Modern Gardens
Create a modern garden with these plants, design ideas and more
Small Property Gets a Simple, Sustainable Garden
The clean lines of this minimalist garden in Palo Alto, Calif. reveal that less is more.
Modern Plants for a Bold and Beautiful Garden
Get modern plant recommendations that will perfectly complement your midcentury home and garden. This contemporary plant list offers options that are bold, beautiful, carefree and stylish.
Hoerr Schaudt Garden in Chicago's Lincoln Park
See how the strong geometry of this home is mirrored in the surrounding landscape where city vibe meets Midwest charm.
A Tiered Garden in Austin, Texas
A dramatically tiered, lushly green outdoor space surrounds a modern home of stone and glass that’s perched on the side of a hill.
In The Dark: Creating a Dramatic Backdrop
Let your garden exude its color by painting in dark colors around it. Nick McCullough shows off dramatic plant combinations, including Dark Chocolate, Luscious Lemonade, and Emerald Falls, plus his top paint colors to use to highlight more of your garden.
Designing a Contemporary Garden with Warmth
When taken to the extreme, modern landscaping sometimes seems cold or uninviting. Yet modern design’s emphasis on crafting an organized space and respecting unadorned materials has the potential to create a setting which feels not only friendly and inviting, but also personalized and artful. Designer Colin Miller of Envision Landscape Studio in Walnut Creek, California, shares tips on designing a contemporary landscape that is suited to the welcoming indoor-outdoor lifestyle modern gardeners are trying to create.
A Modern Garden in Deer Country
The love for wildlife and a love of gardening can finally come together with these deer-resistant plants and landscaping ideas perfect for a modern garden. Author and designer Jan Johnsen shares how to create a landscape that is not only stylish, but will create harmony between you and those (sometimes) pesky deer.
Learn how a distinctive mid-century home inspired by the Sarasota School of Architecture is flawlessly restored and improved for fresh, 21st-century perfection.
Designing a Luxury Rooftop Terrace
Daniel Keeley, designer of two adjacent rooftop terraces that exemplify urban outdoor living at its finest, shares five considerations for homeowners who would like to transform their rooftop into a luxury outdoor living space.
Subtropical Modernism: Lively Landscapes in the Florida Keys
Debra Yates and Benjamin Burle of Debra Yates Great Space, Inc. in the Florida Keys use brilliantly colorful garden walls and sculptural plants against a neutral backdrop for a lush, lively take on modernism. Here, they share six tips on how they achieve their signature look.
Inspiration Point: Philip Johnson's Glass House
Paul Keyes, a member of our Garden Design Advisory Board and a landscape architect, writes about how a PBS documentary about Philip Johnson ended up serving as a lifelong inspiration for him in his work. (Above, Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.)
Dry Wit: Margaret Joplin's Southwest Hacienda Garden
A garden in Patagonia, Arizona, takes the Southwest climate in stride.
Some 20 years ago I had the chance of a lifetime to meet Roberto Burle Marx in Louisville, Kentucky. Late in his six-decade career (he died in 1994), he was there to discuss designing a botanic garden that never would come to fruition. I was a student of horticulture and had no real idea who he was or the magnitude of his importance to landscape architecture. He was gracious and solicitous of my studies and interests-and even invited me to visit him in Brazil. Too bad I never took advantage of that invitation.
Prairie Modern: A House and Garden in Fargo, North Dakota
A thoughtful collaboration between Stahl Architects and Land Elements produces a landscape that celebrates old and new, in Fargo, North Dakota.
Four mid-century modern planters add a Mad Men touch to any garden.
An ecologically friendly Virginia garden sets the groundwork for a new approach to landscapes of enduring beauty.
Holiday Classic Décor Elements Made Modern
Traditional materials used for jazzing up the season have a long history, but floral designer David Winston offers his own take on these popular holiday plants.
Landscape architect Christopher Yates makes a small space behind this San Francisco townhouse go a long way.
Best Gardens: Modern Shaker Design in Westport, Connecticut
Mid-century modern furniture highlights this traditional garden in Connecticut.
Open Invitation: Beverly Hills Glamour
Judy Kameon transforms a Beverly Hills midcentury modern glass-and-concrete house's garden into an elegant and comfortable space.
Inventing the Modern Garden: The Miller House and Garden
The Miller House, designed by Eero Saarinen, has a landmark Modernist garden designed by Dan Kiley. This month, May 2011, the house and garden are opening to the public for tours for the first time in 50 years, allowing visitors to walk through this triumph of mid-century Modern design.
Midcentury Modernism in Arizona
The owners of this midcentury Tucson, Arizona, residence find themselves outside most of the time thanks to the outdoor living space designed by Tucson-based firm Ibarra Rosano Design Architects.
The patio in the Barcelona apartment of economist Peter Fehlbaum mixes modernist touches with a healthy dose of quirk. We show you how to get a similar look for your home and garden.
Garrett Eckbo's Midcentury Style
Inspired by Garrett Eckbo, an iconic midcentury landscape architect who broke down the boundaries between indoor and outdoor living, we show you how to get this look for your home with modern furnishings.
A peek at Danish style-setter Lars Wiberg's garden and our ideas for how to add casual elegance to your own indoor-outdoor living spaces.
Nature does the talking in three contemporary gardens in Santa Fe, Palo Alto and Vancouver
The sixth installment of Dwell on Design, the Los Angeles showcase of modern, sustainable ideas, featured a wide range of stylish, practical green goods, some quietly cutting-edge, others wonderfully wild.
Watch this short video to see how to design a modern landscape.
