West coast living offers many unique advantages for residents of coastal states, including warm weather that contributes to healthy, lush, green gardens! If you’re looking to add some new flowers and greenery to your west coast property but are a bit stuck for design ideas, check out some simple garden design tips and suggestions anyone can follow for a beautiful lawn and landscaping features.
Go Minimal
Many west coast homes are very modern, with clean, square lines and lots of metal and glass features. If you have a minimalist or modern home, you might also opt for some greens to soften the space but without becoming overwhelming. Choose small green shrubs to plant along the front walkway and edge of the driveway, to hide those lines and add some texture without adding too much vegetation.
Square box hedges are also an excellent choice for minimalist designs. Manicured shrubs add some green while also coordinating with the square lines of your house. You might also plant just one or two landscaping trees by the front of the home, to tone down those square lines while still keeping greenery a bit sparse.
Try Wildflowers
If you want to try something the opposite of minimal, consider layers of colorful wildflowers outside your west coast home! Add retaining walls or box planters along your yard to create a staggered look and mix up the wildflowers you plant. The more variety you add to your mixture, the more color and texture in your flowers!
You might also add a long row of tall sunflowers along your house or the fence, to provide a natural backdrop for those flowers. Sunflowers provide a rustic look along with lots of color and texture, creating even more visual interest for your new wildflowers.
Go for a Beach Theme
If you live on the west coast, why not try a beach theme for your house and your garden? Choose reeds and other plants that grow in marshy areas for your outdoor space. You might also plant these in pots and planters painted soft blue, green, yellow, and tan, all the colors of the beach!
Decorate Your Home’s Walkways
Many west coast homes have beautiful backyards and side yards, perfect for entertaining. An excellent way to break up the look of large plots of grass and ensure guests can easily make their way to nearby benches and seating areas is to use oversized patio pavers and stones. Pavers and stones add some texture and hardness to soft grass while also creating a natural walkway.
You might also add even more pops of color and texture by planting baby’s breath or another delicate green around the edges of those stones. Let the greenery fill in and get full so that it tones down the stones and creates some separation between the pavers and the grass, for maximum visual appeal and style.
Go For a Soft Cottage Look
The warm weather of the west coast is an excellent atmosphere for rosebushes to thrive, so consider a cottage look outside your house. Plant tea roses where you need low shrubbery and long-stemmed rosebushes along a tall fence, for something proportionate to its height.
Consider mixing and matching the color of your rosebushes for maximum visual impact. You also want to choose roses that complement but stand out from colors around them. For example, don’t plant white roses next to your white house as those flowers will then simply blend in! Choose white roses against a red brick house and red and yellow roses against a white house. Choosing opposing colors ensures maximum impact and an amazing style in your cottage themed west coast garden.