This garden showcases the amazing results you can achieve if you design your kitchen extension and garden together at the same time, especially if you will have large glass sliders looking at into the garden. This garden’s transformation started as bare bones block-wall & dilapidated fence. Designed for a young family in Cabinteely. The small footprint is tasked with serving multiple roles: from kids play areas to evening entertainment space, storage shed, privacy buffer to the surrounding houses as well as being the aesthetic backdrop to a new glass-wall extension. Bearing in mind the compact area the privacy screening is selected as slimline evergreen Espaliers along the back wall, effectively blocking out all onlooking windows to the rear. This drastically improves the privacy of not just the garden but also the client’s kitchen & family area. Living with kids through the Irish seasons means that the lawn is not just essential to keep in place for play but to also ensuring it is usable throughout the year. A space like this justifies the use of artificial lawn so come rain, hail or shine the garden is never off limits. To achieve multiple uses within the garden we have carefully set the size of the terrace. The terrace protrudes into the lawn just enough to feel generous without compromising the overall balance. By keeping the levels of the lawn & terrace flush with one another allows them be treated as one continuous surface. A limestone border draws the eyeline around the overall perimeter of this compact space. To ensure that the hard landscaping does not dominate we have foliage between each surface, slim flower beds in front of the shed & freestanding pots of luscious evergreens by the floor-to-ceiling windows. This ensures a lush view onto the garden throughout the year.

Wantirna South

Inspiring Landscape Solutions by Parveen Dhaliwal

Wantirna - Uncommon metal lightbox colour which appeals to the clients heritage and interests and also creates visual appeal from inside the house. Garden lighting to provide night accents. For more pics, please refer to the Wantina project album

Garden Dublin 4

Amazon Landscaping and Garden Design

Gold Granite Patio Boxwood Lollipop planting in urban Garden Design by Amazon Landscaping 014060004 Amazonlandscaping.ie
Photo of a small contemporary backyard partial sun formal garden for summer in Dublin with a garden path, natural stone pavers and a wood fence.

Contemporary Curb Appeal & Outdoor Living

GO Designs Inc.

Completing the Vibe...Cool & Contemporary Curb Appeal that helps complete our clients special spaces. From the start...it feels like it was here all along. The perimeter tree line serving as a partial wind break has a feel that most parks long for. Lit up at night, it almost feels like youre in a downtown urban park. Forever Lawn grass brightens the front lawn without all the maintenance. Full accessibility with custom concrete rocksalt deck pads makes it easy for everyone to get around. Accent lighting adds to the environments ambiance positioned for safety and athletics. Natural limestone & mossrock boulders engraves the terrain, softening the energy & movement. We bring all the colors together on a custom cedar fence that adds privacy & function. Moving into the backyard, steps pads, ipe deck & forever lawn adds depth and comfort making spaces to slow down and admire your moments in the landscaped edges.

New build garden - Olympic park Stratford

Melanie Hick Garden Design

This blank canvas space in a new build in London's Olympic park had a bespoke transformation without digging down into soil. The entire design sits on a suspended patio above a carpark and includes bespoke features like a pergola, seating, bug hotel, irrigated planters and green climbers. The garden is a haven for a young family who love to bring their natural finds back home after walks.

Contemporary back garden, Wimbledon, 5

Kate Eyre Garden Design

This is an example of a small contemporary backyard garden in London with a fire feature, river rock and a wood fence.

Durham Contemporary Courtyard Garden

Eves & Lewis Landscape Design

Our ‘Romantic Courtyard Garden’ in Durham has been awarded a BALI medal for Design Excellence in the BALI National Landscape Awards for 2020. The brief for this garden was to create a private romantic space for dining and relaxation. A row of pleached ornamental pears (Pyrus chanticleer) and some strategically placed Beech trees provide privacy from several overlooking houses, this gives the space a feeling of green enclosure. A bespoke Oak pergola draws the eye upwards whilst also giving cover from neighbouring properties. A spherical water feature is the central focus here with a backdrop of grasses and dogwoods. Sawn ivory sandstone paving (Stonemarket Paleo) mirrors the interior ground floor of the house, bringing the inside out. This is contrasted by dark grey Baksteen pavers. Traditional materials used in a contemporary way mirror the architecture of the house. Planting is loose and informal. To combat impoverished soil, raised beds were made to create two large feature Rose beds containing mass plantings of David Austin Rosa ‘Princess Anne’ and cheerful Mexican daisies (Erigeron karvinskianus) Winter structure is provided by Osmanthus and Ilex crenata. A subtle lighting scheme extends the gardens use into the evening providing a stunning view from the house in the winter.

Quaint Corner Resort

Alderwood Landscape Architecture and Construction

This couple wanted to get the most out of their small, suburban backyard by implementing an adult design separate from the kids' area, but within its view. Our team designed a courtyard-like feel to make the space feel larger and to provide easy access to the shed/office space. The delicate water feature and fire pit are the perfect elements to provide a resort feel.

Retaining Walls

Spartan Landscapes

The brief of this project was very clear and simple. The clients wanted to transform their overgrown and non functional back yard to a usuable and practical space. The location is in Rye, Vic. The solution was to build tiered retaining walls to stabilize the slope and create level and usuable platforms. This proved challanging as the soil mostly contains sand, especially here on the lower end of the peninsula, which made excavating easy however difficult to retain the cut once excavated. Therefore the retaining walls had to be constructed in stages, bottom wall to top wall, back filling and stabilizing the hill side as the next wall got erected. The end result met all expectations of the clients and the back yard was transformed from an unusable slope to a functional and secure space.

Butterfly ad Bee-Feeding Parkway

FormLA Landscaping

A prostrate native salvia and succulent Rock Purslane fill the parkway with fragrance and dancing blooms and are impossible to walk by without smiling.

Queens Park

Lucy Willcox Garden Design

For this lovely project the clients wanted to pack a lot into this compact space. A space for the adults to entertain and somewhere for the kids to play. As the garden is very much on display from the kitchen it needed to feel like a natural extension of the internal living space and a pleasure to look out onto all year round. We expect so much from gardens of this size so they need to be hard working spaces. To include all that was requested takes balance in the composition and a considered design, less is more. The garden will effectively be broken down into dining, relaxing, play areas for the kids and a great planting scheme, of course! In smaller gardens you want to make the biggest impact with the planting with bold planting beds, which is exactly what we can do in this space, the beds will be full of lush evergreen ferns with pockets of flowering perennials.

The Lodge, Fulham Cemetery (Grand Designs)

Harry Holding Studio

The back garden for an innovative property in Fulham Cemetery - the house featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs in January 2021. The design had to enhance the relationship with the bold, contemporary architecture and open up a dialogue with the wild green space beyond its boundaries. Seen here in spring, this lush space is an immersive journey through a woodland edge planting scheme.

Murrumbeena 2021

Inspiring Landscape Solutions by Parveen Dhaliwal

Front garden view
Design ideas for a mid-sized contemporary front yard garden for summer with with rock feature, river rock and a wood fence.

Modern Wood Fence For Backyard

Big Rock Landscaping

The clean lines and medium wood tone of this backyard fence work beautifully with the modern vibe of the space.
Inspiration for a contemporary backyard garden in Salt Lake City with with privacy feature, gravel and a wood fence.

Project Hemera, North London

CCASA Architects

A landscape designer, Jenny Bloom Landscape, designed the big rear garden in different spaces and very well integrated with the architecture.
Large contemporary backyard full sun formal garden in London with natural stone pavers and a wood fence for spring.

Gamma Beta

Josh Wynne Construction

Inspiration for an expansive contemporary backyard full sun xeriscape for summer in Tampa with with path, river rock and a wood fence.

Upper West Side Townhouse Garden

Birch and Basil Design

Wrap around fencing and custom planters along with the bespoke pergola create a lush outdoor room framed by floor to ceiling glass windows and doors, blurring the lines between indoors and out. Limelight hydrangeas, Japanese maples, laurels, azaleas and heucheras anchor this shade tolerant plant palette.

Norwood | Front Garden & Driveway

Catnik Design Studio

NORWOOD | FRONT GARDEN Breath of fresh air | Slick upgrade for front garden Front Garden Areas Our client brief was to give their tired ‘old’ garden a complete makeover. A new driveway to replace the old red brick drive, create a garden out of an unused passageway style lifeless garden. We guided our clients to embrace a new fresh look whilst looking back to the heritage style for design detail and quirky interest. The new driveway is polished concrete with strips of bluestone cobbles which link the new bluestone pathway to the front door. The cobble feature harks back to the 1900’s brickwork on the northern side wall. Here there are small feature bricks running parallel with the ‘old reds’ giving the wall visual interest and a quirky detail. A new front fence with a little more height for balance to the gable. The entrance entices visitors through a generous gate to polished concrete steppers planted with dwarf mondo grass. Newly painted driveway fence planted with Star Jasmine to create a green wall along the northern fence line. New lawn and garden beds cool the western garden areas incorporating classic modern garden design and lighting. There is an excellent balance between soft and hard landscaping. Catnik Design Studio designed and constructed this project. residential | garden design and construct designer Cathy Apps, Dip Landscape Design landscape design | catnik design studio

Worcester Park 3

David Simpson Gardens

This is an example of a mid-sized contemporary backyard partial sun garden for summer in Surrey with a wood fence.

Urban Garden

Amazon Landscaping and Garden Design

Acer Japonica Maple Trees, Grasses and ferns in small Garden Design by Amazon Landscaping and Garden Design mALCI 014060004 Amazonlandscaping.ie
This is an example of a small contemporary backyard full sun formal garden for summer in Dublin with a garden path, natural stone pavers and a wood fence.

Contemporary Garden Design Ideas with a Wood Fence

Get Inspired by Contemporary Gardens on Houzz

A lot of the time when you get home from a long day at work, all you want to do is wind down. Where better to do this than in your very own contemporary garden at home? If you do it right, a great garden design can send you right into holiday mode. But where to start? There’s so many styles to choose from when it comes to garden design. Whether you want to create a tropical, modern, contemporary, beach style or country garden - or something else entirely - the large garden image gallery on Houzz has got you covered. Get inspired and collect your ideas to narrow down your desired garden style and features.

How to Create a Contemporary Garden for Your Home

Depending on which style you’re going for, be sure to know what makes a contemporary garden and if it’s appropriate for your climate. You may want to consider adding a deck or other landscaping features, but the plants you choose will mostly dictate your style and what kind of ongoing maintenance is required. Don’t worry if your backyard isn’t very spacious - there are many plants that can thrive even in a small space and allow you to turn your space into a little paradise of your own, regardless of size.

Decide which plants to use

The greenery you choose is critical to your look. For example, if you’re trying to create a tropical garden palm trees and bamboo are your go-to options. Other popular options are golden cane palm trees and fern for ground cover. From there you can add some colour with bright flowers like frangipani, hibiscus or bromeliads. All these are actually quite hardy plants, so once established, your tropical garden is actually quite easy to maintain. Use this structure and apply it to your style. Research which plants you need to set your base for a contemporary garden and go from there.

Add some decor

If the plants don’t quite do it for you yet, or if you want to add some extra wow-factor, consider adding some extra features. Even if you can’t accommodate a swimming pool, hot tub or pond, you could look at smaller water features. Simple rocks can also have a great effect, while statues and gnomes will add some extra character. Don’t forget to add some furniture so you have a nice place to sit and enjoy your garden!

Need some help?

Once you know what you want your garden to look like, it may be hard to make it a reality on your own. If that is the case for you, consider consulting a professional to help you with your contemporary garden design. Every photo you find on Houzz will lead you to the local pro that did the job, so you won’t have a problem picking the perfect person to help! Whether you need a gardener in Brisbane, a landscape architect in Melbourne or a fireplace installer in Sydney, you can be sure to find one on Houzz.