Urban formal gardens

Westmount and Outremount, Montreal, Quebec

It was the Roman gardeners in the 1st centaury A.D. who first developed the shaping of trees and shrubs by regular trimming into a garden craft.

It is my favorite type of gardens.  Formal gardens convey a timeless elegance. My first garden design was using simple geometrical shape.The inspiration came from classical gardens of Italy where I travel to very often. And it had a tremendous success here, in Canada.

I add a modern twist to the look by using ultramodern planters and build with high-tech materials-stainless steel, glass. Success!

The Italian cypresses that I love so much don't grow in Canada. In northern gardening a sharp point native cedars or junipers are an ideal option to replicate that splendid look of Tuscany cypresses. All these plants are evergreens and tolerate all kinds of weather conditions.

Recently I have started to use the pleached trees technique – the branches are woven together to strengthen and to create the hedge and Espalier, the ancient agricultural technique of controlling woody plant growth instead of boring cedar hedges.

For easy maintenance, I use pebble ground cover to give the garden a defined look and I solve the problem of lawn upkeep. Once a year my team prunes the trees and shrubs to  upkeep the classical geometric look. It is truly a 100% win-win garden with a tidy four season look.