Are you looking at your front yard or garden and just feeling… uninspired? I’ve been there! But with a little bit of strategic thinking, even the most boring space can become a peaceful haven.
We’ve pulled together some of the best landscape ideas out there to help you get inspired. Think amazing layouts, living feature walls, and unique seating areas. The best part? So many of these are totally DIY-able.
Minimalist Garden Ideas
Minimalist gardens don’t mean they have to be waterless. If you’re after a livelier look, you can go with ornamental grasses. Think mondo, feather reed grass, maiden grass, pampas grass, or rush. You can still make it a low-maintenance setup if that’s what you want.
Just look at how alliums work so well in this small, minimal garden surrounded with ornamental grasses, a design conceived by KUBE Architecture.
Decorative accents really shine in a minimalist landscape. Intricate fire pits, statement planters, and smart lighting can immediately make even a modest backyard or garden feel spectacular.
You can also use bright blooms to create a real statement in a minimal design. Delphinium, snapdragon, red hot poker, and lupin just graciously tower over green lawns and hedges, bringing a lovely dimension to levelled landscape designs.
Functional Garden Designs
To get a truly functional landscape, careful planning is definitely in order. You have to leave room for the actual landscape elements while also having enough area to fit a dining table or a terrace.
YAMAMAR Design Architects did an amazing job making the best of a small backyard to build a terrace. It has a built-in walking alley that leads right to a seating area with a fire pit.
On either side of that walkway, there’s another seating area and a dining table. The green part of the landscape is relatively small, kept to the two steps that lead to a gravel patio.
And even though ornamental grass is used pretty sparsely in the design, it still gives the backyard a desert-like feel.
A rooftop landscape might feel like a totally different experience, but the principles of landscaping work just the same up there.
You divide the space between different areas to give each its own zone in the layout. And you create a focal point to tie the whole design together.
This Sydney rooftop garden design from Secret Gardens is just incredible. Its circular-shaped lawn provides enough space for lounging and even walking, while the hedges give it a wonderful design element.
Ground Cover Options
In any landscape, you can pick between ground cover and paving, but the options truly feel limitless. Ground covers are definitely not limited to just grass!
And pavers come in such a massive assortment of materials and finishes, you could spend months just trying to decide.
We are big fans of this blooming patio from A Charlotte Garden, which is planted with lilac Mazus reptans. It just looks so lively and adorable.
Ground cover can look really different. Gravel is super popular, mostly because it’s so easy to use and requires almost no maintenance. You could also use bark chippings and patches of grass to accent your pathways.
If you’re aiming for a more meadowy look, though, there are some really cool alternatives to grass, like clover, moss, liriope, and dwarf myrtle. You can use them as a main ground cover or just for pathway decor.
You can bring detail to your front lawn or garden by breaking it into a pattern. It looks contemporary and very unique. Zeterre Landscape Architecture did exactly that, creating a stark contrast between a white paver material and the juicy green grass.
Grass is still very popular as a ground cover, don’t get me wrong. But it’s so much easier to care for when it’s used sparingly. Not to mention, this allows some room for creativity!
Modern linear designs are really popular, not just because they bring something new to the garden but also because they require so little time and effort.
You don’t have to be precise, though. If you want a more relaxed feel, you can use different-sized stepping stones and grass to add a nice dynamic to your lawn and pathways.
Ideas for Water Features
Is any outdoor space really complete without a water feature? I’m not so sure! It can be the smallest fountain or even just a water bowl in the world, but it will make a certain impact and decorate the place.
Few water features can compete with ponds in terms of sheer natural beauty, though. When they’re partially covered with surrounding plant systems, they can house fish or lilies. You can even use them for swimming! Ponds are just ideal water features.
Swimming pools can be landscaped beautifully, too. Janice Parker makes a great case for privacy bush blooms that are set to a green backdrop of even more privacy bushes.
An adjacent lawn features stepping stones, which provide residents with a soft walkway. This is opposed to the tiled catwalk right next to a gravel-covered patio.
I can just imagine how those pesky gravel stones could spread and dig into your water-softened feet, causing so much unpleasantness after a nice afternoon swim.
Even though they’re less functional, fountains are loved because of their gurgling sound and usually exquisite designs. And since the outdoors isn’t only a visual experience, why not add that calming sound of flowing water as a matching audio effect?
Water-Free Landscape Ideas
Does the thought of weeding and watering give you a headache? Waterless designs are the latest trend in landscaping. You can forget about lawn mowing or really any maintenance.
A waterless garden or landscape is made of drought-resistant growers and decorative accents—think boulders and river rocks, steps, and stylish minimal borders.
Combining multi-level and waterless trends is a fantastic way to use all that outdoor space without having to do all the work. A multiple-level landscape works great for not only small yards but also for hills.
If your house stands on a hill, it simply calls for a multi-level landscape design. This can be done with the help of statement wooden or metallic planters, or in a more subtle, natural way, as illustrated by the work from Karen Fabian Designs.
Low maintenance is one of the biggest advantages of a waterless yard. It also looks stylish and can be pretty versatile, since most of its ground space is paved. You can use it for a patio, a backyard addition for kids, or any other feature you’ve been dreaming of.
There are hardly any rules when it comes to designing a waterless landscape. If you want, you can plant a bed of succulents or a row of cacti that are backlit by outdoor lights.
Assemblage Studio used drought-resistant plants to create matching patterns for The Tresarca House facade. So unusual, cool, and easy to care for.
Adding a Focal Point
Just like in interior design, a landscape really needs a focal point. Some designers even create several for each separate zone. It can be a water feature, a handmade sculpture, or a lovely planter, like this bowl-shaped beauty below.
Surrounded by different plants, the focal planter is further accentuated with a circular ground pattern and a wooden plank pathway that leads right towards it.
Here, a row of decorative planters outlines a feature wall that’s covered with green vines. Green vines, by the way, can be super useful when you’re creating a live focal point.
Take this trellis, for example, covered with a climbing ‘New Dawn’ rose. It accentuates an entrance, creating a delightful natural arch. And when coupled with neutral solid curtains, it looks absolutely wonderful.
Since a focal point is always attracting more attention to itself, sculptures make ideal focal points. They bring so much drama to the decor that the area around it can be virtually empty.
You can use boulders, mirrors, and water features as alternatives. Although they might be more trivial, they command attention well enough to become focal points.
So many of these landscape ideas are totally DIY-able. All you really have to do is follow your vision and try to turn it into a reality.
You can cut down on costs by reusing old furniture and creating your own planters. And you could always ask your neighbors or friends for plant sprouts and seeds from their gardens. Happy planting!
