Midland Park - Home and Garden Resources

The modernists of the past century were optimists. They believed that better gardens meant better living. In the post-war boom that spawned suburbia, houses had a backyard for lounging in as well as a front garden, and modernist landscape architects made the most of both with a house design that annexed the outdoors as living space. Patios, pools, and backyard grills all got a boost from simple, budget-friendly principles of mid-century garden design. Get inspired with our curated modernist landscaping tricks of the trade.

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MODERN LANDSCAPING 1-2-3 RESOURCES

1 - INFORMATIVE LINKS: You're just a click away from some useful hot links to help with landscaping, lawn care and plant selections ideal for our local climate. Working with the natural environment helps reduce the time and effort you need to spend in the garden. We are all about enjoying the garden more and working less!

2 - MODERN LANDSCAPING TIPS: Discover modern landscaping design elements that are perfectly suited for your mid-century modern home. By incorporating modern design elements into your yard, not only does it align with your home's architectural style, it typically requires very little maintenance!

3 - PRINT ON DEMAND: Tap on our printable brochures located at the very bottom of this page, for easy information downloading and sharing. These handy brochures are loaded with information and helpful tips on mid-century modernism, landscaping, gardening, curb appeal and more!

1 - MODERN OUTDOOR LIVING | INFORMATIVE LINKS

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2 - MODERN LANDSCAPING FOR A MID-CENTURY MODERN HOUSE

Modern landscape design ideas for your mid-century modern house

Modern landscaping design elements complement the lines, structure and intention of the mid-century modern architectural elements of your house. Incorporate one or a few of these elements to instantly create fabulous modern living!
Famed modern architect Richard Neutra spoke for his fellow designers who pioneered simplified building design during the early 20th century. He said, "Place man in relationship to nature; that's where he developed and where he feels most at home!"

Make Your Garden a Haven for Backyard Birds

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Famed modern architect Richard Neutra spoke for his fellow designers who pioneered simplified building design during the early 20th century. He said, "Place man in relationship to nature; that's where he developed and where he feels most at home!" The mid-century modern house was designed to have a close integration with nature and was designed to feel bigger by 'borrowing space from the outside'. This was accomplished using ample and strategically placed windows and open floor plans. Having your yard looking wonderful creates a truly positive, zen-like experience for the MCM home owner, one that extends from the inside of your house right through to the outdoors.

MODERN LANDSCAPING DESIGN ELEMENTS

GEOMETRIC DESIGN

Straight lines, geometric forms and repeating patterns are fundamentals of a modern look. The highly structured form of geometric shapes complements your homes linear attributes.

Rectangle and square shapes help achieve a garden that has a controlled and organized appearance and can be incorporated in a few easy ways.

Checkerboard planting: Alternate a square plot of grass or a small shrub with a square stepping stone or contrasting plant of the same size. TIP: Avoid using tall grasses in a grid because it will eventually all blend together and you will lose the grid structure.
Another way to achieve a shapely element is to line long, narrow rectangular garden beds with pathways, or incorporating a geometric shaped pond or pool.
Outdoor carpeting is an excellent way to bring geometric design element to your yard. Carpets allow you to utilize geometric patterns or bright colors that are otherwise impossible to create in your outdoor space. Placing a large outdoor carpet in a sitting space has the added modern element of that unusual placement; it can create a full sitting area that might look equally at home inside as it does outside!
Limit the use of organic shapes in your pathways, borders or materials. Naturalistic curves do little to enhance the relationship of the landscape with the architecture. Even when choosing natural materials like stone, cut them into elongated rectangles or create a geometric pattern so they relate to the home and take on a contemporary look.

MINIMALISM

When selecting plants, stones, decorative elements and garden furniture, think simple, sleek and not too many patterns. The term, "less is more", applies here. Don't choose ornate furniture or decor. Instead opt for a more simple, plain, streamlined look and consider things like abstract sculptures, glossy metals, and sleek and colourful urns. Patio furniture for a modern outdoor living space should be sleek and refined. Avoid furniture that is ornate or bulky. Modern patio furniture is often made of sculpted metal, wood or plastic.

CONTRAST

Modern gardens often rely on hardscaping and structural elements to achieve their minimalist look, with plants used as accents to provide contrast and color.

Terraces, patios and pathways can be made from simple materials like gravel, un-grouted stone and tile, or intriguing pebbles in complementary hues. Don’t be afraid to use a contrast of materials and colors. Everything doesn’t have to match. You can use shiny metal furniture in front of a wooden surface. Patio furniture can be used to bring a splash of color. Select fabrics and cushions in bold colors for added impact.
Use of contemporary metals like stainless steel and nontraditional plastics and synthetics create wonderful contrast with the natural elements of the outdoors.
Instead of using organic mulch in your garden, use pea gravel. The neutral color of pea gravel creates a contrast between the foliage and the ground, showcasing the minimal use of plant material.
Unusual plant placement works beautifully to create contrast in a modern landscape. In your design, make space for plants in areas that they would not normally grow. For example, trees growing from the center of a concrete patio look fantastic and will give you natural shade for a sitting area. Small pockets of growing space throughout a concrete wall or a flowerbed built into the center of a pool or pond are also eye-catching.
Another effective use of contrast is using spreading plants like ivy for dangling off or growing up edges of structures, retaining walls and fences.

FENCES

A strategically designed fence can add instant mod style to your yard. One simple way to create a modern fence is to run the boards horizontally rather than vertically. Clean lines help make a fence appear fresh and modern.

Fence posts can be completely hidden giving an effect that makes it look like a solid wooden wall as opposed to a fence. This allows the beauty of the wood to take center stage. Treating a fence with lacquer will bring out the natural wood grain.

Fences can have openings that let light through and reveal the greenery behind, while still providing privacy.

The boards can be varying widths and have a slight gaps between them. Creating a subtle pattern with the boards will draw the eye without dominating the landscape.

Simple wood beams in natural colours that complement the outside of your home and look great over patios and are an excellent way to blend your indoor and outdoor living areas. Mod style fences are also often times made out of concrete and metal materials.

GARBAGE CONTAINER PRIVACY

CONCRETE

To embrace the industrial elements of modern style, utilize concrete as the prominent material in your landscaping. The unstained, gray color of concrete creates a stark contrast with the natural elements of your landscaping. A concrete patio space, concrete furniture, concrete wall, or concrete planters are all ways to utilize this material.

PLANTS

Unlike most garden styles, plant life is not the center element of a contemporary landscape design. Some modern gardens limit plants and flowers to unique planters and pots, leaving most of the design to be filled with hardscape elements and accessories, while some are following a greener trend with lush green walls of evergreen shrubs and mass plantings.

Choose one type of plant or one color to take center stage in your design. Mixing plants or layering different colors in your borders, creates a more traditional feel rather than a contemporary one.
When selecting plants for a modern garden keep the concept of simplicity in mind. Modern gardens should have a simplified plant palette - stick mainly to shades and hues of green. An occasional container with a colorful plant is a nice touch, but be sure to limit this.
Plants should be planted in straight lines. This will add to the sense of order within the garden.
Plants should be grouped in odd numbers, preferably threes or fives. If you want to do a mass planting of one type of plant try planting them in a grid pattern.
Topiaries and shrubbery with clean lines and geometric shapes are also common. Plant life is often used to bring in new textures and new shapes within a contemporary garden.
Use plants that have a bold form. These plants stand out from bushy trees and shrubs and can be columnar, flat topped, poodled, pyramidal or feature very large, uniquely shaped and coloured leaves.
Add contrast against bold formed plants. Adding soft fine textured plants to the landscape really exploits the contrast. The most well-known fine textured plants are ornamental grasses, but avoid using them in a grid structure because the flowing grass will blend and you will lose the grid effect.
Groundcovers are of great use in modern gardens because their minimal height become ideal for filling grid patterns and areas that feature larger architectural plants. Low growing shrubs, vines, and groundcovers allowed to sprawl can offer a wide range of color and textures. When the groundcovers are blended into uniquely finished paving, the result can fabulous.

PLANT CONTAINERS

In modern landscapes where there is an abundance of pavement and few places to plant into natural soil, containers become a vital component.

In a modern garden, containers are always overly large, which allows them to contain architectural plants or textural statements.
With pots as with the plants, remember that more of them is not always better. A series of identically planted pots can be quite effective at highlighting a particular architectural detail or similar pots with different plants can be grouped to create an interesting look that plays off the different blooms or seasonal color.
Containers are best selected for their precise geometric forms. A box, cylinder or bowl each asks for different contents. In general, contrast the shape of the pot with that of the plant. TIP: Beware of very wide, shallow bowls that look fabulous but may lack sufficient depth for a solid root zone. If too shallow the soil mass may become overheated in summer, causing contents to discolor or dry out very quickly.
Select containers for their texture and color. Exterior glaze, imprinted pattern or color can make containers a work of art, with the plant sometimes merely an afterthought.