Why the Best Luxury Landscapes Don't Look "Overdone"
You can’t wait to fill your luxury landscape with fantastic plants. Let’s see, maybe every variety of hibiscus, a grove of royal palms, maybe a hedge of ixora that weaves throughout your whole property. And of course you’ll install landscape lighting to illuminate it all…
Whoa, slow down please. Just because you can buy every plant that thrives in Sarasota, then shine a light on them all, doesn’t mean you should.
Do you want an elegant landscape design or a crowded jumble?
A luxurious landscape is created by thoughtful, intentional design—not by the number of plants and landscape features you can pack in.
How to avoid overdone landscaping? Be selective about your landscaping plants — don’t include too many varieties. Incorporate subtle, elegant lighting. Use an expanse of lawn for simplicity and to give the eye a rest. Incorporate mass plantings for impressive impact.
Let’s learn more about luxury landscape design ideas, including:
Don’t Use Too Many Varieties of Plants
We have a technical landscape design term for too many plants: mish mash. (OK, it’s not that technical.)
It’s pretty easy to do, actually, with all the amazing tropical plants we have here in Florida.
Blue daze. Crotons. Hibiscus.
Bougainvillea. Pygmy date palms. African iris. Pink muhly grass. Passion flower.
You want them all, right?
We’ve seen it happen. Hibiscus lovers with luxury landscape design ideas end up with every color and variety, amassing an actual collection. It’s too much.
We get it. We’re lucky to live in a tropical environment, where lush and full is the look homeowners want.
But that can look messy and overdone fast. It’s not high-end landscaping.
Aim for a reasonable mix of plants for elegant landscape design, with no more than 15-20 varieties.
Some of our go-tos:
- Christmas palms
- Areca palm
- Green island ficus
- Hibiscus
- Ixora
- Shefflera ‘Dazzle’
- Liriope ‘Super Blue’
- Dombeya ‘Seminole’
- Iris ‘Regina’
- Variegated shell ginger
Fewer plant varieties makes maintenance a lot easier, too. More on this in a bit.
How to Avoid Overdone Landscaping? Try Mass Planting
Easy and elegant, mass planting works just like it sounds — instead of two or three pink muhly grass or blue daze, you plant 20. Or more. It’s a smart way to create impressive impact, and avoid the mish mash (sorry for the technical talk) of too many varieties of plants.
Bonus: it’s easier to maintain than taking care of a planting bed with a bunch of different plants. When you plant one thing, they all have the same needs.
If you plant a bunch of agaves that need little water next to a thirsty peace lily, one of them will die.
Plant 30 blue daze that all need the same irrigation and light, and watch them thrive.
Lighting for Elegant Landscape Design
Landscape lighting is a must have for the best luxury landscapes. Why leave all that beauty in the dark?
Landscape lighting highlights your high-end landscaping features and impressive architectural details and makes your home look welcoming, luxurious, secure and valued.
But it’s easy to overdo it, with too much lighting. If you light every great plant, palm, statue, fountain and pergola, nothing will seem special.
The best landscape lighting is subtle and understated. Uplighting is a classic example. If it’s done right, you probably won’t notice that the light is coming from down below. You’ll just notice that whatever it’s lighting looks great.
Wall washing is another example of subtle, elegant lighting that doesn’t look overdone. It provides a classy “wash” of light, casting a soft, even illumination over a wide surface like a garden wall or a grouping of shorter palm trees.
Follow a few key lighting design tips to avoid overdone illumination:
- Less is more for elegant landscape design. Choose a few focal points to light, rather than lighting every plant or landscape feature.
- Lighting is great, but shadows are cool, too. Some dark spaces make your illuminated spots seem more special and dramatic. Let some dark spaces create depth and mystery.
- Layer lighting for an upscale, subtle effect. Combine low wattage and soft lighting, rather than relying on a single blinding floodlight.
- Use shields to direct light only where it’s needed, down toward your pathways, patio, and landscape, reducing upward spillover and glare.
Homeowners with luxury landscape design ideas often have the best intentions. But they’re not landscape lighting pros, so their ideas don’t always work.
One Tropical Gardens client bought several medjool palms for his landscaping, paying $5,000 for each elegant beauty. Of course he wanted to light them at night. Who wouldn’t? He asked us to plan on two lights to highlight each palm.
But there was barely enough space to achieve that. The lights would end up too close together.
This homeowner knew the value of illuminating his beautiful high-end palms. Curb appeal matters, especially to homeowners of luxury estates in high-value coastal areas like Siesta Key and Longboat Key.
Any real estate expert will tell you that homes with professional landscape lighting look more luxurious, attract more buyer interest, and sell faster.
But it’s easy to add too much lighting to a landscape.
How to avoid overdone landscaping? Lighting is a job best left to landscape lighting professionals who are skilled in the art and science of lighting; knowledgeable about color temperature, beam spread and voltage; and with the design know-how to light your landscape elegantly without overdoing it.
Don’t Underestimate the Simple Elegance of Lawn
Don’t assume that lawn is too boring for your high-end landscaping style.
Simple can be luxurious. We love a beautiful expanse of healthy green lawn. It gives your eyes a break from all the plant material.
Simplicity is good. It’s also less expensive than more complicated, overdone landscaping.
One Tropical Gardens client said she didn’t want any grass. She thought it was too boring for high-end landscaping style. We had already created a design that included 1,800 square feet of grass at a cost of $4 per square foot.
Her plan to forego lawn for an assortment of ground covers like mimosa and perennial peanut would have cost thousands of dollars more.
Which leads us to…
Overdone Landscaping Costs More to Maintain
Let’s dive deeper into that lawn vs. a variety of ground covers situation.
If that client went with 1,800 square feet of grass, she would have paid one landscaping crew member $18 an hour to mow the grass.
But with a large expanse of assorted ground covers, she would have to pay two crew members: a more experienced one at the rate of $28 an hour for hand pruning and edging plus an $18 an hour crew member to follow behind and collect debris.
The more plants you have, the dramatically more expensive your high-end landscaping maintenance will be.
If you have 40-50 varieties of plants on a quarter-acre property you’ll need maintenance three times a week as opposed to weekly.
An overdone yard isn’t just unappealing — it’s expensive.
The Best Luxury Landscapes Require Patience
It’s our human nature to want fast results. But a luxury landscape isn’t like a double cheeseburger you grab in the drive through.
High-end landscapes mature gracefully over time. They don’t happen all at once.
Part of this is due to the need to space plants properly when you plant them.
If you’re in a hurry for an instant garden and space plants too close together, they’ll struggle, and end up too crowded as they grow. Your garden will look overdone, jammed full of too many plants. Plants need room to breathe and spread.
Young plants look a bit sparse at first, but crowding them leads to a cluttered landscape later.
Remember, dreaming and anticipating is part of the fun, too.
Frequently Asked Questions About Elegant Landscape Design
Q: How many different varieties of plants is too many in one yard?
A: We suggest no more than 15-20 varieties for an elegant high-end landscape design.
Q: Where should you install landscape lighting to highlight important elements without lighting too much?
A: A professional landscape designer can help. You want a strategic lighting design that offers a tasteful balance of safety, security and aesthetic appeal. That means lighting paths and your driveway; entrances; select trees and other garden features. Light outdoor entertaining areas like patios, tikis and pergolas. Pool area landscape lighting should be part of the plan, too.
Q: What’s the best way to install a lot of plants without creating overdone landscaping?
A: The secret to a lush, bountiful tropical garden bed is planting in tiers — not just randomly packing your landscape with an assortment of plants.
We arrange plants with the tallest in back, medium in the middle and shorter plants in front.
Use a variety of plants with different heights, colors, shapes and textures. Include plants with intriguing foliage so you’re not just depending on flowers, that often only bloom for a few weeks. Great foliage plants look impressive in your high-end landscape design all the time.
Ready for Elegant Luxury Landscape Design? Talk to Us
Worried you’ll choose too many plants and end up with the dreaded mish mash? Not sure which landscape features you should light and which can remain in the shadows?
We’d love to help with your high-end landscaping in Sarasota.
Tropical Gardens provides comprehensive design/build services that ensure every element in your luxury landscape design works together as one cohesive outdoor environment.
You’re looking for elevated outdoor living experiences, sophisticated garden design, and long-term property enhancement that looks elegant and impressive, not overdone.
We specialize in luxury landscaping in Sarasota, offering the innovative, unique designs and features you expect and the impeccable customer service you deserve.
Chat with one of our skilled landscape designers, who are happy to help you begin the journey.
Give us a call or fill out our form today! Our designers are ready to help you figure out all the stunning features you need, from lush privacy to resort-level luxury features that make for your perfect outdoor haven. No mish mash.
