Garden and landscape trends for the future

The wave of greening and enhancing the surroundings about our homes is growing day by day. More people are taking measures to enhance their landscapes and creating environments to meet their family needs.

I have been a landscape designer for some 40 years and have seen a tremendous reconnection to the earth by people wanting to have their own personal statements in their landscape settings.

With homeownership at an all-time high, more people are expanding their living areas into the great outdoors.

Today some four in five American families have gardens, spending some $67 billion on gardening and landscaping services combined.

Landscaping is now the number one discretionary project for today’s new homeowners, according to one market research analysis.

The garden of today is truly becoming the “new living room.” There are certain trends in the pipeline already and more alternative approaches to enjoy one’s own backyard are on the horizon.

With time as a driving force for the busy household today, gardens are being designed and implemented with specific criteria from homeowners.

One of the first questions I ask a potential new client is, “What do you want your garden to say?”

The most common reply to that question is: colorful, low maintenance, inviting and enjoyable for the entire family.

With this information up front, an overall theme and a personality can be developed for the garden’s new landscape design.

No two gardens are alike and this brings about lots of opportunities to choose from. I endeavor to work very closely with my clients to make sure all parties are happy and satisfied.

As a landscape designer, I am also an exterior decorator, and principles of interior design are applied to the garden as well.

It’s all about rhythm, balance, form, color, texture, harmony, and the science of horticulture. One has to be an architect, engineer, artist, visionary, plantsman and a dreamer.

Here are some of the trends I have seen developing over the years and currently employ in my landscape design projects.

Simple is in

We are still in the “less is more” mode but short on time and long on ideas. Keeping gardens simple remains a driving force of today’s gardeners. But simple does not exclude a fun and enjoyable garden for the entire family to enjoy, from Mom & Dad to the kids, grandchildren, grandparents, extended family and friends.

Professional direction

Even with the vast array of plant marketing from mass retailers, one can get little valuable information of designing and developing a garden to meet your own desires and wishes from those sources. The trend is to have a garden designed professionally by one who is experienced and knowledgeable about the large array of needs in pulling a garden setting together. A garden is like a giant puzzle with multiple considerations to evaluate. There is both the hardscape and the softscape to consider. And the job of the professional is to bring these two elements together in a complimentary and harmonized design.

With today’s busy and hectic lifestyles, people are looking for gardens to be developed from inception of planning through installation and completion and onto the stewardship of the grounds.

Signature gardens

People want their gardens to reflect their personal lifestyle. Gardening in Southern California can’t get any better than this. We can enjoy so much time out in our gardens in this wonderful Mediterranean climate that one’s garden really can be a form of horticultural therapy.

There was a great landscape architect, Thomas Church, who once stated: “Gardens are for people.”

Color, color, color

With today’s lifestyles so busy and hectic, people are looking for instant impact and pleasure from their gardens. And with the surge of new and hybrid colorful annuals and perennials, the palette of choices has never been so exciting. It’s a candy store out there of beautiful plant choices. The combinations of color, texture, form and patterns make for exciting looks in the new gardens of today.

The upright garden

With some of the tract and smaller houses, space is a priority in the garden and a new vertical look is happening more and more.

Wall fountains, arbors, gazebos, trellises on walls, espalier plants — all are a new direction for smaller gardens. Beautiful small gardens can be created with niches and intimate “Secret Garden” settings. Space utilization is of prime concern with smaller building lots but is definitely possible.

Container gardening is hot

I have always used lots of assorted containers in the gardens I have designed. But never has the assortment of pots and containers been so fun to use with the art of container-gardening and new and exciting plant combinations to behold.

Clay, stoneware, ceramic, wood, metal, concrete, fiberglass — all have brought about new dimensions for the patio, front porch, or splashed about the garden setting. Don’t forget about large hanging baskets in that focal point of the garden to create drama and pizzazz.

Water gardening is cool

One of the fastest segments of gardens today is the installation of water features. Ponds, waterfalls, tubbed water plants — all have brought a new dimension into the garden and don’t have to be large.

Dry streambeds linked to a pond setting can give you the illusion of a mountain scene and be quite charming and natural.

Rock, boulders & stones

The oriental art of using boulders/rock/pebbles and sand has been around for centuries and can be a very lovely setting with the right location and collection of natural materials.

Today, there is a vast variety of wonderful natural materials coming into the garden’s landscape and it offers lots of opportunities for the new landscape. There is a resurgence of using natural flagstone, tiles and stones in paving surfaces like paths, walkways, patios, pool decking and planter walls. The choices that are available today are coming from all over the United States: east-coast blue-stone, Utah and Arizona flagstone, lichen-covered mossy rocks from Montana, San Quentin pebbles from Baja California. Even if you can’t get that huge boulder dollied into the backyard or set by a crane, there are fiberglass boulders that are so very real looking, even Aunt Mary could put one in a wheelbarrow and move it into the landscape. Go, Aunt Mary!

Native plant material

With the past few years of drought and low rainfall (until this current season), native plants have had an upsurge in the landscape setting. A blending of native and drought-tolerant plants has been building each year. With the recent firestorms of the last few years, fire-resistant plants have entered the arena of the garden. There is really no plant that will not burn under the right intensity of heat and flame. But the use of low fuel plants that don’t produce a lot of twiggy and dry foliage or fuel is being incorporated for firescaping.

You should check out the firescape demonstration garden at the Los Jilqueros Preserve in Fallbrook, on the north end of the preserve.

Interior planting

When decorating the interior of your home, don’t forget about the great interior plants dotted around in every room. House plants bring about so much charm and charisma to the home and the choices today are great and getting grander. The use of interior Palms, Dracaenas, Philodendrons, Sanserveria, Bromeliads, Orchids, and Ferns, will bring about good karma to your home and they are great for helping the cleaning of the interior air. Plants are a wonderful natural air-purifier.

Interior-scaping is an art and consult a professional to assist you in the selection of containers and plants in the right area. It always boils down to the right plant in the right place, be it interior or exterior landscaping.

Retrofitting that ’50s pool

Refurbishing existing gardens is a great way to bring about a new and handsome landscape. If you have an old kidney-shaped pool of the ’50s or ’60s, consider a make-over. New stone copings around the pool and an added spa with cascading waterfall into the pool can bring about a complete new look. Big pots around the pool filled with exotics and tropical plants can bring about that special new and fresh look. New skins for the pool decking can also create a tremendous fresh personality to that old-fashioned appearance.

You can link the outdoor pool areas or garden to the patio and into the house with transitional design of plants/color/and various appointments.

Decorating the garden these days is part of the magic and the charm that can set your garden aside from others.

You can have a canvas cabana around the pool area. Whole cooking areas or islands can be designed with BBQs, smokers, refrigerators and sinks with cold and hot water. Outdoor fireplaces along with pizza ovens are now in vogue. Fountains with a vast array of designs from classical to contemporary and modern might be just what that corner of your garden needs.

Garden furnishings have never been so exciting with the choices that are available today. The blending of outside and inside furniture has taken on a new horizon in total decorating. I work with a lot of interior decorators and we are having a grand time in the blending of inside to outside. It’s a new horizon for the garden. Hooray, I say.

Wooden gazebo garden houses or a hidden twig-hut tucked into that shady corner might just fit the bill for you. Garden studios or a “casita” (office off the main house) are the rage right now. This is a space where more and more professional people are doing their business without having to get into the current unbearable commute, and with the Net to the world it’s at your fingertips.

Statuary can also set a mood or theme. Wind chimes, bird-feeders and sundials are just a few of these finishing appointments that will set a mood.

Low voltage night lighting for the garden can bring about a truly wonderful and new nocturnal enjoyment. This type of system can be on a time clock and can be automated to your setting of a dial.

These are just a few of the wonderful ways that a garden can be your special Shangri-la. Think outside of the box and allow yourself to create a special place to call home out in the garden. It’s all do-able.

So if you are entertaining the idea of a new garden or a retrofit of an existing garden, “plan before you plant.”

“He who makes a garden brings happiness for others to enjoy.”

Roger Boddaert is a maker of natural gardens, landscape designer and consultant who resides in Fallbrook.