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While a minimalistic approach to landscaping has dominated backyards for a decade or more, today’s homeowners are starting to favor more nature-based outdoor spaces. The clean lines of high-finish concrete and metal so favored by minimalist advocates are being replaced with something softer: layered plantings, terracotta and natural stone building materials, food forests, and sustainable, climate-resilient gardens. Gardeners are still taking a conservative approach to resources, influenced by factors like climate change and updated USDA Plant Hardiness Zones, while embracing more extravagant layouts and plant choices.
This new landscaping style takes what everyone loves about minimalism — the visual calm and lack of clutter — and combines it with something more natural. Homeowners are saying goodbye to picture-perfect yards, overly manicured lawns, and clipped hedges. They are instead emphasizing warmth, wellness, and wildlife-friendly, carefree designs. The clean, sculpted look of concrete and metal outdoor features, from retaining walls to planters to paving, is fast becoming too harsh for today’s gardens. They’re being replaced by features with earthy textures and tones, organic shapes, and natural materials. Achieving a balance between beauty and practicality in your garden is the goal.
Soften concrete and metal with organic landscaping
Spartan materials like concrete and metal aren’t going away completely — they’re practical landscaping materials, after all. However, features like slick steel planters with their harsh, cold lines are less likely to dominate patios and landscapes. Instead, gardeners are integrating them into the landscape. You could, for instance, pair them with features that add warmth and texture. Fill a rusted steel raised bed with dramatic or dense plants and surround it with river stones. Grow a rambling old-fashioned rose up a white-painted metal trellis or add a rusty iron garden sculpture you found at a thrift store to a patio wall. To shift concrete from the landscaping feature your neighbors hate to something desirable, use it to create whimsical decorative stepping stones or organically curved garden walls.
If you’re a fan of outdoor minimalism, don’t worry; you don’t need to put a full-on maximalist spin on your garden. Peering into the future of landscaping trends, you’ll see we’re not completely done with some aspects of the sparse design style. For example, untamed landscaping layouts or designs that provide a practical benefit, such as better fire resistance, are all rising in popularity. They highlight a pragmatic approach to gardening that stays true to the core principles of minimalist style: using only what is necessary.
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