5 Common Garden Design Styles In Australia

The art of functional landscaping is about considering how elements play together to complement each other, collaborating to create an atmosphere that makes you feel at home. To master this art, choosing a garden style gives you a template to guide your garden design ideas while still allowing room to make it your own.

Choosing a style of garden for your property might seem natural to you, as it seems right to simply gravitate towards the style you’re drawn to. But determining which garden style ideas to go for requires you to consider more than just your preferences – like its compatibility with your home design and the surrounding environment, and which vegetation will thrive in the climate – can help the execution and outcome of the design. Once you do this, it can even boost the resale value of your regional property. 

For example, you wouldn’t expect to find a manicured Asian-inspired garden battling through the Cairns heat or when building in the bush. You also don't want to clash a Mediterranean-style garden, known for its relaxed warmth, with the Victorian alpine region that suits cottage gardens perfectly.

To help you find out which garden styles may suit you and your environment best, the team at Outback Fencing have created this guide of five common garden styles to help kick-start your journey with some wonderful garden design ideas.

Coastal and seaside gardens

Coastal gardens aim to mimic the feeling of the seaside. So, what do you feel when you think of the ocean? For many, this is a calmness that transcends the busyness of everyday life, the kind of relaxation that makes the salt-in-the-hair, sand-in-the-bathers experience a pleasant one. But, curating a coastal garden that blends in with Earth’s biggest natural feature is not without its challenges.

A coastal garden can endure high winds, sandy soils that don’t hold water and nutrients well and high UV and salt exposure. Native gardens that have Aussie survival in their cells are ideal – think banksias, kangaroo paw, acacia and grevilleas, as a start. For the furnishings and features, you’ll need to select natural and organic design materials like concrete and micro-cement, sandstone brick walls, stainless steel and robust fences. If you have a pool, a relaxed and simple white pool fencing is well-suited to the laid-back seaside garden style.

Colorbond steel fencing is perfect for the style and functionality of coastal landscapes. Colorbond is a locally engineered material that is corrosion resistant, which means it won’t rust in the face of endless water and salt exposure – it’s also one of the best low-maintenance fencing styles for this reason. Colorbond is also super durable and ideal for the Australian climate, with natural UV resistance. Another fantastic benefit is their diversity in colours and styles, with many lighter shades available like Dune, Sandstone and Classic Cream to complement the coastline.

Hamptons Style Aussie Garden

Long Island, New York, is a long way from the shores of Australia, but the Hampton Style Garden that originated on the other side of the world suits many Aussie homes perfectly. The Hampton-style is most well-known for its kerbside formal-coastal feeling, offering some fantastic front garden ideas. Its clean, classic, slightly classical and beachy style is complemented by Australia’s deep green grass, encompassing palms and colourful flora. 

Creating a Hamptons-style Aussie garden starts with selecting a natural colour palette and choosing feature materials within this colour scheme. Think white fences, tall pencil pine trees, buffalo lawns and light limestone pavers with Hampton-style planter boxes holding classical plants like private, curated hedges, cream hydrangeas or dense boxwoods.

Today, you can get the same wooden Hampton feeling with more advanced and suitable materials. For example, white PVC picket fences look like the quintessential Hampton fencing, but are a much more durable fencing material that offers a longer life and easier maintenance.

Australia Native Garden

Our list couldn't miss the garden style derived and thriving all across our Sunkissed nation. The Australian native garden has grown over decades of design that has borrowed from the Australian land, utilising the diverse, unique and characterful plants, into a common garden style. The native flora, ranging from Australian indigos and delicate flowers to gum trees, looks beautiful in just about any Aussie garden and, of course, thrives in the climate.

To design an Australian native garden, make sure to add plenty of local vegetation, with different heights, colours and textures, because this design style is built on layering, contrast and complexity. Consider adding medium plants like New South Wales Waratahs, with shorter, colourful plants like Kangaroo paws and flannel flowers around the base. Then plant a large Eucalyptus or ivory curls to establish a strong focal point for the garden.

For the other features in the garden, red and dark bricks work very well, as they blend in with the earthy colours of red sand and rocks that these types of plants coexist with in the wild. Adding a contemporary edge, like floating aluminium batten fencing, may be the perfect contrast to add even more depth and dimension to your outdoor space. 

Formal & English Gardens

Formal gardens are grounded in key design choices and material elements. Water features, classical plants, repetition, formal ornamental features and lines and borders are the ingredients for successful formal gardens. While some may see these gardens as lacking in thrill, it’s their strong shapes, ode to archetypal landscaping and peaceful consistency that offers much to appreciate.

However, when designing with garden plants, the modern Australian formal garden has steered away from introduced classic plants and is instead opting for native plants, which are low maintenance in our climate, require less water and add Aussie flair to the classic garden style. Shape and lines are highly important to executing a formal garden. You want to keep things neat, square and clipped with minimal flowering plants. For a native hedge, you can choose Acmena Smithii, Banksia or Westringia, first letting it grow and then manicuring a straight hedgerow – maintain a strong axis and then create directional lines from it when your garden shape changes.

For fencing, you want to go for something grandiose yet practical and easy to maintain. PVC full-privacy fencing will offer this formal and grand look, featuring privacy panels with elegant battens and post caps. The advantage of PVC instead of wood is that this material is designed to endure life outdoors in Australian conditions. It’s also easy to clean and maintain a PVC fence, and it will offer a sparkly white addition to your formal garden for years to come. 

Mediterranean & Spanish Gardens

Our final featured garden style is an interesting one because it has been used in Australia for generations, yet it has been updated and has had revivals many times. Modern Mediterranean gardens can feature Spanish revival elements, Greek islands' whitewashed cement, circular pillars, vine leaves crawling across patio ceilings, bright patterned tiles, gravel walkways, soft colours and shades of greenery that range from vibrant to muted.

For fencing, again, low-maintenance and highly durable options are your best friend here. Traditional Aluminium pool fencing will tie into the soft colours of the theme while offering a fully compliant and safe pool barrier, and will not overpower the lush greenery in the garden. Choose something like PVC full privacy fencing to offer all the necessities of a barrier fence, while its panelling offers a subtle addition to a garden full of character.

Much like the Mediterranean itself, the warm Australian climate works wonders on a well-curated garden that hosts drought-tolerant and low-maintenance plants and advanced, durable building materials. When choosing plants for your Mediterranean garden, some great choices are the hardy Wisteria, vines and climbers, Jasmine with its soft-coloured flowers and olive and other fruit trees. Make use of terracotta or white pots to place around patios, on top of modern composite decking or down gravel walkways to really elevate your Med-inspired garden.

Finishing Touches

Designing a garden that truly resonates with your lifestyle, climate and home aesthetic starts with choosing the right style. The five common garden styles explored here – coastal, Hamptons, native, formal and Mediterranean – are some tried and tested visual themes you can use as strategic frameworks to plan, plant and maintain a garden suited to your environment. But remember, your garden is solely yours, so don't feel restricted to following a style. If you want to add anything that will make your garden feel extra special, like a designer pool fence in a more traditional style garden, go ahead!

In Australia, it’s no secret that we have some of the more extreme ends of the weather spectrum. So, replacing some traditional materials like wood with PVC, utilising the durability and diversity of Colorbond steel fence panels and opting for native plants in place of introduced ones will go a long way in helping your garden thrive. It’ll also cut down the spring cleaning checklist for your garden so you can spend more time enjoying the outdoors.

With the right combination of design, vegetation and durable material, your garden can become a timeless extension of your home – beautiful, sustainable and distinctly yours.