The Expert Guide To Contemporary Garden Styles
What is distinct about a contemporary garden
Contemporary styles of garden design tend to create spaces that are clean, crisp and geometrically inspired. This often reflects the angularity of the associated house and uses strong blocks of planting and rectilinear ground plans (namely for the shape of paving, deck, beds or lawn areas).
Contemporary styles lend themselves to symmetrical layouts but this is not always possible in many gardens and they can work just as well playing with asymmetry in their layout and in the positioning of key features. Generally speaking though, as with most garden design, contemporary gardens tend towards greater symmetry closer to the house (becoming less formal further away from the geometry of the architecture).
Some people anticipate, when discussing such styles, that the strong lines may feel stark, but in reality strong geometry can be softened by the associated planting. This can be done by allowing plants to billow onto paved areas perhaps. Equally however, strong formal geometry can create a powerful design statement, especially when it is juxtaposed against naturalistic or more free flowing planting. For this style to work well it is particularly important to pay attention to the scale and proportion of the planted and unplanted areas (the mass and the void within the space), getting the balance right for a harmonious result.
This diversity of the style allows strong structural forms in the planting, such as topiary, to be combined with naturalistic planting styles with ease. This style therefore works well in an urban or traditional (country) setting - and can draw inspiration in its layout and choice of materials, plants and forms from the house and its interior decor; whether that inspiration creates a plan that is detailed in its execution or something much more minimalist.
So what does a contemporary or modern garden design look like?
Although Show Gardens at the RHS Shows each year, and at more local shows such as the Harrogate Flower Shows in Yorkshire, will contain a variety of garden styles most of the gardens on display will be of a contemporary style (at least this has been the case in recent years). Picking up on this style most gardening magazines also showcase contemporary styles across their pages (alongside more traditional and country gardens).
Contemporary gardens are therefore the style of the twenty-first century. Their inspiration however looks back for inspiration to the great gardens of traditional formalism (such as Versailles or other Renaissance gardens) and merges this with the modernist aesthetic of the twentieth century (drawing inspiration from, for example, Fallingwater ’s design by Frank Lloyd Wright).
A Stylistic Overview: Some Structural Highlights
Surfaces are selected for their colour and texture to create a feeling of a richness of style - limestone pavers, clay pavers, or porcelain pavers for example
Pavers are often juxtaposed against gravel, or other alternative surfaces, for visual interest
The lawn often forms an integral, ‘structural’ part of the garden; creating a void to balance the blocks of planting for example
A well designed garden considers circulation through the space - so that the visitor or gardener gets to enjoy all of the garden, being taken on a journey through different areas
Sculpture may be shown at key focal points and along sight lines; the sculptural form of multistem or clipped trees may also take the place of such sculpture, as can key water features for example
The choice of furniture should not be left to chance as the right outdoor sofa or dining table, for example, can make a huge difference to the overall look and feel
Subtle lighting - for access and spot lighting (grazing walls, plants, or features) - can help to transform how the garden is used in the evening
A Stylistic Overview: Some Planting Highlights
Layering of plants - using trees, evergreens, grasses, topiary, and perennials create interest and diversity
Clipped hedges and clipped shrub forms may form a structural backbone or skeleton - using plants such as Buxus sempervirens, Carpinus betulus, or Taxus baccata
Specimen trees create interesting focal points and interest across a variety of seasons (such as blossom, leaves, autumn colour and fruit) - for example Amelanchier x lamarkii
Bold blocks of plants compliment the structural backbone - grasses or shrubs work effectively here, such as Calamagrosis, Miscanthus, or Cornus
Evergreen plants are important so the garden looks great even in the dead of winter - this should though always be overlaid with an allowance for seasonal change though to make the most of the garden through the year
Colourful perennial plantings with bulbs underplanted create areas of colour and vibrancy through the brighter months; styles such as the New Perennial plantings, or from Mediterranean inspiration are a strong influence - use plants such as Allium spp, Anemanthele lessoniana, Astratia cvs, Eryngium cvs, Helenium cvs, Rudbeckia cvs, hardy Salvia cvs, Sedum (now known as Hylotelephium), or Veronicastrum cvs
