Elegant Functionality Landscape Design

Our Wedgewoods Siskin Landscape Design

Elegant functionality landscape design with wildlife-supporting aspects

If neat and orderly brings you peace of mind, consider a formal, yet modern, approach to your landscaping

Usually kept to a minimal colour palette without lots of contrast, an elegant functionality landscape garden used to lean heavily on the colour green, namely, a patch of lawn balanced with neat, orderly, hyper-clipped borders

Today's mid-modern hyper functional yet still elegant landscapes incorporate highly-considered hardscaping to balance the more naturalistic, biodiverse garden beds and plantings

Today's mid-modern hyper functional yet still elegant landscapes incorporate highly-considered hardscaping to balance the more naturalistic, biodiverse garden beds and plantings

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THE VIBE

Outdoor living spaces are opened up and existing features are highlighted in a subtle way that bringing balance and depth to outdoor spaces

Your idea of heavenly is a mix of neutral earthy colours & contrasting textures such as warm brick tones with crisp white stucco surfaces and grey stained wood with corten steel planters

Think long wood-meets-metal outdoor dining table able to sit 20 atop a geometric-patterned contemporary paver lined with geometric borders filled with neat lines of billowy grasses

hyper elegant functionality at its finest

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FEATURES

Materials: Refined textures such as stainless steel, smooth stone, tile and finished wood help keep the garden hardscape in line with the sleek lines of the residence. Local stone can add a natural, timeless beauty to a mid-modern yard, using geometric shapes and dividing large spaces into smaller sections to keep things dynamic

Concrete is almost always appropriate for elegant functional landscape designs, making it the go-to choice for creating a sleek look. For other hardscape materials, choose light-covered gravel to mulch bare soil, reduce weed pressure and cover paths

Planting: Use static, foundational plantings to define spaces and use uniform heights of plants for consistency. Using a single colour of ground cover or species of flowering shrub type per planted area creates order and consistency

Despite what some designers say, annuals are a complete waste of money, unless sown via seed

Save your money, and time, by finding the right ground cover, bunching grass or long-lasting perennial, preferably natives to the ecoregion, to fill in vacant spaces. These long-lasting plants when used in bulk of the same species and/or colour offer the same result but are more sustainable and less expensive & time-consuming than using annuals

Elements: Keep other hardscape elements matching and/or coordinating with the stone, paver or brick you choose for your paths and patios, and overall stick to warmer neutral tones

A favourite element for a elegant functionality rear yard is the fire pit, not only because it extends the usable seasons of your outdoor space. If it is a sculptural modern corten steel fire dish or a retro atomic-styled firepit, for example, can make a beautiful focal point if the centreline is aligned with a large picture window

Make sure to keep a width of 15 feet in all directions around the fire pit and away from any buildings for safety, and comfort

Containers: If you've always liked the look of corten steel, this is the perfect choice for your mixed modern functional and elegant landscape, combining a stronger feel with a romantic, weathered aspect

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SUMMARY

elegant and functional

Design the outdoor spaces to function properly and design them to aesthetically look like they belong to the home

Look at the details of the home to guide your landscape design; elegant-functional homes typically have at least one unique detail whether it’s the front door or the railing of a porch - use that detail in your landscape design repeatedly for cohesion

By using the materials on the house to guide your choices for the hardscape materials, whether that is limestone or basalt, brings those elements out into the landscape to create consistency

However, if you already have plenty of red brick on the home, using a contrasting material would look better than just adding more of the same red brick. It takes time, but eventually you will see how to balance the elements

Also important is to have the design of the gardens reflect the place it is located

A xeric, desert-mountain-style rock garden is not going to look realistic planted in your north-facing and shady New England backyard.

And correspondingly, a fern grove is going to look distressed and require a tremendous amount of water and rich soil if located on your arid Arizona property. Match the garden to the site

Let planted areas highlight the home and hardscapes, and soften structural elements such as windows and doorways with flowering shrubs

Look for a material (an accent not an all-over material), shape, detail or angle to repeat. Use lines of force – centerlines of windows/doors, corners of the buildings - to inform your decisions on where to locate paths and walkways

Let the design be more driven by the house close to the house. Let defined details dissolve as you get farther from the house

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For more of our Elegant Functionality Landscape Style suggestions, download our fully-detailed and specific Design Guide