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Landscaping Inspiration: Gardens Around the Globe


Are you looking for inspiration for your Gainesville, Florida garden? No matter your landscaping style, you can find elements to emulate by looking at gardens around the world. 

At SkyFrog Landscape, we help customers in North Central Florida keep their lawns looking beautiful with our expert landscaping, fertilizer and pest control, audio installation, landscape lighting, and irrigation services. Read on to learn more about the world’s gardens and how you can incorporate their styles for your own. 

Take a Tour of the World’s Gardens 

Australia 

Australian gardeners have grown vegetables and succulent gardens way before us here in America. They use native plants like bottlebrushes and grevillea and a color scheme that mimics nature, creating a space where Australians can enjoy outdoor living and dining al fresco. 

China

Chinese gardens include water, stones, and meaningful plants traditionally set up in a way that creates small scenes for visitors to walk through and experience. Rock mountains represent virtue, stability, and endurance, while the water represents lightness and communication. Certain flora species have meaning as well, with the tree peony representing wealth and status and the scotch pine signifying longevity. 

England

English gardens are characterized by informality and beautiful flowers such as English tea roses and the following details.

  • Layered plants
  • An abundance of flowers
  • Weaving and vining plants

Variety is the trademark of English landscaping, with lush, green yards and hedges and borders of flowers, herbs, or grasses. 

France

French gardens are known for their distinct features, such as the following.

  • Symmetry
  • Birdbaths
  • Small shrubs and flowers
  • Stucco walls
  • Stonework
  • Window boxes

It is a formal gardening style referred to as Jardin à la Française, incorporating straight lines and a cool color palette with green, white, purple, and blue. Among the most well-known flowers as lilies, Provence French lavender, and the national flower, the iris. 

Greece

Greece’s hot Mediterranean climate means that drought-tolerant plants like bougainvillea or succulents are necessary. White-washed walls also help to reflect the heat of the sun. Greek gardeners use terracotta pots to prevent over-watering, and stone walls and archways add to the garden’s serenity. 

Japanese

Japanese gardens are a place of zen, mixing elements like rocks and water to create a quiet, restful place of contemplation. The idea behind Japan’s zen gardens is to create a microcosm of the natural world, so ponds represent lakes and stones represent mountains. Seasonal plants like maple or cherry trees, water basins, guiding paths, and pavilions enhance the Japanese garden’s beauty. 

Mexican

Mexican gardens are known for their vibrance through colorful ceramic tiles, bright plant varieties, paved patios, and eclectic pottery like terra cotta. Warm reds and browns set the tone for the Mexican garden, which grows flowers that include Mexican sunflower, Mexican honeysuckle, and Mexican Morning Glory, to name a few. 

The Netherlands

Many people think of tulips when they think of a Dutch garden, but you’ll also find softscapes with anemones, roses, and crocuses bordered by straight lines and rectangular elements to adhere to the Dutch garden style of symmetry and formality. 

SkyFrog Helps You Find Style for Your Florida Garden

Countries around the world have unique garden styles all their own, but each has elements you can pull inspiration from for your North Central Florida garden — maybe you want to incorporate a pond like you would find in China or maybe a straight line of tulips like in the Netherlands. 

Whatever you want for you, Gainesville, Florida, home, we can make it happen. The knowledgeable team at SkyFrog Landscape helps guide you on the plants that will thrive in our hot, humid climate and the hardscape designs, audio, and lighting that make your garden come alive. When you’re ready to make a hardscape and softscape your escape, contact us today.