25 Easy and Cool Landscape Ideas for Your Yard
Are you looking for some new ideas to bring your front yard or garden to life? I’ve found the best inspiration out there to help get you dreaming.
You see, the possibilities for modern landscaping are just incredible. It’s so much more than perfectly manicured lawns and hedges.
Think interesting layouts, gorgeous grass patterns, and amazing seating areas. The best part is, most of these are simple enough to try yourself!
Create a Centerpiece
Just like in your living room, a great landscape needs a focal point. I’ve seen designers create several for each little zone. It could be a water feature, a unique sculpture, or a beautiful planter, like the gorgeous bowl-shaped one below.
Surrounded by different plants, this planter is made even more special with a circular ground pattern and a wooden plank path leading right to it. What a charming detail!
Here, a whole row of planters defines a feature wall that’s covered in pretty green vines. These can be so useful when you want to create a living focal point.
Just look at this trellis covered with a climbing ‘New Dawn’ rose. It’s the perfect accent for an entrance, creating a stunning natural arch. Paired with those neutral curtains, it looks absolutely fantastic.
A focal point always draws your eye, so sculptures make for perfect centerpieces. They bring so much drama to the decor, the rest of the space can be virtually empty.
You can also use things like boulders, mirrors, and water features. Even though they’re more common, they command attention just enough to become a beautiful focal point.
Simple & Chic Landscapes
A minimal landscape doesn’t have to mean a waterless one. If you want a livelier feel, go for ornamental grasses like mondo, feather reed grass, maiden grass, pampas grass, or rush.
You can still have a low-maintenance garden if that’s what you want.
As you can see, alliums work so well in a small, minimal garden with ornamental grasses, like in this design from KUBE Architecture.
Decorative accents really stand out in a minimal landscape. Intricate fire pits, statement planters, and clever lighting can make even the most modest backyard look spectacular.
You can also use bright blooms to make a statement. Flowers like delphinium, snapdragon, red hot poker, and lupin look so graceful towering over green lawns and hedges, and they bring so much dimension to leveled landscape designs.
Smart & Functional Spaces
To get a really functional landscape, careful planning is a must. You have to leave enough room for the actual plants while also fitting in a dining table or a terrace.
YAMAMAR Design Architects did such a great job making the most of a small backyard to create a terrace with a built-in walkway that leads to a seating area with a fire pit.
On either side of the path, there’s another seating spot and a dining table. The green part of the landscape is pretty small, just two steps leading to a gravel patio.
And even though ornamental grass is used sparingly, it still gives the whole backyard a desert-like feel.
A rooftop garden might be a totally different ballgame, but the same landscaping rules apply. You divide the space into zones to give each area its own purpose. And you create a focal point to tie the whole design together.
The Sydney rooftop garden by Secret Gardens is an absolute showstopper. Its circular lawn gives you enough space for lounging or walking around, while the hedges provide a beautiful design element.
So many of these landscape ideas are things you can do yourself. All it takes is a vision and a little effort to make it a reality.
You can cut down on costs by reusing old furniture or creating your own planters. And you can always ask your friends or neighbors for plant seeds and sprouts from their own gardens.
Gorgeous Ground Covers
In any landscape, you can pick between paving and ground cover, but the possibilities are truly endless. Ground covers are not just limited to grass!
And pavers come in such a huge variety of materials and finishes that you could spend months just deciding on one.
We love this blooming patio that was planted with lilac Mazus reptans in A Charlotte Garden. It looks so lively and completely adorable.
Ground cover can look so different. Gravel is super popular because it’s so easy to use and needs almost no maintenance. You can also use bark chippings or patches of grass to accent your pathways.
If you’re going for a more meadowy look, there are some great alternatives to grass, like clover, moss, liriope, and dwarf myrtle. You can use them as ground cover or to decorate a pathway.
A great way to bring detail to your lawn or garden is to break it up into a pattern. It looks so contemporary and unique.
Zeterre Landscape Architecture did exactly that, creating a stark contrast between a white paver material and the juicy green grass.
Grass is still super popular as a ground cover. But it’s so much easier to care for when it’s used sparingly. Plus, it leaves some room for creativity.
Modern linear designs are really popular, not just because they bring something new to the garden but also because they take so little time and effort.
You don’t have to be exact, though. If you prefer a more relaxed vibe, you can use different-sized stepping stones and grass to add some dynamic energy to your lawn and paths.
Adding a Water Feature
Is any outdoor space really complete without a water feature? I don’t think so! It can be the tiniest fountain or water bowl, but it will still make an impact and decorate the space.
Not many water features can compete with ponds when it comes to natural beauty. Partially covered with surrounding plants, they can be a home for fish or lilies. You could even use them for swimming! Ponds are just perfect water features.
Swimming pools can be landscaped beautifully too. Janice Parker shows how to do it right with privacy bush blooms set against a green backdrop of more privacy bushes.
An adjacent lawn has stepping stones to give a soft walkway, which is a nice alternative to the tiled path next to a gravel patio. I can just imagine how those little gravel stones could spread and dig into your feet after a nice swim.
Even though they’re less functional, fountains are so loved for their gurgling sound and beautiful designs. Since being outdoors isn’t just a visual experience, why not add the calming sound of flowing water as a lovely audio effect?
Effortless Waterless Gardens
Do weeding and watering give you a headache? Waterless designs are the newest trend in landscaping. You can forget about lawn mowing or any of that maintenance.
A waterless garden is made up of drought-resistant plants and decorative touches like boulders and river rocks, steps, and stylish, minimal borders.
Combining multi-level landscaping with waterless trends is a fantastic way to use your outdoor space without having to do all the work. Multi-level designs work so well not only for small yards but also for hills.
If your house is on a hill, it is just begging for a multi-level landscape design. This can be done with statement planters or in a more natural way, like in the work by Karen Fabian Designs.
Low maintenance is one of the biggest perks of a waterless yard. It also looks so stylish and can be super versatile since most of the ground space is paved. You can use it for a patio, a play area for the kids, or any other feature you’ve been dreaming about.
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 with some outdoor backlighting.
Assemblage Studio used drought-resistant plants to create patterns that match the facade of The Tresarca House. So unusual, cool, and easy to take care of!
