The Art Of The Formal Garden

Photography by Brigitte & Philippe Perdereau

In this fascinating sourcebook, a leading garden designer shows how formal and romantic elements can be combined to make exciting gardens - both large and small. For too long the formal tradition of garden design has seemed more appropriate to grand parks and houses rather than the more personal and intimate styles of today. Arend Jan Van Der Horst shows how, in fact, we have the freedom to mix and match past and present traditions. Drawing on a varied selection of European and British gardens he shows that what he calls "imaginative symmetry" - free planting on a symmetrical frame work - can create a garden rich in contrasts; rustic and formal, open and secret, all juxtaposed in a dynamic fashion.

With plans and planting schemes from twelve gardens designed by the author and superb full colour photography throughout 'The Art of the Formal Garden' breaks down the elements of the formal garden chapter-by-chapter: from hedges to herbaceous borders, from terraces to water features and from kitchen gardens to pergolas.