Classic Gardens 

In South Africa, the term classic gardens refer to gardens with the most prevalent type of design with crushed stones and planting. We developed our traditional way of gardening from the principles laid down when the British Empire ruled. The British went through many gardening phases: from formal to landscaping and back to Victorian ways. The Edwardian period significantly affected our country’s style of gardening. The cottage gardens of England are also popular.

Modern Minimalist Gardens

They originated, together with the stark, stripped and geometric architecture, after World War II. Planting and lines are simplified in these empty gardens. Less is more with fewer varieties and plants. The overall design, paving, and texture becomes as important as the plants. Trinkets have no place here. Many principles of minimalist gardens come from the East. According to these principles, the interior and exterior of the house and garden are connected and flow together. Open space is largely accentuated and is important. In this kind of garden, there is less seasonal work because many of the plants are self-sufficient and without flowers. Ponds, beds, paving, ornamentation, and partitions are as important as economical design. Minimalist gardens do not mimic nature and are at home in the city. Because the plain, unpretentious lines of this kind of garden can enlarge a space, it works well on even the tiniest patch of earth.

New Formal Gardens 

Formal gardens are stately, structured spaces that are often meant to convey a calm, green dignity rather than a playful paradise of flowers. This kind of garden is inspired by the way nobility cultivated during the Renaissance. Courts, state buildings and palaces still often boast the stately simplicity of a formal garden. They come from the days when gardens were made to keep the wilderness and natural dangers at bay. The gardener is in charge and divides the earth into neat compartments. Nowadays, we still see many strictly formal elements in small gardens. The symmetry and manicured beds work well, yet there is a growing tendency to use elements of formal gardening combined with the simplicity of minimalist gardens.

Flower Gardens 

The gardener’s delight in the colors and aromas of blossoms, buds, and petals leads to great variety in gardens. In well-planned gardens color and cut flowers abound right through the year.

Natural Gardens 

Although they live in small city gardens, many contemporary gardeners yearn for nature. Regional gardens, forest gardens, succulent gardens, and indigenous gardens often have owners with a green consciousness. There is little clarity on what an indigenous garden should look like, but we see wonderful new combinations of bark texture and shapes in such gardens – seeds, pods and thorns that amaze us – with species that are thrillingly different.

Container Gardening 

This is a happy compromise between indoor and outdoor gardening. If you tend these areas well, you gain both a room and a garden.

Stoep Garden 

You create an atmosphere by cleverly combining furniture, shelves, trellising, plants, textiles, paving, carpets, and ornaments. Often a stoep is a covered recreational area overlooking the garden, so it makes sense to link it thematically with your house and garden.

Balcony Garden 

If you love plants and a balcony garden is your lot, you’ll have to put on your thinking cap. You’ll surely need comfortable seating. Next, decide which plants you want most, always keeping in mind that growing plants on balconies can be tricky, especially if they’re exposed to the elements. Choose fairly hardy plants: a sign of toughness is a grey color or hard leaf texture. Indigenous succulents or certain herbs are good choices. Hanging baskets are another great option for the balcony gardener. They hang from the ceiling and so provide growing space where there wouldn’t otherwise be any. Plants with a cascading or hanging growth habit are ideal. When the basket is above eye level, the beauty that hangs down is all you see. plants for windowsills include the above-mentioned cascades that also suit baskets and a few upright plants. Apart from the traditional geranium, you can try almost any combination.  Pots  On a small balcony, you may prefer to have two large pots with accent plants rather than lots of small ones. The bigger the pot, the more easily the plants will grow: plants love a meter of soil under their roots.

Roof gardens 

Having a roof garden gives you an exceptional outdoor room. Roof gardens consisting mainly of potted plants and containers, furniture, carpets, mulches, and paving feel like gardens but are really outdoor rooms. Many of the principles of balcony and stoep gardening apply here too. The difference lies in the degree of exposure to the elements. Sun and scorching temperatures demand special plants. Pergolas, vines, and awnings can provide shade by day. You shouldn’t attempt a roof garden without expert advice. Waterproofing, draining, and irrigation are complicated and expensive, and choosing hardy plants with suitable roots is crucial.

Another Country

Inspiration often comes from other parts of the world. If your house resembles a dwelling in another part of the world, it is tempting and easy to create a garden to match.

The Mediterranean 

We have much to learn from the way people around the Mediterranean Sea garden. It seems they work less in their gardens, using them for convenience and not as a showcase for glorious plants.

Southern France 

The natural limestone of the area is often used for paving, garden walls, and buildings. Plants that can withstand more sun, wind, and drought are favored. Steel trellises and rounded steel lean-tos with reed covers offer shelter from the sharp sunlight. Sometimes some of the natural vegetation of the environment is retained. 

Climbers have free reign on the walls.

Northern Italy 

During the Renaissance, enormous formal gardens with a great deal of sculpture and complicated water fountains were made in those parts. Currently, you can still find remnants of the formality and beauty of that time reflected in some of the villa and castle gardens of Northern Italy.

Spanish influences 

The Arabian conquerors occupied Spain for more than seven centuries, and the legacy of the Moors distinguishes Spanish gardens all over the world: a legacy of sophisticated and intricate Islamic design. The Moorish influence can be seen in the geometric beds and layout, the octagonal fountains, and spaces enclosed by hedges or walls. Courtyards with central water features provide protection against the fierce sun, and water channels running through them keep gardens and courtyards cool. Paving, often marble, also features intricate stonework or tiles bearing Islamic designs.

Oriental Gardens 

The major difference between Oriental gardens and Western gardens is the departure from the design principle of symmetry. Oriental gardens are asymmetrical and contain far fewer plants. Rocks, water and bridges, entrances and raked sand are used symbolically, with Eastern philosophies and thoughts expressed in them.