Transform Your Garden With These Soft Landscaping Ideas
Soft landscaping is the key to a successful garden design, as it covers all the plants and natural elements of your outdoor space. Most garden designs centre on a combination of both hard and soft landscaping, which is the contrast between paving, patios, and decking with plants and flowers.
This contrast creates a stunning, cohesive appearance to the garden, combining both visual appeal and functionality. If you are looking to renovate your outdoor space or simply add some colour ahead of the warmer months, soft landscaping is the best place to look.
As a leading landscaping company, TM Landscapes understands how effective soft landscaping can be in creating beautiful outdoor spaces. We have helped many clients create stunning gardens over the years and continue to be a premier choice for garden maintenance in the region.
With this expertise, we can share some of the best soft landscaping ideas to help you create a beautiful garden and get inspired to go outdoors.
What Is Soft Landscaping?
Before we can recommend soft landscaping ideas, we first need to explore what soft landscaping is and how this plays a role in garden design.
Soft landscaping refers to all living aspects of garden design, such as plants, turfing, flowers and trees. This is the umbrella term for all kinds of plants and natural elements that you can add to your garden.
While soft landscaping is primarily used for visual appeal, it can offer a range of other benefits, such as being a habitat for wildlife, adding colour to the garden, or improving the natural scents of the landscape.
Soft landscaping is also a great way to add seasonal interest to the garden, as plants and flowers change with the weather. By incorporating variety into your landscape, you can experience an ever-changing environment.
Best Soft Landscaping Ideas For Any Garden
There are various ways soft landscaping can be used to create a beautiful outdoor space, such as:
Creating A Lush Lawn
A lush, green lawn is often the foundation of any attractive garden and is a staple of soft landscaping ideas. A lawn can become the ideal area for children to play in while also being the main focal point of your garden. All other aspects of garden design will centre around the lawn, adding more appeal and functionality to the space.
The key to creating a lush lawn is remaining on top of grass maintenance. A grass requires ongoing mowing, fertilising and aeration to keep it in prime condition – especially during the spring and summer months.
Planting For Seasonal Interest
Using a combination of annuals and perennials not only creates an instantly colourful display but ensures your garden changes with the season.
These soft landscaping ideas focus on the natural growth patterns of both perennials, which grow over the spring and summer but die back in the colder months, and annuals, which are present for one growing season.
With a combination of both plants, you can create unique displays every year while also having some beautiful returning faces each season. A combination of both makes it easier to manage your garden and ensure there is some colour present at all times.
Trees, Hedges And Shrubs For Structure
Using larger soft landscaping elements, such as trees, hedges and shrubs, can offer several benefits. Not only are these visually appealing and can complement a range of garden designs, but shrubs and trees are also highly beneficial for your outdoor privacy.
These soft landscaping ideas can help screen overlooking neighbours, creating a more private environment in the garden. They can also enhance the structure of your garden design, building form and shape to the layout. Shrubs and hedges are a great way to zone the landscape, creating separate areas for different purposes.
While there are many kinds of trees and shrubs you can install, based on your maintenance abilities and preferences, evergreen shrubs offer lasting appeal as they offer year-round structure.
Mixed Height
Planting does not have to be one-dimensional, as there are many soft landscaping ideas that allow you to play with height and direction. While a lot of plants need to be installed in the ground, there are some options for vertical landscapes.
For example, climbing plants and flowers can be trained against fences, along pergolas or even on the side of your property to add interest and visual appeal without compromising ground space. Consider plants such as sweet peas, Wisteria, climbing roses or even ivy to add some vertical interest to the garden. Turf can also be installed vertically to add colour and texture to the landscape.
If you do want to have ground displays, consider adding a variation of plants and flowers in ascending order to create unique flower beds. Use ground flowers or herbs as the base, rising in height with taller plants and ornamental grasses to add texture, height and interest.
Beautiful Borders And Beds
Flower beds can be a great way to incorporate colour, texture and scent into the garden and there are options for all sizes of landscapes.
Raised planters are the best option in many cases, not only because they are more versatile but also because they make it easier to maintain your garden. Raised planters and beds allow for better soil control to ensure your plants are healthy.
When creating flower beds and border displays, consider companion planting as this makes garden maintenance easier and more efficient. Companion planting relies on growing species that work well together, offering contrasting benefits for pest control, better crop production and soil balance.
Some excellent companion plants include marigolds, lavender, carrots, and mint, which can be incorporated into your flower beds to offer these benefits. By mixing herbs, flowers and grasses, you can create a layered display in your garden.
Low-Maintenance Soft Landscaping Ideas
Soft landscaping is a great complement to any outdoor space, but it does come with some commitment. Keeping your garden in prime condition so the plants and flowers continue to thrive may not be something you have time for, but this does not mean you have to miss out.
With these low-maintenance soft landscaping ideas, you can have a beautiful outdoor space without the ongoing commitment. If you don’t have time or the skills necessary to maintain an outdoor space, these soft landscaping ideas will appeal to you:
- Drought Resistant Plants: Plants such as Succulents, lavender, Verbena, and Coneflower require little to no watering than other plants, meaning you do not have to constantly care for your landscape.
- Native Plants: These plants can be organically found in your region, meaning they thrive in the local climates and conditions without much interference.
- Mulching: Organic mulch such as wood chips, compost, and leaves provides essential nutrients to your plant. They can also help maintain soil temperature and moisture, offering various benefits as they organically decompose.
Conclusion
Soft landscaping is a great way to create a diverse, beautiful outdoor space. A combination of plants and hardscaping is often required for a cohesive garden design, and there are countless soft landscaping ideas to appeal to your requirements.
Whether you are an avid gardener or do not have the time to tend to your garden, there are soft landscaping ideas to create a thriving environment in all cases. Incorporating flowers, grasses, herbs, and shrubs creates naturally stunning displays that make your garden stand out.
Contact Us Today
For more advice regarding garden maintenance or to request a quote for our services, reach out to the team today.