Styles of garden design

Some people enjoy hardscape gardens with decking, outdoor BBQs, and decking. Others carefully plan their swimming pool landscape design (learn more about this here). But a lot of people prefer a totally natural garden where they let anything grow. This video sets the history of western gardens in a wider context – which it shares with landscape architecture:
With its focus on the design of public space, landscape architecture developed from two distinct but related design traditions: garden design and urban design. Gardens have often been a crucible in which design ideas which came to influence cities were developed. Some of the most famous examples are:

• Isfahan was planned like an Islamic garden – and several Islamic gardens were incorporated in the town plan.
• Baroque Rome was planned on the model of a Renaissance gardens, with avenues leading to focal points. This idea was subsequently applied to Paris and to Washington DC
• The City of Westminster, within London, was planned with squares (on the model of Renaissance gardens) and with a Picturesque route from St James’s Park to Regent’s Park (on the model on eighteenth century landscape gardens)

This video gives a short summary of the history of the design styles which have influenced western gardens: