For centuries, gardens have been meticulously planned and immaculately manicured—think of the great English and French traditions, for instance. But of late, they are taking on a much less formal style, with gardeners using native plants and a looser plan to seamlessly blend their spaces with nature. In the new book Garden Wild: Meadows, Prairie-Style Plantings, Rockeries, Ferneries, and Other Sustainable Designs Inspired by Nature ( $45, Rizzoli ), photographer Andre Baranowski captures 12 gardens that exemplify a more free-flowing style. “In the world of garden design, where changes usually occur at a glacial pace, James van Sweden and Wolfgang Oehme pioneered a sea change in how we design our landscapes,” he notes in the introduction. “Intent on restoring diversity to our gardens, what was dubbed the ‘New American Garden’ took inspiration from the country’s prairies and emphasized spontaneous, loose, and exuberant plantings as an alternative to the monotony of the American lawn with its parsimonious clipped hedges.” Today, such free-form gardens have become the norm for many designers. “‘Plant and set them free’ is the new motto,” writes Baranowski. Here, we preview some of the fantastic gardens from his book.

Landscape architecture firm Oehme, van Sweden designed this garden for Alex and Carol Rosenberg in Water Mill, New York.

A garden designed by Jorge Sánchez, where a seating area is surrounded by native vegetation.

Sánchez also designed some more manicured elements, like this horseshoe allée.

These stone steps in the Scarsdale garden were picked by hand from the Adirondacks in upstate New York.

Jewelry designer Janet Mavec and her husband, Wayne Nordberg, tapped Spanish landscaper Fernando Caruncho to work on their 100-acre Bird Haven Farm in Pottersville, New Jersey.

In East Hampton, New York, textile designer Jack Lenor Lawson created a 16-acre sculpture garden called LongHouse. “Jack freely admits he doesn’t know the scientific names of any plants, but it’s the landscape that is his medium, the landscape where he wields his artistry with such panache,” writes Baranowski.

Garden Wild.