10 Ideas for an Exuberantly Abundant Landscape

10 Ideas for an Exuberantly Abundant Landscape

After spending 15 years writing about home and garden design, I’ve consumed innumerable lessons about using design to convey personal style and a sense of wealth.

I love the word”prosperity” itself. It evokes a feeling of largesse, and who doesn’t want to have an abundant selection of plants to utilize in their backyard? Websters defines”prosperity” as”a great or plentiful amount; fullness or overflowing.” 1 landscape designer told me”prosperity” to her intended”no dirt — everywhere!” Another explained it this way: “No wimpy plants!”

Exploring beautiful gardens and fulfilling with the designers who’ve established them (experts and self-taught anglers alike), I have begun to appreciate people who yearn for prosperity are ones who live a lifestyle which sheds in their home into the backyard. They’re zealous and passionate about their patch of land. They have a generosity of spirit, and they love colour, texture and forms — and, of course, every one of them is represented in their planting options.

For me, there are 10 concepts that communicate prosperity:
ColorViewsTimelessnessLayersIntimacyFocal pointsMovementOrnamentationSpontaneityPatternLet’s see how those ideas can be expressed in a backyard.

Mary-Liz Campbell Landscape Design

Color. This abundant boundary is characterized by colorful plants, from the Japanese blood grass in the foreground into the rhubarb-red Sedum‘Autumn Joy’ at the rear of the boundary. This palette enlivens neighboring plants and demands attention. When combined with confidence, colour can create important focal points in the landscape. It may signal where to enter and how to proceed; it also brings the eye and encourages exploration. Successful use of colour is often controlled, restricted to a narrow but strong palette, which is exactly what you see within this layout.

Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC

Views. When a landscape is oriented to make the most of framed views and vistas, it seems doubly abundant. This gorgeous semiwild landscape is exposed to the elements and has a seemingly endless view. The cloud-filled skies is encouraged to the open plot, lending a feeling of drama. Everything is oriented outward, including the suggestion of a grassy trail causing the world’s edge.

Donna Lynn – Landscape Designer

Timelessness. What makes this boundary abundant? For one thing, no soil is exposed, thanks to mature plantings and a well-defined canopy and understory. I love the balance between each planting layer, in the ancient live oak trees overhead into the plump hydrangeas, into the heliotropes and ajuga that knit everything together. Several of the abundant design concepts I admire look in this scene, such as a feeling of timelessness. The pergola is partially obscured by a healthy wisteria, which has entwined itself around the beams and posts. Envision being seated there, away and unplugged — thoroughly embedded within this garden.

Milieu Design

Layers. Layering is a often-discussed design theory but one not necessarily achieved. This landscape uses masses of prairie-inspired perennials and ornamental grasses, layered not in rows but in irregular planting swaths to elicit a profound, lavish border. Some of my favorite specimens seem, such as Joe Pye Weed, black-eyed Susan, Russian sage and silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis).

While not all of us may have a decades-old backyard, those who are quite fortunate. Because planting trees is, of course, the ultimate abundant layout strategy. If you do not have a classic garden, you can emulate this fashion by encouraging a naturalistic approach. Enjoy the architecture of your trees; promote mossy rocks and ground covers to blanket the ground. Allow plants to grow to their full and inherent forms. Then give yourself a place at which you can walk, consider and appreciate what you have. Here, the little section of green lawn is a relaxing area of rest amidst the big conifers and broadleaf evergreens at its edge. Stunning!

Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC

Intimacy. Intimacy feeds and nurtures the individual occupants there. Narrow openings suggest solitude, like this almost-secret pathway between the trees. There’s a hidden destination, and you are not quite certain where it leads. Though the trees tower overhead, the perennial border beneath is full of all sorts of alluring plants. The senses are enlivened, and one is attracted to the fragrant catmint, the soft-to-the-touch lamb’s ear and the visually exciting alliums and foxgloves.

Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC

Focal points. This scene incorporates multiple abundant ideas — and all play together superbly to make me wish I can be hauled here. There’s a classic feeling expressed in the easy palette of native rock and green vegetation. The beautiful twig chair positioned at the turn of the road is a hard-to-ignore inside focal point. Layered textures provide interest, even though this is a scene with largely foliage. Generous in its own gifts, this garden beckons visitors to enter — and remain in its presence.

Johnsen Landscapes & Pools

Movement and ornamentation. There’s something so great about this snapshot. I’m attracted to it time and again. The scene has two wonderful expressions of prosperity. First, there’s a feeling of movement and energy borne by the masses of decorative grasses on the hillside — they have a kinetic vibe that’s dynamic, even if the breezes are still. Second, the ornamentation is sublime. A bowl placed on a pedestal. That’s it. Effortless.

Glenna Partridge Garden Design

Movement, spontaneity and colour. Abundance doesn’t have to occur in a grand landscape. The spirit of an abundant garden can live on a deck or patio — expressed at thoughtful, well-arranged container gardens like those shown here.

Movement, spontaneity and a fantastic sense of colour escape from such pots and also make this a rather sexy place to be.

Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture

Pattern. Shapes, designs and forms communicate prosperity here, providing visual cues about the vocabulary of the garden. There’s a clear grid-style pattern formed by the concrete pavers, comprising a simple geometric installation that provides this garden its own deliberate structure. The foliage and flower colors reinforce the contemporary, graphic message of the garden’s layout.

Abundance is an attitude of living from the backyard, of cherishing plants, of combining art and horticulture, as well as expressing one’s highly personal style.

Next: The best way to utilize spontaneity to get an abundant garden

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