (the Hanging Gardens of Babylon), was developed in ancient Greece and Rome. Even in the Middle Ages, regular gardens were in fashion, but they reached their peak during the Renaissance: it was at this time that gardens were created with luxurious fountains and sculpture, as well as grottoes (Villa d’Este in Italy). Topiary art appeared - curly trimming of trees and shrubs.

Later, when the fashion for regular classicism came, such pearls of landscape art appeared as Versailles in France, Peterhof in Russia and many other parks. They are characterized by: the presence of water and flower parterres of geometric shapes with sculptures, luxurious gilded fountains, the disclosure of long-range perspectives, the use of diagonal radial roads, closed spaces limited by high trimmed hedges (“green halls”), curly trimming of trees and shrubs. In this case, containers are used in the form of antique flowerpots or a strict cubic shape, standard trees, forged benches, as well as arches, pergolas, obelisks, berso, trellises for climbing plants. In such gardens and parks gazebos and small pavilions are installed.

Previously, by creating gardens in a regular style, people sought to show their superiority over nature and emphasized their power over it. Now there is no longer a need for this. Therefore, regular gardens are monuments of landscape gardening art and serve as a source of inspiration for the creation of new styles. Is a regular style needed today? modern garden and in modern life with its rapid rhythms? As they say, there is no arguing about tastes. The regular style is often used where it is necessary to emphasize solemnity, pomp, monumentality - in front of public buildings and government residences, in the front part of parks, etc.

In private gardens, the regular style is much less common. The choice of garden style often depends on architectural style houses on the site. If the house is built in classic style(with columns, flowerpots, sculpture), then decorating the adjacent area in a regular style will be quite justified and appropriate. A formal garden requires a large space to show perspective. But even in a small garden it will be quite appropriate: you can, for example, create a small parterre of four square flower beds bordered by a low hedge, with a small fountain, a flowerpot, a sculpture or a sundial in the center. Sometimes, instead of flowers, aromatic herbs are planted in flower beds. In this case, it is good to fill the paths between the flower beds with fine gravel.

Regular style is often used to decorate the entrance area, even if the rest of the area is made in a different style. A large rectangular or round parterre would be appropriate here, or a flower bed with annuals or roses of the same height, or a lawn bordered by a narrow ridge of flowering plants. Sometimes a sculpture is used in the front area in front of the house. Modular gardens or vegetable gardens are also often made in a regular style - they must have an axis of symmetry, and the paths between the modules must have hard paving (gravel, tiles, natural stone).

Unfortunately, the regular style arose in countries with mild climates, where evergreens suitable for hedges and topiary trimming (yews, boxwoods, laurels) grow and winter well. In the gardens of St. Petersburg and its environs, they are replaced with alternative plants. Linden is used for tall hedges to create pyramids, spirals, balls and garden sculpture- thuja occidentalis. For a figured hedge - cotoneaster, hawthorn. Standard evergreen trees (laurels, ficus) are used as a replacement crop (they are removed for the winter in heated greenhouses).

The regular style uses antique sculpture, sundial, fountains in the form of bowls and shells, grottoes, birdbaths, various flowerpots of classical shapes, as well as gazebos and various pavilions for relaxation. Fine gravel is most often used for paving. light shades. Reservoirs have a strict geometric shape (circle, square, polyhedron) and are located symmetrically relative to the main axis.

Landscape style

Everything in this world has its opposite, so there is nothing surprising in the emergence of a landscape movement different from the regular style in landscape gardening art. It arose and took shape at the beginning of the eighteenth century in England as a reflection of the socio-political and philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment. The idea of ​​returning man back to nature became very popular at that time and found many supporters. The onset of industrialization and the emergence of megacities led to the fact that most of the population of Western European countries was concentrated in large cities. All this contributed to the emergence and development landscape style first in parks, and then in country estates.

It is generally accepted that the landscape style came to Europe from the East, from China and Japan, since in these countries gardens have always been created exclusively in the landscape style. However, Europeans rather borrowed outside oriental design: gazebos, pavilions, and pagodas in the Chinese style were installed in gardens and parks; the gardens were decorated with Japanese bridges. Eastern garden with him philosophical meaning, with deep symbolism and brevity, appeared in Europe much later - only at the beginning of the twentieth century. Therefore, the emergence of the landscape style was more likely not an imitation of Eastern traditions, but a natural result of the development of society.

The creation of landscape parks became most widespread first in England, because its natural conditions contributed to this: a mild, humid climate, an abundance of fog, extensive meadows and pastures, low hills, hedges of tall bushes separating gardens, fields, and groups of trees. Later, landscape parks with elements of romanticism began to be created in other European countries (France, Germany, Russia). Some of them are still preserved as monuments landscape art: Stowe Park in Great Britain, Petit Trianon in Versailles, Bagatelle and Buttes-Chaumont parks in Paris, Wertlitz Park in Germany, Catherine and Pavlovsky parks near St. Petersburg, Alexander Garden in Moscow and others. They are characterized by pronounced relief, large water surfaces, cascades, bridges, alternation of open and closed spaces. Such parks included numerous different structures in the spirit of romanticism: temples, grottoes, gazebos, ruins, mausoleums, tombstones, obelisks.

In estates and country estates, alleys with smoothly curving paths were arranged, which were lined with coniferous and deciduous trees trees (linden, oak, ash, elm, maple, larch). Local species of shrubs were planted in groups. Such parks and estates fit well into the surrounding natural landscape, as if being a continuation of it.

Features of landscape style:

• open plan;
• lack of symmetry in the arrangement of objects;
• close connection of the garden with the surrounding natural landscape;
• alternation of flat forms with hills and ravines;
• use of terrain features;
• winding paths;
• inclusion in the composition of such objects as rock gardens, natural or artificial reservoirs, cascades, hills, retaining walls;
• gradual opening of the garden perspective as you move along the paths;
• arbitrary outlines of flower beds, ponds;
• use of natural materials in decoration (natural stone, bark, wood chips, gravel and pebbles, wooden cuts, etc.);
• lack of plants with artificial form crowns;
• use of a variety of natural plant forms;
• the presence of mixborders - compositions including trees, shrubs, perennials herbaceous plants;
• lack of lush sculpture and fountains.

A garden in a landscape style is most often found in the design of modern plots. This is due to a person’s desire to have a piece untouched nature at your home. In such a garden, “paradises” are created - compositions close to natural ones. Both large spaces and small gardens are suitable for this. Man, as it were, slightly corrects and slightly ennobles nature, smoothing out its shortcomings and emphasizing its advantages. A garden in a landscape style is not an exact copy of natural landscapes, but it allows a person to take a break from the stressful rhythms of modern life, relieve stress, restore strength, gain additional energy and aesthetic pleasure from communicating with nature.

There are many options for planning landscape-style gardens, largely depending on the terrain, but usually a garden of this type better suits family needs, because each family creates it “for themselves.” The following technique is often used: in the central part of the site a large lawn of free outlines is placed, along the perimeter of which groups of trees and shrubs, flower beds, rock gardens, ponds, and gazebos are placed. Closer to the house, recreation areas with hard surfaces are made, sometimes under canopies, where garden furniture is installed.

It is important to think about the location of objects of different sizes and paths in the garden - this will help to optically enlarge the space and enhance its depth. Then even a medium-sized garden will seem large and spacious.

A natural or landscape garden often includes various objects: a trimmed lawn, a flowering lawn, a mixborder, a swimming pond, a decorative pond with coastal aquatic plants, a stream or cascade, a terraced slope or ravine, a green hill, a rock garden, and unshaped hedges , groups of trees and shrubs, flower beds and winding borders. All this should fit harmoniously into the existing natural landscape.

They would be quite appropriate in a landscape style garden. orchard and a vegetable garden, as well as a bathhouse and a greenhouse. But the placement of such objects must necessarily be carried out taking into account functional zoning territory, that is, the allocation of the main functional zones(recreation area, children's area, garden area, utility area, etc.). Then a road and path network is laid that connects these zones, separated from each other by trees, shrubs, gratings with climbing plants. The entrance (or front) part of the site can also be decorated in a landscape style. Sometimes a mixborder of dwarf conifers or highly ornamental shrubs (roses, rhododendrons) or a ceremonial flower garden with textured perennials is placed here.

Plants play an important role in a landscape garden. They create volumes, divide the garden into zones, form decorative compositions, act as accents, act as ground cover, and connect the garden into a single whole. It is advisable to give preference to local trees and shrubs and herbaceous perennials. In such a garden, you should not plant lush varietal perennials (phlox, dahlias, gladioli), as well as bright annuals - natural species and plants with textured leaves and small flowers are more suitable.

Text and photo: Natalya Yurtaeva, landscape designer

More articles

Each stylistic direction in landscape design has basic, unique features that cannot be confused with any others. Seeing, for example, regular geometric shapes in a garden or park, you can be sure that this is a garden in a regular style.

However, the geometricity of shapes is not the only criterion of regularity. What a real regular garden should be like, what are its typical features - let's look at it.

First, a little history

Regular park is also called geometric, formal and French. Well, geometric is understandable why, formal comes from the word form. And they call it French because it reached its highest popularity in France in the 17th-18th centuries (Baroque era). The most striking example is the beautiful park of Versailles, which was created by landscape architect Andre Le Nôtre for Louis XIV.

France has always been a trendsetter. If something becomes fashionable in France, it means that it will soon become fashionable throughout the world. This happened with regular gardens - other European countries quickly adopted a new style landscape art.

This is where the name French Park came from. However, from a historical point of view it is incorrect. Because the regular trend was originally formed in Italy during the Renaissance.

What does the word regular mean?

In general, regularity is a synonym for orderliness, structure, and correctness. Most likely, the emergence of a regular style was facilitated by the eternal human desire to control nature, to subjugate it. And such parks are a unique way to realize your desire, to organize nature. After all, they have the opportunity to contrast the man-made with the natural, the geometric with the formless.

Typical signs of a formal direction

In a formal garden:

There are strict, straight lines
there is a main compositional axis
geometry is used in the creation of all compositions, including the garden layout
decorative and functional elements are arranged symmetrically
there is no variety of elements, many of them are repeated many times
the center of the garden is a building, a house
trees and shrubs are given a geometric or artistic shape
there are clear boundaries between the garden and its surrounding area
mainly used for breakdown smooth surfaces, and with a more pronounced relief, the garden is designed in the form of terraces connected by stairs.

Essential elements

Throughout the history of development in the formal direction, a set of characteristic elements has been formed that are recommended when creating parks of this type. And every element of a regular park speaks of its man-made and artificial nature. Let's talk about them in more detail.

Parterre

This is a decorative planting ridge, usually square in shape (but can also be in the shape of a circle or oval), along the perimeter of which trimmed low-growing plants are planted. The ridge is filled with a patterned ornament of ornamental plants, gravel of various shades or flowers (parterre flower garden). The stalls are separated by sandy paths.

Lace parterre

The lace parterre differs from the usual one with a highly curly, twisted pattern. The pattern can be formed by trimmed yew or boxwood, or colored gravel or sand.

This is an ornamental flower garden, where plants specially selected for color and flowering time form a complex pattern. In its center there can be a fountain, a small sculpture or a flowerpot.

It is usually used as a background for parterre flower beds and tapeworms. However, a lawn can be an independent decorative element. Then the grass seeds are planted in a clearly marked pattern. In this case, it may be framed in the form of a ribbon of colored gravel or a vegetable border.

This is an area where a small group of trees or shrubs that have been trimmed decoratively is planted. Such areas were artificial groves on flat lawn or in a clearing. And if the trees were located along the perimeter, then such bosquets were called green cabinets.

Alley

This element is familiar to everyone and does not need any special introduction. This is a straight path, along the edges of which trees are planted.

A bush or tree that has been given a specific, often geometric, shape by pruning.

Hedges

This is an indispensable attribute of a regular garden. Hedges act not only as decorative elements, they also divide the territory into zones. They are often used to create labyrinths and borders.

Goose foot

This is the name for 3-5 paths or alleys that converge at one point, usually in the center of the composition.

Water

Garden ponds in a regular style can be round, oval, square, rectangular, with a clear coastline. In the coastal zone, plants are planted in rows. Cascades are created in large areas.

Sculpture

Sculptural compositions are used to animate the garden, as well as to enhance perspectives.

When creating a garden, it is not necessary to use all of the above elements. You can take some of them, those that are more suitable for a specific topography, the size of the territory, and create a decent composition. The main thing is to follow the rules of formal direction.