The theme of my own garden is a classical one: Parterre, water and woodland. I chose that theme because my garden already contained all three elements. I discuss the theme of my garden on my webpage Kirk's Garden
A parterre is a classic garden theme. By "parterre," I just mean flat ground divided into geometric beds separated by paths. To me a typical vegetable garden of straight rows is a parterre. I have a vegetable garden in the middle of my garden. It isn't an ornamental potager, it is just an organized place to grow vegetables and strawberries. Classic doesn't mean that you have to recreate Versailles.
The English cottage garden style is very informal; it is also a very effective way to display a diverse collection of roses and herbaceous plants. Cottage gardens were door yard gardens, obviously created by humans. Distanced from the house they can look a bit odd without some sort of man-made framework, such as a fence or a clipped hedge.
If you prefer the theme of "untouched nature" then you need masses of plants that look very much alike. Plants in nature usually grow in colonies, not as collections of unrelated specimens. For example you could have a large collection of rhododendrons on the edge of a forest clearing; in the clearing there could be a lily pond surrounded by a collection of beardless iris. As long as the rhododendrons were all shades of apple-blossom pink, the iris all lavender and the waterlilies all white, this could look like an almost unbelievably beautiful slice of nature. The more variety you introduce, the less natural it will look.
Gardening books often present historic gardens, such as those of the Italian Renaissance, as if they were themes. These are actually historic styles. The theme of many Italian Renaissance gardens is the same as mine - parterre, water and woodland.
Imitation is just the first step in absorbing a style. Gardens that imitate the past have the advantage of having most of the problems worked out, but they are often soulless cliches. Instead of imitating the superficial characteristics of Japanese or Chinese pond and hill gardens, it might be better to learn from the ideas behind them. For instance, in old Chinese gardens, water constituted the "arteries" of the garden, while the hills were the garden's skeleton, and the plants the garden's hair. A garden with this idea behind it could feel very unified, without being in a traditional Chinese style.
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