Your home’s exterior is like stage dressing; it tells everyone in your neighborhood what they are likely to find inside. Thus, if your landscaping is cramped and outdated, most people won’t expect to be wowed by a trendy interior. Then again, if your landscape follows current style trends, it’s likely that the design inside your home is on the cutting edge of style.
Of course, landscaping isn’t like paint — you can’t quickly and easily change your landscape when trends shift. As a result, landscaping trends swing slower and less dramatically than interior trends. Here are some of the most popular trends affecting your lawn and garden this year and likely for at least a few years to come.
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First Impressions
Your home’s landscaping is usually what guests see first when they visit your property, meaning you should strive to ensure your landscaping is giving a good first impression. While first impressions can be heavily influenced by other factors than your landscape, such as your house’s architecture and property maintenance — as well as things outside your control, like your neighbors’ properties — you can somewhat control first impressions in the following ways:
Ensure your yard is well-kept. If you don’t have time to do yard work, you should still have an attractive and well-maintained landscape. You can pay for professional tree and shrub trimming, lawn care and more, and it might cost you less than investing in all the equipment to do it yourself.
Add stimulating greenery along paths to the front door. Brightly colored flowers, scented herbs, unique plants and other interesting greenery will attract attention and set the tone for your home’s style.
Install lighting around your landscape. Landscape lighting is both functional and dramatic. For one, it allows guests to navigate your landscape and avoid tripping or damaging your plants; for another, it discourages ne’er-do-wells from breaking in or burglarizing. However, most importantly, lights create interesting illumination and shadows, giving dimension to your landscape.
Low Maintenance
Perhaps due to homeowners’ increasingly busy lives, perhaps due to environmental concerns, one of the largest and most critical trends for landscaping is reducing maintenance needs. This means you should strive to create a landscape that requires less pruning, less watering and generally less hands-on care. Here are a few ways to build this into your landscaping design:
Build a xeriscape. The term “xeriscaping” has gone out of style, but its tenets have not. Xeriscaping is landscaping primarily with native and drought-tolerant plants and arranging them for peak efficiency in your yard. You should research xeriscaping principles and apply them to your environment.
Prioritize perennials. Perennials are plants that live year-round, going into dormancy and coming back alive with certain seasons. As opposed to annuals, which die after their season ends, perennials remain, reducing the amount of gardening work necessary in the landscape.
Outdoor Living
One of the most exciting landscaping trends to emerge in recent years, outdoor living is a concept whereby homeowners take full advantage of their outdoor spaces by creating well-appointed outdoor rooms. The most common outdoor living spaces include kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms, but you could also create an outdoor game space and even an outdoor bedroom, if your porch is large and private enough.
The key to carrying this trend off successfully is ensuring that your outdoor living spaces blend well with your interior style. You might even try to integrate the spaces with large windows and doors connecting the inside with the outside, especially accordion-style doors with floor-to-ceiling glass, which is incredibly stylish. Then, you should ensure your outdoor living space is covered, to keep off harsh sun and rain, and you should decorate your living space with comfortable seating and fun entertainment, like a television or yard games.
Secluded Spaces
Finally, one of the less famous landscaping trends of 2019 is the desire for privacy and seclusion. Even as homeowners use their outdoor spaces more for entertaining and living, they want special, hidden spaces where they can relax and unwind. If possible, you should dedicate a corner of your landscape to your own wellbeing, building in relaxing features like outdoor wall fountains or a fire pit as well as beautiful, shady trees and cozy seating. You might separate this space using greenery, like large bushes and trees, or you can use hardscaping like walls.
Passing fads are not necessarily the best guidance for something as permanent as landscaping — but you can pick and choose the more appealing trends to ensure your landscaping is attractive now and into the future.