professional landscape design Archives

The Landscape Design trends we are seeing in Melbourne owe much to practicality as well as the aesthetic. These trends reflect the lifestyle of summer in Melbourne but are also provide a practical landscape design with drought tolerant plants and low maintenance gardens.

1. Mid-century Palm Springs landscape design style.

This is a landscape design style associated with Cacti, Granitic Sand, Concrete Paving, and Breeze-blocks. Often this takes the form of hard landscaping in light grey or stark whites contrasting with splashes of colour from the plantings. The result is typical Palm Springs glamour with a low maintenance and drought resistant gardens.

Palm Springs style landscaping often features cacti, and succulents such as agave with plants to provide a splash of colour.

The dry desert climate of Palm Spring, with warm winters, and the abundance of space, is ideal for outdoor entertaining areas. Often, these will feature a fire pit area or a swimming pool as a focal point.

Outdoor entertainment areas with a swimming pool and a fire are often features of the Palm Springs design style.

Despite the low rainfall, the courtyard swimming pool in Palm Springs is a “must have” even in the smaller landscaped gardens.

Palm Springs gardens often provide a splash of colour with hot torch lilies, geraniums, roses, and bougainvillea.

Palm Springs Landscape Design Style with Agave and Colour contrast provided by red hot poker plant (Kniphofia uvaria)

For the drought tolerant gardens, succulents, ornamental grasses and especially barrel cacti proliferate. The Palm Springs landscapers also make use of the local gravel, abundant boulders and the native palms from the area.

Palm Springs Landscaping Style with Barrel cacti and boulders.

Rancho Mirage near Palm Spring in California is an example of Palm Springs resort style landscaping. Agave and palms with contrasting splashes of colour contrast with the white walls of the buildings.

Indian Canyon Palm Springs. The abundance of boulders and the indigenous palm trees heavily influence the Palm Springs landscape design style.

2. Tuscan Mediterranean style

The design style of the Mediterranean or Tuscan garden is rooted in the choice of landscaping materials, textures and colours. Garden features such as cobbled paving, tiles, stones, bricks and especially terracotta will enhance the Mediterranean feel. Neatly clipped hedges, gravel mulch, and soft colours contrasting with brightly coloured tiles are often features in the Mediterranean and Tuscan gardens. For landscaping Melbourne gardens, consider mixing this with less formal ,drought tolerant plants and plants which give off a pleasant aroma.

Tuscan garden landscape design style with vines growing over a rustic pergola.

The rustic Tuscan garden are often associated with the Italian rural villas and are much less formal than the Italian Renaissance gardens. These gardens often feature deep blues complimenting the terracotta pots or roof tiles as well as olives, agaves and deep green mosaics.

Landscaping with olives in pots on a white balcony. Olives are often a feature of Mediterranean Gardens.

The Boboli Gardens in Florence are an example of a more formal Italian design style, but the crushed granite and earthy colours are also features of the rustic Tuscan gardens.

3. Modern contemporary landscape design

This design style features concrete cantilevered concrete steps and black steel water features with lime green structural planting.

Concrete cantilevered steppers floating steps Modern Contemporary

Balance and symmetry are features of this design style and it is the ideal design style for contemporary homes. In contrast to the design and colours of the Tuscan garden, industrial style raw concrete is common in this style of garden as well as stone and wooden garden ornaments.

Landscape design with structural lime planting and Italian pencil pines.

The symmetry and balance of contemporary landscape design. Patio with Lime green structural plantings.

Modern Contemporary landscape design style video

4. French Provincial design

The French Provincial Landscape Design Style features Hedges, Ornamental Pears, Cobblestone driveways and anduze pots. The hedges are often box hedges (buxus) and flowering plums (prunus).

Anduze pottery has been made in the Anduze commune in the south of France since the early 1600s. The design style influenced by Florentine pottery.

A French Provincial garden with patio and Anduze pots.

The French Provincial style has many similarities with the Tuscan landscaping design style.

The French Provincial house is an influence on this landscape design style.

French Landscape design is influenced by the cobbled streets of France.

5. Coastal Garden Design Style

This design style feature loose plantings of native grasses like Lomandra, native shrubs and whitewashed timber batten screens. Local boulders are also a big part of this landscape design style.

The coastal landscape design style is often used for hardy, low maintenance, commercial landscaping of public spaces.

Coastal Garden design style is often used in commercial landscaping.

Hardy Australian native grasses make an attractive and drought resistant garden.

Sunlight shining through the feathery flowerheads of the native Australian grass Swamp Foxtail, Cenchrus purpurascens. Also known as Fountain Grass.

Coastal Gardens often require clever solutions to protect plants from the fierce ocean winds. One solution is to use a white washed timber batten screen. The gaps in the screen allow some of the air to move through the screen, so minimising the turbulence that occurs with a solid fence. The white batten screens can be used as a design feature and provide contrast with grasses or Xanthorrhoea and Anigozanthos in the garden.

White timber batten screen

Coastal garden plants have to endure salt spray, wind and often not very fertile sandy soils, so Lomandra is ideal for landscaping coastal gardens as it is a very hardy and drought resistant Australian Native Grass with attractive foliage.

The green lomandra makes a great contrast with this grey stone wall.

The green lomandra mass planting makes a great contrast with this grey stone wall.

Lomandra plants being planted in a new coastal garden in Hampton.

Commercial Landscaping Design Trends

In the commercial landscaping of public spaces the design trends are towards sustainability through the use of drought tolerant plant and the handling of rainwater through rain-gardens and permeable concrete. Modern Public Space Design also requires a welcoming and accessible area where people can relax with a range of activities. As with residential landscape design, there is a strong trend towards outdoor entertaining areas where people can relax around a public barbecue.

Related Landscape Design News from Red’s Landscaping Melbourne.

Landscape Design Melbourne

5 Top Custom Swimming Pool Designs and trends.

11 Best landscapers of all time.

Eco Pools: Nature pools for the eco conscious

Commercial Landscaping

Commercial Landscaping of Public Spaces.

© 2020 Reds Landscaping and Civil – Quality Melbourne Landscaper

More information on Landscape Design Styles and Plants

Red Hot Poker or Torch Lily

The Anduze Vase

Sustainable Landscape Design

How to study Landscape Architecture

The pool designs we are now seeing as the trend or fashion for residential swimming pools were once only seen in exclusive holiday resorts. Swimming pool construction using concrete offers a wide range of bespoke design possibilities that can even be designed to suit small gardens with odd shapes. This is especially the case with the design of plunge pools, which are a great way to cool off after a day in the hot Melbourne sun.

Occasionally these swimming pool designs would be seen on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, but rarely as a residential suburban swimming pool. This is especially the case with our first pool design trend, the infinity edge pool.

1. Infinity Edge Pool Designs

The infinity edge pool design is so named as the edge of the pool is invisible to the eye and the pool appears to extend forever. The delineation between the water in the pool and the surrounding landscape features are difficult to discern. This pool design works brilliantly if the background landscape is a large body of water with which the pool water appears to blend.

Infinity edges swimming Pool designs. The far edge of the pool blends in to the scenery.

2. Lap Pool Designs

The lap pool design is ideal if you have a narrow garden and enjoy swimming for exercise.

The long narrow lap pool is generally designed to have a have a swimming length between 15 to 30 metres and a flat bottom with a depth of around 1.5 metres. The width of the swimming pool can vary between 2 metres wide to 5 metres wide.

Lap swimming pool designs go along luxury house

Lap swimming pool Designs are ideal for the sports enthusiast.

Using CAD landscape design, we can create an integrated landscape and pool design package to suit your home and show you how it will look from any angle.

A custom designed lap pool photo-realistic visualisation using landscape design tools.

3. The Kidney Shaped Pool

The Kidney shaped pool design is ideal for a naturalistic landscaped garden. They are more a design for landscape aesthetic appeal rather than the serious lap swimmer. None the less, they are still a great pool for the kids to have fun and cool off in. the design of the kidney shaped pool has been credited to modernist landscape architect Thomas Church. Church was a pioneer of the landscape design style that became known as the “California Style”. People often associate this pool design with California and Palm Springs style and elegance.

Kidney shaped pool designs are a statement of modernist landscape architecture.

The kidney shaped pool can be custom built to an almost limitless number of shapes, sizes and colours.

A Blue Kidney shaped pool with spa and waterfall.

4. Beach Bench Swimming Pools

These pools are designed with a shallow ledge in part of the pool which is great for getting a tan whilst cooling off in the water. In fact this design style is also know as the “sun shelf” or “Tanning Ledge”. The ledges themselves can be free formed shapes or a geometric design to suit the pool. These can be circular, semi-circular or rectangular with rounded edges.

The ledges can be designed a little deeper for the placement of sun-lounges in the pool.

The ledges are also a great place for the supervised play of both dogs and children in the pool.

Swimming Pool design with a shallow ledge for sun-lounges.

The Beach Bench Design can also incorporate part of the swimming pool internal steps for ease of getting in and out of the pool. This design is also a good solution for people with mobility issues who might find getting in and out of the pool difficult.

Pool steps incorporating a swimming pool ledge for ease of getting in and out of the pool.

The swimming pool bench can be designed in to most pool shapes without too much difficulty.

A swimming pool bench can be designed into most pool shapes.

5. The Plunge Pool Designs.

A great pool for the small garden that still gives you a way to cool off after a day in the hot Melbourne sun. The plunge pool is a deep pool but with reduced length and width. Another advantage of the plunge pool is that they are a little cheaper to heat and maintain. They can also be custom designed to fit into an unusual or small space in your garden.

The Plunge Pool Design often has stainless steel stairs to save space in a small garden.

Contact Us for Pool and Landscaping packages

We can show you how our CAD team can create a photorealistic custom swimming pool design or pool and landscaping packages for your home. Of course, a simple and quick design concept using sketchup is a great way to kickoff the design process.

Designing your Swimming Pool for afternoon shade

Using the 3D landscape design tools, the shadows of buildings can be factored into the design. If there is insufficient shade for the swimming pool, then a pergola can be added to the design. This is a much cheaper option than adding the pergola later.

pool and landscaping design. The view from the pergola.

The view from the pergola. Shade can be designed into the pool and landscaping package. Note the partial shade from the Pergola over the spa.

Putting it all together as a Pool and Landscaping Package

The pool and landscape design package can be brought together and presented as a virtual fly through for the client. This makes the overall client approval process much easier.