To add classic elegance to your home’s exterior, consider taking inspiration from French gardens. French garden design has a legacy of precise, formal and beautiful landscaping, making it the perfect style for homeowners wanting to dress up their outdoor space.
While a French garden can be more maintenance than other garden styles due to the emphasis on clean edges and pristine shapes, understanding the fundamentals will help you achieve the same aesthetic at home.
To help, here is a basic guide to the key elements of French garden design:
Traditional French gardens highlight the home or residence as the focal point of the landscape. Garden designs typically include pathways directing visitors to the front door, often oriented perpendicular to the facade.
While Stucco and stonework homes are classic French focal points, any style of home can use this same design scheme.
Symmetrical lines are essential to French garden design. When creating pathways, planting or arranging shrubs, it’s crucial to keep everything precise and even on both sides. Boxwood shrubs are a popular way to create symmetry by growing them into easily trimmed hedge rows. Geometric shapes like diamonds, triangles and semicircles are all worth exploring in your design, as long as the overall aesthetic maintains its symmetry.
Water features like stone garden fountains, reflecting pools and carefully manicured ponds are important elements in French gardens. Traditional French garden fountains come in several varieties, including free-standing fountains and fountains built into walls. Multi-tiered and highly ornamental designs are perfect options to incorporate water into your formal French garden.
Formal gardens tend to stick to simple color palettes. Cool colors are especially popular for French style gardens, so when choosing plants or flowers, err on the side of gray, white, blue and purple. Lavender is the traditional choice for French garden style, and easy to grow either in decorative containers or in carefully manicured planting beds.
While these are some key elements of French garden design, they are only guidelines to inspire you. Using this design scheme, you can add custom creativity and create a French style garden all your own.
I have lived in the Athol-Orange-Phillipston area for most of my life. I graduated from the Athol-Royalston Schools and Boston College in 1973. I have been an active real estate Broker since 1973.. I have First hand knowledge of all the various aspects of working and living in our area.
For over 40 years I have maintained a presence in the real estate market through building new homes while buying and selling all types of real estate. I offer first hand knowledge and experience to Buyers and Sellers in our unique market area . I also have a keen interest in Waterfront properties, land and income properties. We are also currently focused on bringing new businesses into our area including Commercial , Mixed Use and Retail Development along the Rt 2 corridor including into the North Quabbin Business Park and the Greater Gardner to Athol-Orange areas.
I will to give you the benefit of my training and experience and the most personal service and attention that you deserve.
