Mediterranean Formal Garden Ideas and Designs
Refine by:
Budget
Sort by:Popular Today
1 - 20 of 2,471 photos
Item 1 of 3
LINEAR Landscape ArchitectureLinear Photography
Inspiration for a mediterranean formal garden in San Diego with a garden path.
Inspiration for a mediterranean formal garden in San Diego with a garden path.
Torrey Pines Landscape Co., IncInspiration for a medium sized mediterranean side formal full sun garden for spring in San Diego with a garden path.
Allen ConstructionArchitect: Tom Ochsner
Landscape Architect: Rachelle Gahan
General Contractor: Allen Construction
Photographer: Jim Bartsch Photography
Photo of a large mediterranean back formal partial sun garden in Santa Barbara with natural stone paving.
Photo of a large mediterranean back formal partial sun garden in Santa Barbara with natural stone paving.
UserDesign ideas for a large mediterranean front formal garden for summer in Denver with a potted garden.
Matthew Fowler, ArchitectA view of formal gardens at the front terrace. Plantings include various types of rosemary, euphorbia, ceonothus, thyme, and lavender.
Photo of a mediterranean formal full sun garden for summer in Miami with brick paving.
Photo of a mediterranean formal full sun garden for summer in Miami with brick paving.
Jensen Landscape & Construction CompanyInspiration for a medium sized mediterranean back formal garden in San Francisco with a water feature and brick paving.
Jon Eric Christner ARCHITECT INC.Gateway to Rear Yard -
General Contractor: Forte Estate Homes
This is an example of a medium sized mediterranean side formal partial sun garden for spring in Orange County with a garden path and natural stone paving.
This is an example of a medium sized mediterranean side formal partial sun garden for spring in Orange County with a garden path and natural stone paving.
Exterior Worlds Landscaping & DesignWe were contacted by the owner of a Houston, Texas home who asked us to design a series of gardens and landscaping features that would compliment and expand the Mediterranean theme of his house into the surrounding landscape. This house sat on a very large lot of several acres in a secluded Memorial Drive neighborhood located near the 610 Loop. The home featured a symmetrical, linear appearance in spite of its two-story build, and our client wanted a landscape and garden design that would follow these same principles of self-contained regularity and subtle linear motion.
Creating a Mediterranean theme in a Houston, Texas garden and landscape is a bit more complex that it might appear at face value. The southern coast of Europe—particularly in Italy and Greece—is a mountainous area where homes and gardens are built on steep angles and sharp vertical rises. Gardens and fields are often built in terraces that climb the mountains due to the limited planting area and rough, rocky terrain. Limestone is the predominant rock type in Italy and Greece and has become iconic of this part of the world in our collective consciousness. Mediterranean homes and gardens are historically famous for their white stucco walls, olive groves, and carefully sculptured greenery embedded in a rugged limestone backdrop.
The challenge lay in taking an essentially three-dimensional landscaping style and transfering it to a Houston property. As we all know, this part of Texas is very flat, so a hillside garden is out of the question in the literal sense. However, using a combination of symmetrical forms and linear progressions, along with some innovative garden materials, we were able to mimic several aspects of seaside European terrain.
The key to doing this was to establish a combination of circular forms and linear patterns in the multiple garden elements we designed. French and Italian gardens place a heavy emphasis on order and symmetry, and both tend to utilize right angles to establish form. We planted a variety of low level growth around the house and rear swimming pool patio to emphasize its walls and corners. We then added three keynote forms to the landscape to create a Houston equivalent of a Mediterranean garden.
The first of these forms was a knot garden centered on the front door, located just in front of the home’s motorcourt. We planted boxwoods in three circular rows that looked like terraces on a hillside. In the center of the knot garden we planted Loropatalum, punctuated with a lone Crinum lily as the center piece. The rich purple of the Loropatalum draws catches the eye, and the vertical dimension added by the lily draws it upward to the front entrance of the house.
Moving then to one side of the house, we transformed a substantial portion of the yard into a parterre garden that centered on a large glass room that extended from the west wing of the house. This garden was populated by low-growth rose bushes whose amenability to constant trimming makes them an ideal plant material for parterre gardens, and whose colorful blooms a made them stand out from multiple vantage points throughout this Houston neighborhood. The garden borders were made from of boxwood hedges, and the central pathways were made using European limestone gravel that mimics the color of the limestone cliffs of the Aegean and Adriatic Seas. We then completed the design by adding dwarf yaupon, a small shrub that bears a curious resemblance to clouds, all along the borders of the gravel walkways. This helped create the impression that the garden was located on a hilltop near the sea, and that the clouds were rolling across the shoreline.
One of the most appealing attributes of this Houston, Texas property is its superb location. The back of the yard borders a 50-foot ravine carved out of the earth by a major tributary of Buffalo Bayou. This seemed to us a natural destination spot for garden guests to visit after strolling around the west wing of the home to the pool. To encourage them to do so, we planted an alley of crepe myrtles leading from the pool area all the way back to the woods along the ravine. We then built a walkway out of limestone aggregate blocks that started at the parterre garden, ran alongside the house to the pool, then ran straight out through the alley of trees to the scenic overlook of the forest and stream below. For more the 20 years Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's fine neighborhoods.
Atelier Nelumbo Garden DesignCannes
Photo of a large mediterranean formal garden steps in Nice with natural stone paving.
Photo of a large mediterranean formal garden steps in Nice with natural stone paving.
Texture Living IncThis is an example of a medium sized mediterranean back formal partial sun garden in Los Angeles with a fire feature and concrete paving.
Sweet Smiling LandscapesThis beautiful property is located in the hills above of Montecito with 360 degree of views onto the Channel Islands and the surrounding mountains. Inspired by the Japanese landscape design principal of the borrowed landscape the gardens on this property serves as a kind of picture frame from which to view the natural beauty of its surroundings.
This 15-year-old costume-built home was crafted with all the style and workmanship ship found in Villa or Château in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, the garden design was not as well thought out as the house was. Most of this property receives baking sun, drying winds and is in an extremely high fire danger area. Do to these factors many of the plants on the property were unsuitable for their location. The original planting scheme was also lifeless and colorless. Poor landscape maintenance had left many of the plants on the property sick and dying.
We came in to revive this landscape, breathing new life into it.
Creating a drought tolerant and fire wise landscape was of utmost importance to these clients. Staying true to the more formal landscape styles found in Southern Europe we also want to create an opportunity to design seamlessly blend with its natural surroundings. We did that by incorporating a lot of California native plants. This vast property also contains an avocado orchard and a vineyard. By adding California native plants the property is inviting in native birds and insects that help keep pollinate the orchard and vineyard and keep pest problems at bay. Because these clients enjoy harvesting from their land we added elements of edible landscaping to this project. We filled pottery and planter beds with fruit trees, culinary and medicinal herbs as well as flowers that can be used in cut flower arrangements. Lastly, we went through carefully pruning diseased plants, treating pest problems an improving the soil. Now the landscape is not only more beautiful it is more protected against fire, is more water wise and integrate into its surrounds with a wholistic approach.
Orlando Comas, Landscape Architect.Photograph: Miller Porter
Photo of a large mediterranean back formal partial sun garden in Miami with concrete paving.
Photo of a large mediterranean back formal partial sun garden in Miami with concrete paving.
Mirador BuildersDesign ideas for a large mediterranean front formal full sun garden for spring in Houston with brick paving.
Noel Cross+ArchitectsFrank Paul Perez, Red Lily Studios
European style garden
Photo of a mediterranean back formal full sun garden in San Francisco with gravel.
Photo of a mediterranean back formal full sun garden in San Francisco with gravel.
Chinick Landscaping & NurseryInitial Design by Outside Design. Installation & Maintenance by Chinick Landscaping.
Inspiration for a mediterranean front formal full sun garden in Portland.
Inspiration for a mediterranean front formal full sun garden in Portland.
Leanne Michael L U X E lifestyle designFor the entry we gave the front door a mini face lift by painting it a dark rich brown to match the interior baseboards and flanked the doorway with a pair of Moroccan clay planters with white azaleas and pair of hand painted art for a little color!
Tucker & MarksPhotography by Lisa Romerein
This is an example of a medium sized mediterranean back formal full sun garden in San Francisco with gravel.
This is an example of a medium sized mediterranean back formal full sun garden in San Francisco with gravel.
Trillium Enterprises, INC.Enjoy the views from the custom raised arbor overlooking the mountains.
Photo of a large mediterranean back formal full sun garden in Santa Barbara with a living wall and natural stone paving.
Photo of a large mediterranean back formal full sun garden in Santa Barbara with a living wall and natural stone paving.
Designs By ElizabethThis newly constructed Memorial Home in the prestigious Spring Valley is the perfect spot for our clients to build new roots. The Sample Family were raised in New Orleans and wanted to bring a bit of the French Market to their new residence. As they love to entertain, we set out to add extra living space with an outdoor kitchen, pergola and rich travertine patio. In addition, a seated Bench is the perfect low divider to frame our custom fountain space.
Sunflower Designs LLCLarge mediterranean back formal partial sun garden in Denver with a garden path and natural stone paving.
Mediterranean Formal Garden Ideas and Designs
1