New landscape design ideas

Landscape Design - Residential Landscaping Ideas

Transform your backyard or front yard design with these residential landscaping ideas, tips, and projects Updated 3/23/22

Updating your home’s landscaping is a great way to increase the value of your property and create outdoor spaces for relaxing and entertaining. Whether you want to focus on increasing your curb appeal with a reimagined front yard, create a backyard retreat with dining and entertaining areas, or both, there are many options and features to consider. Use the information below to start determining what you want in your new landscape.

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On this page:

LANDSCAPE DESIGN BASICS
EXPLORE LANDSCAPE DESIGN STYLES
HOW TO GET STARTED DESIGNING YOUR LANDSCAPE

LANDSCAPE DESIGN BASICS

Landscape Design Pictures

From urban gardens to expansive estates, browse hundreds of inspiring landscapes.

Landscape Design Principles

Eight rules for creating a residential garden that is neither fussy nor constraining.

Trends for 2023

Discover important trends shaping the gardening world in 2023 and beyond.

Backyard Landscape Ideas

See how gardeners around the country have landscaped their backyards both big and small.

Front Yard Landscape Ideas

See what gardeners around the country have done with their front yard landscapes.

Side Yard Ideas & Landscaping

Untap the potential of this overlooked space.

Hillside Landscaping

Learn how to upgrade a slope with these ideas and tips.

Designing Outdoor Living Spaces

Expert advice for creating an outdoor living area you’ll love.

Landscape Design Tips

Enhance your garden with these design tips, tricks, and techniques.

Planting Ideas

Tips for selecting plants with purpose that have captivating foliage, flowers, and fragrance.

Expert Design Advice

Four different designers in four different climates share what they learned while creating their own home gardens.

Garden Color Schemes

How to use color artfully, creatively and accidentally in the garden.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN STYLES

Garden Styles

From classic to modern, get inspiration and learn about the various landscape styles.

Small Yards

See how gardeners around the country have created wonderful small yards.

Shade Gardens

Lighten up a shady garden with a well-thought-out design and carefully selected plants.

Rock Garden Design

Enhance your landscape with this low-maintenance solution.

Zen Garden Design

How to design a space for quiet contemplation with your own backyard Zen garden.

Moon Garden Design

Extend your time outdoors with a nighttime white garden oasis.

Meadow Garden Design

Design a landscape that mimics ecosystems found in nature.

Cottage Garden Design

Here are 7 tips to create your own cottage garden.

Rain Garden Landscaping

Well-designed rain gardens are not only good for the earth, but good-looking as well.

Privacy Landscaping Design

Learn how to make your yard more private with these options.

Butterfly Garden Design

Plant a butterfly garden to attract these beneficial insects to your yard.

Explore Regional Gardens

From coast to coast, discover inspiring gardens from our archives.

Drought-Tolerant Landscaping

Create a water-wise landscape to reduce usage and cut down on your water bill.

Vertical Gardening

Use vertical options to grow more in less space.

Sensory Garden

How to design a sensory garden to appeal to all five of your senses.

Mediterranean Landscape Design

Even if you don’t live in a dry climate, you can still achieve the Mediterranean look.

Tropical Garden Design

Ideas for creating a tropical garden that evokes the beauty and serenity of far-off destinations.

HOW DO I DESIGN MY OWN LANDSCAPE?

Before you start digging, you’ll need to have a plan in mind. Start with these 4 steps:

Outline: Start with a rough sketch of your property or area to be worked on. This doesn’t have to be to scale at this point, but should include any permanent features such as your house, shed, large trees or shrubs that are staying in place, areas that are currently paved, patios, pools, etc.
Measure: Take that rough sketch outside and measure everything. Note the measurements on the sketch. Note where windows and doors are for views and traffic patterns, and also where water faucets and electrical outlets are.
Transfer: Transfer your property map to graph paper and draw to scale; this will become your master copy. Make note of sun and shade patterns, wind-prone areas, slopes, etc.
Trace: Use tracing paper over the top of your master copy and begin experimenting with designs.

Is there an app for landscape design?

If you’d like to try your hand at designing your own landscape there are landscapde design sorftware programs and design apps that can help you, such as Home Outside, iScape, Landscaper’s Companion, and many more. Home Outside offers upgraded services from phone/video consultations with professional landscape designers to complete designs done remotely.

How much does it cost to get a landscape design?

As with most home improvement projects, the price can vary greatly depending on the size and scope of the project. Homeowners can expect to pay $2000 to $8000 for a professional landscape design to be drafted for their property. As a general rule, homeowners spend approximately 10% of their home’s value on landscaping.

8 Landscape Design Principles | Garden Design

Eight rules for creating a satisfying garden that is neither fussy nor constraining By Rob Steiner

Illustration by David Despau.

Table of Contents

Obey the "law" of significant enclosure
Follow the regulating line
Use the Golden Rectangle to get proportions right
Turn to Thomas D. Church when designing steps
Size matters
Plant big to small
Plant in masses
Remember this above all

It’s tempting, in a field as subjective as garden design, to feel that rules do not apply. However, after 28 years and hundreds of projects later, I’ve come to believe in certain rules and guidelines that are neither fussy nor constraining. All have proven invaluable to me over my years of garden-making. Applied by any gardener, amateur or professional, they will result in a more successful, satisfying design.

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Let’s start with two rules that can kick-start the process of laying out a landscape, then move on to guidelines that help in scaling the proportions of a garden’s elements and, finally, to choosing and using the right plants.

01: OBEY THE "LAW" OF SIGNIFICANT ENCLOSURE

Yes, this one’s a “law,” not just a rule! It addresses the root meaning of garden, which is “enclosure.” This, to me, is absolutely critical in creating a sense of refuge and of feeling oneself within nature’s embrace. The law of significant enclosure says that we feel enclosed when the vertical edge of a space is at least one-third the length of the horizontal space we’re inhabiting. Probably derived from behavioral psychology studies, this rule came to me from a professor in graduate school, and it was one of the best things I learned.

Just yesterday, as I was starting the design of a patio that I wanted to separate from an adjacent play area, it gave me instant guidance for how tall a hedge I would need: the area was 17 feet wide, and so my hedge should be at least 6 feet. Sit near a tree in the park, or a wall, and gradually edge away, and you’ll see how it works. Of course, there are times when the point of a landscape design is a monumental sense of scale or view, but the best gardens, whatever their size, modulate a feeling of enclosure and openness, and this rule will help.

On this project in Pacific Palisades, CA, an existing and overgrown row of ficus was reduced by half knowing it would still more than adequately enclose the patio. Illustration by David Despau.

02: FOLLOW THE REGULATING LINE

My formal architectural education also introduced me to the concept of the “regulating line. ” The idea is that an element of architecture (for example, a doorway, or a building edge, even a window mullion) or a distinctive landscape feature (prominent tree, existing pool, property boundary) can “generate” an imaginary line that helps connect and organize the design. For example, in laying out one backyard, I projected the lines of its building addition into the garden space and then aligned the swimming pool and wooden walkway with those lines. The result is orderly and cohesive, even after being softened with planting. “A regulating line,” wrote the great architect (and theoretician) Le Corbusier, “is an assurance against capriciousness…It confers on the work the quality of rhythm…The choice of a regulating line fixes the fundamental geometry of the work....”

The decking on a different project in Pacific Palisades, CA, creates a regulating line that is parallel to the plane create by the gray wall of the house in the upper right of the image. Another regulating line is created by the edge of the pool running parallel to the glass window on the home. These lines intersect at the base of the tree. Illustration by David Despau.

Le Corbusier hits on the two aspects (a bit paradoxical, perhaps) that make the regulating line so valuable. First is the idea of underlying order: that the garden, for all its naturalness, or wildness, is founded on strong principles—what’s sometimes known in garden circles as “good bones.” Second, that regulating lines—at least as I employ them—are subjective; it’s the designer who identifies and manipulates them to create the garden. And I’d say that the use of the regulating line, more than any other concept, separates professional from amateur design.

03: USE THE GOLDEN RECTANGLE TO GET PROPORTIONS RIGHT

Certain rules help us refine design. One is the Golden Ratio which is a ratio of proportion that’s been observed in everything from the Great Pyramids at Giza to the Greek Parthenon and has been used throughout history as a guide to a pleasing sense of balance and order. The practical application that I make of the Golden Ratio involves its sibling, the Golden Rectangle, in which the ratio of the short side to the long side is equal to the ratio of the long side to the sum of both sides (a/b = b/a+b)—you probably didn’t know that landscape architects had to learn math. Numerically, the Golden Rectangle ratio is close to 1: 1.6, a proportion I regularly use to lay out terraces, patios, arbors, and lawns. The raised beds in my vegetable garden are 5 by 8 feet. It’s a rectangular proportion that always looks good—they don’t call it golden for nothing!

Raised planters in my garden follow the Golden Rectangle. Note, too, the significant enclosure provided by the Eugenia hedge. Illustration by David Despau.

04: TURN TO THOMAS D. CHURCH WHEN DESIGNING STEPS

Another ratio may even be platinum: That’s what I’ve always called the rule for step design advocated by landscape architect Thomas D. Church, often credited with creating the California style. Laid out in his seminal work Gardens Are for People, it says simply that twice the height of the riser plus the tread should equal 26 inches. That means that if the riser is 5 inches, the tread (what you walk on) should be 16 inches. All I can say is that the rule is true, and I’ve used it from steep canyon faces to gentle changes of patio levels. A useful corollary states that 5 feet is the minimum width for two people climbing steps side by side.

At this Mediterranean inspired garden in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, the tile-faced steps follow Church’s ratio. Illustration by David Despau.

05: SIZE MATTERS

A final rule related to scale and the sculpting of space is this: Go big. Faced with a decision to make a staircase wider or narrower, a pool longer or shorter, a pergola higher or lower, the answer is almost always the former. In my own garden, I remember laying out an arbor, with its posts 10 feet high, and listening to trusted friends wondering whether it wasn’t “a little too tall.” Thankfully I stuck to my guns, and some 18 years later, wreathed in wisteria and anchored at the ground by clusters of pots, the arbor seems just right.

At ten feet, this arbor in my garden allows for hanging and surrounding foliage to intertwine and connect the arbor to the space without infringing on the sense of space. Illustration by David Despau.

06: PLANT BIG TO SMALL

It’s with plants, probably more than any other element of gardens, that the infinite variation and fickleness of nature is most evident—and so perhaps, they are the trickiest to prescribe rules for. And yet, successful planting is the crowning touch of a garden. Three rules have always served me well.

The big palms on this Mediterranean project were already on the property; the pepper tree followed. Then the hedges and vines were installed. Only after all this were the perennials and containers planted. Illustration by David Despau.

First, is to plant big to small: start with trees, then shrubs, then perennials, then ground cover. This is important not only in a compositional way (seeing the bigger forms first gives a better sense of the overall structure), but in a completely practical sense. Setting a big tree may require machinery or at least multiple gardeners and ample space for maneuvering and stationing amendments and soils; it would be sad to damage or undo some newly planted bed. This seems so obvious, but for lots of gardeners (the author included) a block of fresh perennials may be impossible to avoid planting right away. Be strong; resist the temptation.

07: PLANT IN MASSES

While there is much to be said for the cottage garden, with a rich array of varied planting (indeed, it’s the real master gardener who can pull this off), there is a power to seeing a quantity of one plant that is genuinely affecting. Russell Page, one of the great twentieth-century landscape designers said it well: “the most striking and satisfying visual pleasure comes from the repetition or the massing of one simple element. Imagine the Parthenon with each column a different kind of marble!”

Ornamental grasses, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ and Sesleria autumnalis flank a garden boardwalk in Pacific Palisades, CA. Using drifts on both sides of the walk reinforces a sense of mass planting. Illustration by David Despau.

I remember as a beginning garden designer in California being taken aside by my mentor, a transplanted Englishwoman who owned the nursery, walking through a vast block of salvia, and being told that I could, if I liked, use 30 of them—not the three or five I’d typically been planting. It was a liberating moment.

08: REMEMBER THIS ABOVE ALL

Maybe my favorite rule of all time, all the more charming for its need to be adjusted for inflation: It’s better to plant a 50-cent plant in a $5 hole, than a $5 plant in a 50-cent hole. Imparted by Ralph Snodsmith, my first official gardening teacher at the New York Botanical Garden and talk radio host (a character whose working uniform was always a forest green three-piece suit), there is no greater planting wisdom. No matter how brilliant a plan one conceives, if the plants are not well planted—at the right height, in a sufficiently sized, and properly amended pit—the results will likely be poor. Some rules just can’t be broken.

On yet another project in Pacific Palisades, CA, I planted a Brugmansia versicolor (angel's trumpet). This plant had been banging around in the back of my truck for weeks so I asked the client if they wanted it. With a well-dug and amended hole, it flourished. Illustration by David Despau.

ABOUT THE AUTHORGardens are such personal and individual expressions that the very idea that there is a “way” to create one seems almost insane. And the range of prescriptions about how it should be done—from conventional wisdom such as planting tall plants in the back of the border and short ones in front, to the ironclad strictures of codes, covenants, and restrictions—will stir the rebel impulse in any creative soul. Faced with a building code that dictates a 42-inch limit on planting, I will make it a point of honor to go higher. I am all for a healthy anarchistic impulse in the garden.

But I am also formally trained, the product of a prestigious East Coast graduate landscape architecture program—deemed ready to design gardens when I moved west to Los Angeles to begin my career. In fact, as I see it now, I knew only a few things then, and those in a largely theoretical way. What’s more, my knowledge was to be tested and often subverted in my new environment. Everything was different: plants, climate, construction technologies—everything. The first time I saw eucalyptus trees hacked into coat-racks of stubs and stumps, I remember thinking “maybe that’s how they’re supposed to be pruned.” (I got that sorted pretty quickly.) It was some years later—working first in a large office, then in a wonderful nursery where I got an intensive course in appropriate planting for Southern California—that I migrated towards residential garden design. There, personal involvement seemed the highest, and the experience of landscape the most intimate—just the thing that had drawn me to the field in the first place.

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Read about five more landscape design rules on LandscapingNetwork.com.

This article, adapted for the web, originally appeared in the Early Spring 2015 issue of Garden Design Magazine under the title "Rules of the Game."

Fresh 20 landscape design ideas for inspiration

There are never too many ideas for giving, I myself am convinced of this every day, and the examples of my girlfriends testify to this. You can even go online every day and you will be presented with more and more new options for arranging a summer cottage or landscaping a private house.

In addition, every year thousands of residents of our country equip their plots and share photos of the results of their own efforts. There are more and more landscape designers every year, and their professionalism is also developing. New trends are coming that can be put into practice. nine0003

The idea of organizing the space in front of the house, this is the suburbs. Let's walk around this beautiful area for a bit.

Another view of this space. I am very pleased that our, domestic specialists are now creating worthy, at the world level, projects.

An example of a walkway and fence. Ornamental shrubs. lawn, lanterns, stone path.

My favorite conifers, planted in groups, visually divide the space. creating separate compositional areas. nine0003

There was also a place for a rockery on the site, in the center of which a decorative pine tree was planted. A little further away is a place to rest with a bench. Pay attention also to the fence - it is made in two boards with an offset - a very beautiful solution for fencing.

Separately, I want to note the idea of such a solution with stone and gravel backfill. This is already beautiful in itself, in this composition either a small decorative leafy bush or a short conifer will look great.

Original design ideas for a private house in the Czech Republic - the owner of the site, in all likelihood, is very fond of topiary art, since most of his trees are neatly trimmed.

The idea of paths and rockeries on the site in front of the house from the St. Petersburg landscape design studio Sakura.

Beautiful idea for a flower planting in a round flower bed under a tree.

Home design idea - the space between the walkway and the wall looks amazing!

The idea of a semi-circular flower bed near the house with a central accent in the form of a beautiful hydrangea. nine0003

Today, by chance, I have more conifers in my collection of country design ideas, probably due to the fact that they are evergreen, therefore, even in winter, there will be pleasant greenery on the site.

The idea of a winding path with a beautiful combination of paving stones and bush plantings.

By the way, if you decide to plant arborvitae under the windows, then pay attention to the fact that with age these plants can block the view, so plant low-growing varieties directly under the windows, and plant tall, columnar varieties between the windows. nine0003

The idea of a magnificent flower bed under the windows, the principle of layering is clearly visible here, the plants are well located in height. Mulching with stained wood chips to match the soil color eliminates weeds.

Nice rockery idea in front of the entrance to the house. The combination of hostas and conifers, in my opinion, is great, however, it should be borne in mind that this is the western side and hostas are in the shade most of the time, as these are shade-loving plants.

A wonderful idea of landscape design from the Sergeyevs workshop, again, our compatriots. I think that we can already talk about the formation of the Russian direction, of course, everything is just beginning, then every year it will get better and better. nine0003

I hope you got some fresh ideas from today's selection. I will be glad for your comments, reposts, as well as links to your country ideas, throw them in the comments, I will be happy to share them with subscribers in the future.

10 simple ideas that will turn your garden into a masterpiece of landscape design

A wonderful collection of various conifers can become a hallmark of your garden. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

To update a garden, it is not at all necessary to make cardinal changes; Such an important mission can be entrusted to garden structures, original lamps, unusual garden furniture, thoughtful group plantings, or even separate corners like a rock garden or a moss garden. And of course -
spectacular plants: flowering perennials, trees with an unusual crown shape and bright shrubs. nine0003

On the "brutal" section of the garden, decorated with stones, bright flowers are an effective accent. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

The role of accents is not only to draw attention to the garden. Bright details can also solve other important problems of site design: zoning the space, adding color nuances, emphasizing the originality of the relief and interesting architectural solutions. And successfully mask the flaws!

Green garden sculptures are the result of years of hard work. But if you're patient enough, it's worth a try! Photo: ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

Garden accents is an incredibly fun game that allows you to express your individuality and realize your creative fantasies.

Garden accents should be clearly visible and not necessarily proportionate to the area being decorated. But do not get carried away by their number.

The main advantage of accents is variety: you can change them and arrange them in new ways. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru

Remember, the main thing is a good idea; of course, “inventing” it is more difficult than following the canons, but in this case, you create the canons! It’s easy to feel “your theme”: we all subconsciously gravitate towards certain “landscapes”, you just need to catch your own mood and “decorate” it with plants and objects. nine0003

When placing accents in the garden, follow the rule: they will be more appropriate where they are most visible. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

On the site, no matter how big or small, there should not be more than four or five, but better than one or three accents. Moreover, the size of these elements should not be proportional to the size of the plot: it is more appropriate to create a large accent on a very small area, otherwise the garden will look “flat”. And in the overwhelming majority of cases, the accent is quite noticeable, and not a miniature detail. Place the accent where it will stand out. For example, against the background of a gazebo or flower garden, on the border of the garden area or on the front lawn, which is visible from all points of the garden. nine0003

Photo: ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

Exhibits of the garden "opening day" - mosses and succulents. Enclose them in beautiful frames, and they will resemble the works of great painters. Photo: ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

There are three main principles for this: similarity, contrast and expressiveness. For example, using similarity, you can make a beautiful bend of the path more expressive by duplicating it with a chain of garden lamps. Or emphasize the round shape of the flower garden by including a spherical thuja in addition to flowers. As for the contrast, shade the textured, “monumental” plant with plantings of graceful cereals. Well, an expressive, original large container with flowers will emphasize any part of the garden. nine0003

Stylistic dominants are very different. The main thing is to stick to one direction.

Mirror imitating a small window breaks through the plane of the wall, complicating the space. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

Variants of plant accents

1. Single plant

The design of the garden is favorably emphasized by a beautiful conifer, curly trimmed shrub, interestingly shaped tree - weeping birch or goat willow. Even the common castor bean, which is often called the baobab near Moscow, is suitable for this role. nine0003

Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

Any plant is suitable for the role of an accent, if it differs in originality - it has a non-standard crown shape, spectacular shape or color of the leaves. Sometimes there are unexpected, even curious options - for example, an ordinary plantain, resembling a hosta in size, can act as an accent if you choose the right place for it.

Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

2. Group plantings

Nearly black pansy flower bed with mirror ball companion; groundcover rose bush with bright red flowers against the background of a stone obelisk... All these compositions can make a garden at least unusual. Another option: create a flower bed-basket of green-flowered gladioli or a "flower garden" where lettuces or ornamental cabbage live. To draw attention to the flower arrangement, tie it with a satin ribbon.

Plants with colorful foliage can be used as accents. Or large clay pots. In this case, they are an integral part of a mini-waterfall. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

An accent in the form of a garden of mosses or stones, a small rock garden will not go unnoticed.

3. Garden collection

Enthusiastic flower growers who do not recognize sculptures or figurines on their plot should create a “fashion collection”. Choose what you like: alpine plants, miniature conifers, giant dahlias or rare varieties of tulips, and form spectacular flower beds out of them. This will be your main theme in the garden.

Another option is to dedicate your garden to a particular plant. For example, roses: cover the gazebo and garden mesh screen with climbing roses, plant miniature and ground cover varieties on the alpine hill, and decorate the front part of the plot with bush ones. An appropriate accent for the rock garden will be a magnificent standard rose, the tenderness of which will be shaded by a clearing of white gravel. The role of sculptures can be played by individual trees and shrubs. nine0003

Any plant that has a spectacular crown, color or shape of leaves and flowers can become a real decoration of your garden. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

7 more ideas for garden accents

Beautiful large stones, boulders are best - a stylish accent, especially if they have an interesting shape and unusual color. Such "cobblestones" can be varnished to create a "wet" effect, or they can be painted and painted.
A decorative wicket gate can be crafted from an underframe lattice from an old sewing machine.
Floral sundial is a fashionable novelty that will be out of competition.
A giant container in the form of an ordinary terracotta pot impresses with a combination of a familiar shape, but an unusual size.
From sea pebbles you can build small three-dimensional sculptures: an apple, a fungus and even a “toy” castle – you will get a real work of art!

A pyramid of carefully stacked stones is a frequent attribute of rocky beaches. In the garden, this element will also be appropriate. Photo: living4media/Fotodom.ru; ShutterStock/Fotodom.ru

Any woman knows how important the right jewelry is for a particular outfit. They can make a little black dress (and by extension you) irresistible or kill all its elegance.