Of course, when picking particular plant varieties, there are some environmental influences that will limit your freedom of choice. Try to ignore light conditions, wind exposure, soil moisture and composition, and you might find the only thing growing is your frustration. No matter how much you love the prairie look, if yours is a heavily shaded site, those sun-loving varieties will not be happy. And, as beautiful and carefree as most hostas are in a woodland garden, they will cower under an unrelenting sun. Dogs and children, too, will no doubt influence your choice of plants, and even design styles. But accepting those few limitations, you're otherwise free to do what you like. Below are just a few commonly recognized garden styles. If any sound like what you have in mind, start from there, then create your own style.

Mom never promised you a rose garden; but now, darn it, you want one. A formal rose garden is much more that soldiered rose rows. Climbing roses can wind through trellises and over pergolas, with standard roses providing vertical accents. Early blooming annuals can provide color until the roses come into bloom, and evergreen shrubs and deciduous trees will add striking green backdrops for the colorful rose blooms. Formal rose gardens usually feature straight lines and geometrical bed shapes, and often encompass areas for entertaining, with benches, reflecting ponds, gazebos and other features. Remember, roses like full sun, and need their personal space to flourish.

The polar opposite of the straight-laced formal rose garden is the informal English cottage garden. Defined by curving, irregular edges and seemingly random massed perennials and shrubs the cottage garden looks like the carefree gardener's dream. In truth, it requires some planning to pull the randomness together in a pleasing pattern of heights, textures, colors and progressive blooming periods. Plus, you'll spend a fair amount of time deadheading spent blossoms, staking leggy plants, and filling in bare spots with seasonal annuals. The results are worth it, though, when your patchwork quilt comes together in a cheerful, cozy summer retreat.

Truth is, any garden is going to attract more wildlife than the turf or asphalt it replaces. But some gardens can be made particularly inviting to song birds, hummingbirds, butterflies, small mammals, amphibians and other desirable visitors. Songbirds will flock to gardens ripe with plants bearing fruits, nuts and berries, especially if you also include trees and shrubs for nesting and protection. Nectar-rich blossoms in pink, red and orange will entice hummingbirds and butterflies to your side of the fence, even more so if you also provide specific food plants required by their caterpillar young. Fountains and ponds will be popular waterin' holes for frogs, toads and small mammals, not to mention the birds. Add bird feeders and houses to the mix, avoid insecticides, and keep the cat in the house for best results.

Edible gardens range from the purely practical traditional vegetable garden to delicate herb gardens to potagers, or kitchen gardens, that contain a little bit of everything and are often as attractive as they are productive. To add ornamental interest to your edible landscape, try planting vegetables in geometric shapes other than straight line, grow herbs in attractive containers, train fruiting trees or grape vines in an espalier form, and interplant with some blooming herbaceous plants as accents. You can even choose varieties with edible blooms.

Don't fight reality. If you have young children and pets, your life will be easier if you accommodate their active requirements in your garden plan. This will probably mandate a larger turf area than you might otherwise choose, as well as the requisite swing set; but it doesn't have to end there. Kids like to grow things they can eat, so incorporate a small patch of tomatoes, beans or other easy-to-grow veggies they like. Trees for climbing and swinging will expend energy, and a water garden with fish (though a sandbox might be a safer alternative for very young children) can provide momentary distractions. Don't abandon your ornamental garden altogether. When choosing varieties, though, be sure to ask if the plants are poisonous, and stay away from thorny plants and shrubs.

If you are lucky enough to live among full, mature trees with spreading canopies dappling the ground with cool shade, use it to your advantage. Woodland gardens can be just as delightful as their sun-soaking counterparts, and frequently require much less care. For the most part, you'll trade showy blossom colors for more subtle differences of texture, foliage color and height. But there are plenty of shade blooming annuals and perennials, too, that will add splashes of surprising color to all seasons of your shade garden. To bridge the vertical gap from ground to treetop, try planting smaller ornamental woodland trees and shrubs.

By far the most versatile and easiest to care for garden is the container garden. Containers come in all shapes and sizes. They can sit on the porch, hang from a branch or fence, accent a window, even fill in gaps in your perennial garden. They can break up boring linear walls and fences, cover up cracked concrete, brighten shaded corners and make just about any space look better. You can grow containers indoors or out, all year long, and once planted with a quality potting mix like Schultz Potting Soil Plus, they require virtually no weeding or regular maintenance. In addition to traditional blossoming annuals, try planting containers with ornamental grasses, small evergreen shrubs, herbs, even vegetables. Virtually anything grown in the ground can be grown successfully in containers.

These are just a few of the most common garden styles. There are endless variations and alternate garden designs: Oriental gardens, native wildflower gardens, rock gardens, bulb gardens, poolside gardens, fragrant gardens-even model railroad gardens, with large scale model trains running through appropriately scales landscaping. Choose one, or mix and match, creating a unique garden design that is just right for you and your family.