Landscaping trends come and go faster than you might realize. Some design choices that seemed revolutionary just a decade ago now make your property look dated and uninspired. Refreshing your outdoor space starts with recognizing what no longer works.
Home landscapes should reflect both personal style and current design sensibilities. The good news is that updating your yard doesn’t always require a complete overhaul. Sometimes, removing outdated elements creates the most significant improvement.
1. Perfectly Manicured Lawns
The era of sprawling, pristinely cut grass expanses is fading fast. These high-maintenance features demand constant watering, mowing, fertilizing, and weed control. Environmental concerns have pushed homeowners toward more sustainable alternatives.
Modern landscaping embraces diversity with native plant gardens, ground covers, and purposeful outdoor spaces. These options require less water, reduce chemical use, and support local wildlife. They also create more visual interest throughout the seasons than a flat green carpet.
2. Formal Hedgerows
Rigidly trimmed hedges arranged in perfect lines once symbolized affluence and control over nature. Today, these high-maintenance borders feel unnecessarily formal and ecologically empty. They require frequent shearing to maintain their unnatural shapes.
Contemporary gardens favor mixed borders with varied heights, textures, and seasonal interest. These natural-looking boundaries provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds while requiring less maintenance. Plus, they create a softer, more welcoming atmosphere than their boxy predecessors.
3. Invasive Plant Species
Many popular landscape plants from previous decades have proven destructive to local ecosystems. Species like English ivy, Japanese barberry, and purple loosestrife might look attractive, but can escape into natural areas and choke out native vegetation.
Responsible landscaping now focuses on native and well-behaved non-native plants that support local wildlife and don’t threaten natural areas. These alternatives often require less maintenance since they’re adapted to local conditions and have natural resistance to regional pests.
4. Isolated Specimen Trees
The practice of planting single ornamental trees surrounded by mulch circles in the middle of lawns creates disconnected landscape elements. These lonely specimens often struggle without the protection of companion plants and look oddly out of place.
Current design principles emphasize creating cohesive plant communities with trees integrated into mixed borders or naturalistic groupings. This approach better mimics natural ecosystems, improves plant health, and creates more visually harmonious compositions that feel intentional rather than random.
5. Excessive Hardscaping
Vast expanses of concrete patios, paver walkways, and stone walls dominated many landscapes in previous decades. These hardscape-heavy designs create heat islands, increase stormwater runoff, and reduce habitat for beneficial organisms.
Today’s designs seek a balance between necessary hardscaping and generous planting areas. Permeable paving materials allow water infiltration, while strategic placement of hardscape elements creates defined spaces without overwhelming the yard’s natural elements.
6. Red Mulch
Brightly colored red mulch was once considered a bold design statement. Now it reads as artificial and distracting. The dyes used can leach into soil and potentially harm plants, while the unnaturally vivid color draws attention away from the plants it’s meant to showcase.
Natural-colored organic mulches like bark, compost, or pine straw complement plants rather than competing with them. These materials break down gradually to improve soil health and create a more sophisticated, cohesive look that lets your plants be the stars.
7. Palm Trees in Non-Tropical Regions
The trend of planting palm trees in regions where they’re not naturally adapted creates high-maintenance specimens that often look unhealthy. In colder climates, these tropical plants require winter protection and may still suffer damage or die.
Regionally appropriate trees naturally thriving in your climate create a more authentic sense of place. Native species or well-adapted non-natives offer better shade, seasonal interest, and wildlife value without the struggle to survive in unsuitable conditions.
8. Foundation Evergreens
The classic row of evergreen shrubs planted directly against house foundations was a decades-old landscape staple. These plants often outgrow their spaces, block windows, trap moisture against foundations, and create uninspired, static facades.
Contemporary foundation plantings incorporate varied plant types set away from walls to allow for mature growth. This approach improves air circulation around buildings, showcases architectural features, and creates more dynamic seasonal interest with a mix of flowering shrubs, perennials, and structural plants.
9. Artificial Garden Ornaments
Collections of concrete gnomes, plastic flamingos, and mass-produced statuary scattered throughout gardens often create visual clutter rather than focal points.
These items frequently weather poorly and can make landscapes feel disjointed or thematically confused. Thoughtfully selected, high-quality focal pieces used sparingly have a greater impact.
Natural elements like distinctive boulders, water features, or specimen plants create more timeless interest points that integrate harmoniously with the surrounding landscape.
10. Floating Flower Beds
Isolated circular or oval planting beds dropped into the middle of lawns create maintenance challenges and disrupt the flow of outdoor spaces. These disconnected “flower islands” require edging maintenance and often appear random rather than purposeful.
Connected planting areas that link to existing landscape features create more cohesive designs. Extending beds from buildings, property lines, or other natural boundaries allows for more impactful plantings while reducing lawns that need maintenance.
11. Perfect Circle Tree Mulch
The practice of creating perfectly circular mulch rings around individual trees with sharply defined edges looks unnatural and requires constant maintenance. These artificial-looking circles often become weed magnets along their crisp edges.
Natural-edge mulch areas that follow the tree’s drip line and blend gradually into surrounding plantings or lawn create a more organic appearance. This approach better protects roots, reduces mowing damage, and makes a more cohesive landscape.
12. Annual-Only Flower Beds
Relying exclusively on seasonal annuals for color creates a constant cycle of planting, maintenance, and replacement. These high-input displays require significant water, fertilizer, and labor, leaving beds empty during transitional seasons.
Mixed plantings that combine perennials, shrubs, and carefully selected annuals provide year-round structure with seasonal highlights. This approach reduces maintenance costs, improves soil health through less disturbance, and creates more sustainable beauty throughout the year.
13. Landscape Fabric Under Mulch
Installing synthetic landscape fabric beneath mulch was once considered essential for weed suppression. However, experience has shown that these materials often fail as weeds grow on top of them, preventing the beneficial decomposition of mulch into soil.
Proper mulch application directly over cardboard or newspaper effectively suppresses weeds in the short term while allowing healthy soil development. These biodegradable barriers block initial weed growth but break down naturally as the landscape establishes.
14. Water-Hungry Plants in Arid Regions
Maintaining lush, water-intensive plants in naturally dry climates creates unsustainable landscapes that struggle during inevitable drought periods. These misplaced plants require constant irrigation and often look stressed despite intensive care.
Xeriscaping with regionally appropriate, drought-tolerant plants creates beautiful landscapes adapted to local rainfall patterns. Once established, these plants thrive with minimal supplemental water and appear attractive even during dry periods.
15. Tropical Annuals as Landscape Foundations
Using tropical plants like banana trees, elephant ears, and cannas as primary landscape elements in temperate zones creates an annual cycle of buying, planting, and discarding plants or attempting to overwinter them indoors.
This approach is both expensive and environmentally questionable. Selecting hardy perennials and woody plants appropriate to your climate creates a sustainable foundation for garden design.
These plants establish themselves over time, increasing in beauty and value while requiring less replacement and maintenance.
Creating Sustainable Beauty for the Future
The most successful landscapes balance aesthetics with ecological function and practical maintenance requirements. By removing outdated elements and embracing more sustainable approaches, you’ll create outdoor spaces that look better, require less work to maintain, and are more sustainable.
The best gardens reflect their natural surroundings while meeting the needs of those who use them. Focus on creating landscapes that work with nature rather than against it.
Your property will not only look more current, but it will also contribute positively to the environment around it.
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