How To Achieve a Sleek, Contemporary Garden Look

If your garden is looking a little ramshackle, or is simply old and tired, then you may be considering giving your outside space a more contemporary feel with a sleek new upgrade. Here are some simple tips to help you stay on the right track and create the contemporary garden of your dreams:

Pare Down Colour Choices

It is an oft repeated garden design adage of recent years that you should stick to two or three colours in your garden, both for the planting and the backdrop for the plants. Unlike, say, a cottage garden look, which embraces colours, a contemporary garden is more selective, taking a few different colours and textures and playing with them in interesting ways. Green and white are a good place to start for a classic, contemporary design – perhaps with purple, or yellow, bringing out certain features around the garden.

Use Order and Symmetry

In a contemporary garden, sleek shapes, straight lines, crisp edges and strong contrasts are the order of the day. Order and symmetry (or a deliberate and planned a-symmetry) will play their part in making the garden feel more contemporary and up to date. Think crisp-edged paths, beds and borders, industrial looking/sleek raised beds and seating features and clean and orderly backdrops for your planting, such as a white-painted wall or fence.

Contrast Order with Loose, Flowing Planting

All of that order and those clean lines stands in sharp contrast to the planting in many contemporary gardens. Crisp, clean lines and pared down colour schemes often stand in stark contrast to the flowing, billowing, organic planting schemes often used in contemporary gardens. The movement of, for example, prairie style planting, in the breeze will soften the lines of what could be an austere environment in a contemporary garden and bring it to life. More is often more when it comes to planting in contemporary gardens and beds and borders are often crammed to bursting, but still the overall effect is often extremely calming.

Less Is More When It Comes to Finishing Touches

Once the structure of your garden has come together and you have concluded the establishment of your planting scheme, be careful not to destroy the effect of your contemporary garden by overdoing it when it comes to the finishing touches such as garden furniture and ornaments. Keep things very simple and before putting anything new in your garden, really justify its place there to yourself. Contemporary style gardens give the sense that there is nothing in excess and nothing out of place. (Don't forget, however, to choose some feeders, a bird box and other wildlife friendly features for your contemporary garden. And consider a focal point for the eye to be drawn to.)

Lighting and Tech Options

No contemporary garden is quite complete without some targeted lighting, which will allow you to highlight the features you wish to see when you are enjoying your garden in the evening. Solar lighting can offer some good, environmentally friendly options. In the future, technological options to engage all the senses while using the garden are sure to become more popular, so if you want to be ahead of the curve, think of ways to make your garden part of the technological web of your home.