Your home’s exterior is its calling card, and few elements of it speak louder than the landscaping. Modern landscape trends incorporate creative gardening elements that introduce function to outdoor spaces and emphasize native components that make landscaping more sustainable than ever. These modern trends are eye-catching as well as introducing more function to your landscape than ever.

Learning more about some of the most common landscape trends can help determine which ones make the most sense for your outdoor space. While you can work with a landscape architect to bring a vision to life, you can also look around for your inspiration to make your yard aesthetically pleasing. Ultimately, implementing some of these trends can help increase your house’s overall appeal.

Bring the Indoors Out

Blurring the line between indoors and out is another way modern landscaping has become more reflective of the personality of a home and those who dwell in it. Furniture is a focal point in this trend, with ideas emphasizing the entertainment element of your yard. Enhanced outdoor spaces became common in 2020 when just about everyone was confined to their home during the height of the pandemic. Creating more interesting modern outdoor spaces allowed people to get outside in comfort and style without leaving their yards.

The trend has since persisted, especially around the patio area. The outdoor kitchen is more than just a grill in a modern landscape. It’s become much more elaborate, with high-end appliances and comfortable, colorful seating in this patio space. Add plants to a covered pergola to create privacy outdoors. Meanwhile, a stone fire pit or an outdoor fireplace brings an authentically cozy element to the modern backyard.

Modern landscaping trends focus on creating outdoor spaces that are just as comfortable and laden with amenities as those inside the house.

Make Your Landscape Work for You — Literally

One of the modern landscaping ideas that’s taken shape in recent years is the concept that your yard can bear fruit — literally. If you’re already going to devote time to caring for and maintaining a modern backyard complete with a garden, you should get something out of it. Trends in landscape design include planting vegetables and fruit so you can grow some of your own food. An herb garden is another nice touch and a commonly used trend in landscape design.

Fruit and vegetable gardens don’t necessarily need to be your landscape design’s focal point. Instead, they can fill in random spaces of the overall design, as long as they’re ideally positioned for optimal growth. Using plant material ensures a lush modern yard that provides a good bounty.

Rely on Native Elements

Because sustainability is a central concept in modern landscaping trends, the use of native elements is a much-loved trend. Another modern backyard trend relies on using drought-tolerant plants in hotter areas of the country. A stone path lining a grassy space in your backyard is common in areas prone to flooding in wetter months. Native plants are being used to attract pollinators, and native grass can be implemented to ensure it thrives with little to no intervention from you.

In other words, the more you rely on native elements when engaging in modern landscape design, the easier it’ll be for you to maintain the grass, plants and other components that create good curb appeal for your house.