- Design and Landscaping Basics
- Creating a Japanese Garden
- Creating a Wildlife Garden
- Colour and Garden Design
- Sensory Gardens
- Small Garden Landscaping
- Modern Trends in Garden Design
- Country Garden Landscaping
- Water and Rock Gardens
- Feng Shui in Landscaping
- Decking and Arbors
- History of Landscaping
- Landscape Maintenance
- Landscaping for Privacy
- Choosing your designer
- Capability Brown
- Diarmuid Gavin
- Gertrude Jekyll
- Gardening in the Media
The growing fashion for hard surfacing and structural features in landscaping is in tune with the modern shift away from plants as the principle focus of a garden. It is a trend fuelled by the popular media, as glossy magazines and garden makeover shows continue to promote hard landscaped urban gardens with a zeal previously reserved for floral colour and natural beauty.
The trend has its roots in modern social and lifestyle changes brought about by the move towards high-paced, high-density urban living. As today's homeowners become ever busier, with less outdoor space in which to express themselves, they are increasingly drawn to more functional and efficient garden designs that are easier to maintain and more accommodating of city living. In this sense, it is as much a town planning issue as a matter for landscapers.
Nevertheless, the implications of this phenomenon are starting to concern some senior figures in the world of landscaping. What is the future for plants in a society that favours heavily built gardens, and what effect will all this have on our urban environment? In short, just how do we keep our gardens green?
It is important to recognize that there is no inherent problem with hard landscaped gardens. Apart from being a reaction to urban development trends and modern lifestyle choices, they are also, like any garden design, a reflection of the way we see ourselves, and the values to which we aspire as a 21st century society. Gardens that feature a strong built element tend to be more extroverted and expressive than their traditional counterparts.
As such, they are a natural consequence of increasing individualism, and, at their best, they can still demonstrate an understanding of garden history as well as the place of shape, form, colour and texture in the garden. Indeed, there are countless historical examples of gardens that valued built elements as heavily as plants. The Renaissance, Islamic and Modernist schools of landscaping all relied on built features, and they are even apparent in some aspects of the English garden tradition.