Modern garden designs give a lot of freedom to creativity. You can choose any plants or trees you’d like and landscaping options are endless compared to a classic formal garden style. Greenery can grow wild or you can keep it trimmed or do a variation of both. Modern garden designs are very flexible in terms of design. There aren’t just straight lines and rectangular shapes. And the gardens are retty multi-functional. You can incorporate a patio or a terrace into your garden or build it around your swimming pool. There is indeed a lot of room for creativity.
Regardless of space your modern garden design depends on what you can afford and come up with. Also when it comes to maintenance there is nothing like a modern garden. No more long hours of mowing or trimming unless you like the look and are willing to commit.
Modern Garden Designs for Urban and Suburban Areas
A lot of gardens have common features like water pools, sculptures, and bird baths. In a modern garden you can also have a feature wall. It can serve as a backdrop to your seating area or a roll-down screen for a movie projector.
The wall can feature anything from a big mirror to an art installation. It can also be a part of a fence or a decorative screen.
Manicured lawns have become a signature look for suburbia as well as governmental and public buildings, but they usually require a lot of time and effort to maintain. You need to keep them mown and uniform. And they require a lot of water and an irrigating system.
Small shapely patches of green can lend your garden a bit of that welcoming lawn aesthetic, but they would require much less effort and resources.
Leaving some space for an outdoor area is an important part of any modern estate design. This results in a great mix of surrounding greenery that is allowed to grow wild and carefully maintained patches of grass and shrubbery.
Modern gardens too make use of such classic garden water features like ponds and fountains. These may even come in pairs.
Water is a precious resource, however. If you would like to help save it or even simply cut down your bills, a waterless garden might just be an option. In addition to using much less water than a regular garden it offers a lot of landscaping ideas.
Prepare to fall in love with succulents, cacti, and other drought-resistant plants as they will make the bulk of your garden. You can build decorative stone planter beds and make use of stylish planters to jazz up your waterless garden.
Gardens With Water Features
There are no rules in modern garden design. You make the best of the available space and prioritize your needs. Do you want an outdoor dining area or a swimming pool?
If you want more greenery in your small garden you could try incorporating vertical gardens into your outdoor space. These can vary from crawling plants to the built-in wall planters.
It is common to see stone tiles in formal gardens, but they are incredibly popular in modern gardens. This is because they give the outdoors a more structured, maintained look without requiring any actual maintenance.
Stone and wood go very well together, so it’s easy to incorporate a terrace into a modern garden. It doesn’t have to be a rectangular or square shape either. Playing with different shapes is not only allowed but encouraged.
Keeping the greenery on ground level isn’t exactly a modern approach. Creating levels not only makes for a unique look but also allows to use space more efficiently.
Roof gardens are so popular right now exactly because they are space-efficient. Any roof will do, even that of a pergola.
Cascading Gardens
Multi-level gardens provide you with additional space to plant your favorite blooms and plants or even trees. It is a great alternative (or an addition) to a vertical garden.
The more space there is the more levels you can build, of course. But even if you outdoor area is limited there are so many variations of a multi-level garden to choose from.
This cascading garden in California was built out of a long narrow backyard solving a few issues like the lack of space for greenery and various zones. The dining area and a pond were kept at a ground level while a second terrace overlooking the yard was built on top of the cascade.
Each level was planted with greenery and the bottom one covered with wooden planks for sitting. Built-in LED lights decorate and illuminate each level showing off their unique shapes.
Besides the cascades and numerous levels many modern garden designs make use of zoning. Spacious enough areas divided into several zones can provide you with a sufficient area for contemplation, dining, and gardening.
You can divide your zones by using different materials. A certain area can be allocated for greenery or you can distribute it evenly throughout the area.
Informal Formal Garden
It’s quite common to see seating areas in modern garden designs and walking pathways in formal ones. This modern garden mixes modern aesthetic and a formal garden purpose – walking. The plants are divided with white borders that echo the fence and the walkways are done in contrasting black tiles.
The ground between the borders and walkways is filled with gravel to give it a more detailed look. And wild overgrowth creates a nice contrast with clear lines and pristine white structures.
Gravel gives a tiled garden a less polished, formal look, though, it’s certainly cleaner and neater than the rough ground. It also comes in different colors including dressy white.
This modern fruit tree garden is designed using just three colors – green that comes from plants, yellow from fruit and house paint, and white. While green and white make up the main color scheme yellow accents liven up the look.
If we were to imagine a modern take on a formal garden this would be it. Carefully planned space with neatly chosen greenery and stone floors accented with geometric sculptures is what makes it feel so formal.
On the other hand, white tiles and gravel along with a glass-topped table bring modernity to the design.
Potted Garden Designs
Even if you don’t have enough space for a garden you can still have a semblance of one. For instance, this swimming pool terrace combines dining and lounge area all the while leaving a lot of space for potted greenery.
Planter pots may not replace a regular garden with trees and real ground to walk on, but they are the next best thing. The green surroundings of this estate only amplifies the green look.
One of the latest trends is to home office pod or a studio in a garden. If you can spare some space this is a great way to get a quite place equipped with everything necessary for a comfortable work day.
The pods vary in designs, sizes, and shapes. It’s easier to incorporate one into your garden when you’re in a planning stage, but it’s also possible to have one custom-built just for your garden. Wooden sheds work best for any garden.
Modern garden style also implies minimalism. But it doesn’t mean you only get to have a certain plant or a tree in your backyard. How about mixing a waterless garden with a modern minimalist lawn?
Look at this lawn design with inclusions of black mondo grass that ends with a tree surrounded with succulents. A great mix for a low-maintenance yard.
Green Outdoor Areas
Shapely green shrubs won’t look as formal if they have an unusual form. In this amazing garden the trees are creating a tall privacy wall while the unusual low bushes make a surprising eye-catchy accent.
A shrub of white blooms create a beautiful focus in the yard and at the same time serve as an incredible decoration to a minimalist swimming pool.
Building a terrace or a patio often requires to get rid of ground cover. This in turn takes away the precious ground space from a garden. Here is where hanging chairs come to the rescue.
With these you can keep the ground cover and any other plants and create a modest gravel or wooden pathway to avoid trampling the greenery.
It can be challenging to divide space between greenery and functional space. Here a triangular courtyard is surrounded with trees and plants, which create a background for the informal dining table.
To amplify the green element the designers even planted the fence with grass. Even though it’s a small accent it makes the garden much livelier.
Interior Courtyard Ideas
Indoor/outdoor garden is not exactly a novelty. Popular in Japanese architecture these took off as a mainstream trend for the past few years in modern architecture. And it’s not surprising, as the intimate connection of these spaces makes for a truly unusual atmosphere.
A glass-encased courtyard feels like a room, but an open sky over your head and real grass underneath your feet feel pretty outdoors-y. It’s a true stunner element for any interior.
Indoor gardens are another variation of the trend. These require a skylight and an area for plants. This kind of garden is easier to create in an existing house.
All you need is a room where you can install a skylight and enough space to cover with soil.
Modern garden designs are all about practicality and comfort. Sure at times they lack greenery, especially when trying to double as outdoor spaces, but this also allows you to work less to maintain them.
