Mixing Formal & Informal: The Jekyll & Lutyens Legacy in Modern Garden Design

Can formal hardscape coexist with informal planting? Absolutely — it’s the hallmark of great gardens, especially small ones where structured bones are softened by fluid vegetation.

Pre-20th century, municipal gardens favored rigid geometric bedding. William Robinson championed naturalism, but the Edwardian era brought a revolutionary partnership: plantswoman Gertrude Jekyll and architect Edwin Lutyens. Lutyens designed garden skeletons (Cenotaph, Viceroy’s House); Jekyll clothed them with planting schemes that complemented — never obscured — the hardscape.

This formal/informal dialogue became the staple of contemporary show gardens. Jekyll’s rules: plants must fit their setting; hardscape should be enhanced, not hidden. Their gardens were geometric but deliberately asymmetrical — planting irregular, softening the geometry.

Modern examples abound: severe concrete planters balanced by loose mixed planting; loosely clipped boxwood balls echoing straight walls while informal patches break the rhythm; hillside gardens where free-flowing planting draws hard geometry into the natural landscape.

House entries stay formal for access, but planting softens the paving-building junction. Low boxwood or clipped evergreens (cotoneaster, pyracantha) define edges; looser planting blurs the boundary.

Even strict hardscaping — geometric pavers in river stone — gains life when planting grows loosely over cobbles instead of clipped evergreens. Roof gardens: container planting’s informality prevents sterility. Herb gardens in repetitive containers break formality with irregular mixes of rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano — decorative and practical by the kitchen door.

Lutyens’ tribute to Jekyll: “The true adornment of a garden lies surely in its flowers and plants.” Today’s designers — like Andy Sturgeon at 2012 Chelsea — continue this “new English” juxtaposition of formal and informal.