A natural garden reflects the natural landscape which surrounds it, while it’s that the prairies of the Midwest, the woods of New England, the areas of wildflowers in Texas or the starkly beautiful deserts of the Southwest. Natural gardens are not formal; rather they comprise free-form plantings and gentle edges. Pathways meander through the space, sitting areas appear unexpectedly and havens are all supplied for birds and animals.
Natural landscapes may be simple to maintain; you should not worry about letting plants grow as they need, and weeds may turn into precious garden resources. But it can be easy to allow these landscapes get out of control. If you would like to reflect the landscape instead of let it take over your lawn, you will still need to do some cutting and trimming back. It will just be a whole lot less work than using a formal garden.
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC
A side yard full of grasses, annuals, perennials and shrubs softens the rigid lines of the house. A gravel trail is less formal and more naturelike than brick or flagstone.
RTA Studio Residential Architects
It is the return of the prairie as coneflowers and black-eyed Susans fill an Ohio lawn. These native Midwest perennials combine perfectly with other preferred perennials and shrubs and will disperse, though not too quickly, such as an easy-care yet colorful garden. As a bonus, they ensure the space will be full of birds, bees and butterflies all summer long.
Shirley Bovshow
Native plants mix with Mediterranean imports in a Central California garden. Since both thrive in exactly the very same circumstances, they work well together; most individuals would be hard pressed to know which is which. The outcome is an easy-care garden that’s colorful without demanding too much water. The color of the decomposed granite walkway echoes the colors of the trails in the surrounding mountains.
Shades Of Green Landscape Architecture
You may not have a huge lawn, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t possess a meadow view. No-mow and low-mow blossoms are designed to clump softly in waves, like those located in a wide expanse of open grasses, though I have heard them described as looking like the sea or hair. Think four times a year rather than two times every week for mowing, and these grasses are generally drought tolerant. Low care and organic?
At the border of a Colorado mountain garden, penstemons and sedums take center stage. In the higher mountain elevations, plants have been tucked to the available soil, typically between trees and rocks, instead of being densely packed just like in the more open prairie spaces. This landscape follows the same approach. The garden blends into the scene, instead of competing with it.
Tip: Plant more formal and nonnative plants close to the house, as was done here, and utilize the natives onto the garden edges as a transition into the natural landscape outside.
Rebekah Zaveloff | KitchenLab
Where a conventional garden plan would comprise neatly organized plants grouped by elevation in the bed near the porch, this Michigan garden combines a range of blossoms and plants in an equally combined collection of sizes which functions perfectly using a farmhouse-style house.
Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture
A Southwestern-style house is matched with a Southwestern-style garden. The plants match perfectly with the house style in addition to with all the gardening requirements. A typical front lawn wouldn’t be as effective visually, plus much more work.
Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture
There is more character than lawn in this Wine Country garden. The space benefit from the perspective, whether someone is relaxing, swimming or grilling pool. At exactly the same time, as it is put into the hillside and has stonework which matches with the surrounding landscape, then you might not even notice it until you’re directly at the top of it.
Natalie Myers
The High Line, a converted elevated railroad track in New York City, is planted with natives along the walkway. The outcome is an easy-care space, but it had been achieved after carefully considering plant positioning so the plants would grow naturally yet not overrun the beds and the walkway.
Tip: Adding a planting bed in front of a possibly dangerous edge, such as the fence line here, then planting it solidly, helps produce a subtle physical barrier. You may not have a drop-off, however exactly the same thought would work along the border of the lawn, motivating people to use the pathways instead of tromp across the lawn.
Randy Thueme Design Inc. – Landscape Architecture
A mass planting of blossoms flanking an irregular walkway fills a long space. It reminds me of walking to the beach, but with a far more intriguing boardwalk than you will see at most public parks.
Randy Thueme Design Inc. – Landscape Architecture
A gentle path through grasses and trees contributes to a sitting area. It is about as straightforward as it can be, yet it is highly effective.
Gates & Croft Horticultural Layout
A water feature is always welcome in any garden. Maintain it sense natural by landscaping the edges to replicate what you’d find beyond the garden confines. Instead of a necklace of coordinated stones around the whole pool that’s just one thickness, create a beach at one end and slope down the sides from the border (too good for helping pets escape the water if they’re not pond savvy; not so good for maintaining other critters out). Very big, flat stones of varying peaks provide areas to sit and keep the edges from appearing too regimented.
Tip: Construct a bit of a raised bed or a mound to a side of the pond. Water flows into the bottom place, so a little rise will to make the pool look like it was meant to be there.
Ron Herman Landscape Architect
A field of wildflowers is perhaps the epitome of a organic garden. They may be overpowering next to the house, but in case you’ve got a sizable estate, a difficult-to-landscape hillside or only a big empty lot in your sight line, consider sprinkling some seeds and seeing what’s up.
Tip: When placing a large number of perennials, annuals or bulbs, then scatter the seeds in drifts to mimic how they develop in character.
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC
In case you have space to spare, have a cue from this beautiful case and combine your garden with all the surrounding landscape. In this Maine garden, the goal was to revive the native plant and eliminate a lot of the expanse of lawn. The lawn is still there, however it is not the principal focus. Instead, it mixes into the space, and the perennials and shrubs, along with the organic grasses, take center stage.
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC
The garden’s edge is slow. Instead of an abrupt conclusion of lawn, casually (but wholeheartedly) placed shrubs signal the boundaries of the garden.
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC
A route through this meadow enables access without disrupting the opinion of these grasses.
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More Lay of the Landscape:
Traditional Garden Design