What Is Modern Landscape Design? Plus, How to Create the Trendy Look

Experts share advice for achieving this minimalist garden style in your own yard.

Just as minimalism in interior design has become popular over the last few years, minimalism in landscaping is following suit. Similar to fashion trends, the popularity pendulum is in flux, and right now, modern landscape design is definitely on the upswing. This garden style tends to stick to the same neutral color and textures throughout the landscape, and includes only a handful of plants to create a concise and manicured effect. Here's what to know about modern landscape design and how to create the look yourself.

Elements of Modern Landscaping

When landscapers think of modern design, they think of angular lines, using negative space to add intrigue, and repeating patterns and colors. And if you take the term “modern” literally, homeowners are also upgrading their spaces with technological advancements such as outdoor heaters, phantom screens, wired speakers, and phone applications to control the lighting and music.

“In the modern style, you tend to have more crisp, clean lines, 90-degree angles, not curved lines, and you tend to have a lot of contrast, like blacks and whites. You see a lot of repeating the pattern or shape or size or color within the modern design. And things definitely tend to be either asymmetrical or symmetrical for balance.” says Chris Johannsen, owner of CREATIVEscapes.

Neutral Colors and Materials

With modern landscape design, you see a lot of black and white and not much color, unlike a cottage garden aesthetic. Johannsen is seeing more brown coloring added to modern design. This softer coloring is less intense than all black but is still neutral enough to look simplistic in the garden.

Along with a limited color palette, landscape architects are thoughtful about the hardscape textures present in the garden. Both Johannsen and Krent Wieland of KWD Landscape Architecture say that porcelain has become increasingly popular in modern design. As opposed to regular picket fencing, rock, or stone, designers nationwide are using larger slabs of smoother textures and porcelain to accent the space.

“We‘re still using natural stone," says Wieland, "but some of the porcelain is so good now that it can imitate natural stone. Porcelain is the most impervious material we work with.”

Fewer Plants, Greater Impact

In the past, Weiland says that in South Florida, where he is located, he used to see landscapes filled with 20 to 25 species of plants, overpowering the garden. Now, many of his clients want fewer plants with a higher focus on hardscaping. He uses around a dozen species, focusing on creating a space rather than filling up a space. As an example, he plants manicured trees with long trunks and agave plants accenting below. The bare trunks function as negative space in the landscape.

“It‘s more of an architectural style. The landscape becomes more tightly related to the hardscape elements. It used to be, down here in South Florida, lush, plush, and tropical, and you just load the space up with landscaping, and the more landscaping the more lush, plush, and tropical it was,” says Wieland. That has changed.

"The pendulum has swung to less is more. Instead of filling spaces with landscape, I think we‘re creating spaces with landscape."

^{Krent Wieland, KWD Landscape Architecture}

Repetitive Colors and Textures

One of the ways to make your landscape look more modern is to have cohesive, repetitive patterns, textures, and colors. Jennifer Horn of Jennifer Horn Landscape Architecture says that instead of using a ton of different colors, stick to one or two throughout the seasons. For example, purple alliums can add colorful intrigue at one time in the season. When the alliums aren’t in bloom, white or yellow daffodils can blossom to showcase a different color. One color at a time makes the garden feel more modern. Also, Horn likes to mimic hardscape coloring with her plant material. For instance, she recently paired purple muhly grass with Corten steel edging as they have a similar aesthetic.

Geometric Shapes

Modern landscaping has a linear, geometric look. If you want to modernize your garden, you must choose which shapes you want to showcase in your design, whether square, rectangular, or spherical. Choosing your shapes is crucial to keeping the garden uniform, manicured, and modern. Susan Opton, landscape designer of Terrascapes Landscape Design, says that hedges and shaped shrubs are popular for this style of landscaping. She paired round spherical hedges with columnar hedges in one of her recent designs.

“One of the most recent [projects] we‘ve done featured an assortment of different size sphered boxwoods and other hedges. So there‘re a lot of round balls everywhere of different sizes,” said Opton. “Tiny boxwoods, medium-sized boxwoods with oval-shaped boxes, and then you have long, sort of columnar shapes shooting up through those, and it gives a geometric appearance of different heights and shapes and sizes of one or two different shapes. Lots of hedges, things that are framed with a hedge and then something in between.”

Modern Landscaping Tips

To create a modern landscape design, you need a less is more attitude, but Wieland cautions homeowners not to let their design turn monotonous. To keep this from happening, Wieland likes to add plants such as agaves, jasmine, dwarf podocarpus, green island ficus, and eugenia globe to add punctuation to the landscape.

A modern landscape doesn‘t have many colors and textures like a cottage garden design, but that doesn’t mean you must have a barren landscape. Wieland says you can be modern while also having charm. He tries to work with clients to make the space clean, yet intriguing.

Horn agrees that a modern look doesn’t mean boring. It means that the design has fewer elements but each one is very intentionally included. "Every decision, every selection, carries a lot of weight; it‘s really important," she says. "So there‘s a maximal impact with a minimum of material. It‘s about fewer distractions.”

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