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Summer is prime time to give your Midland, MI landscape a do-over and make it the perfect outdoor living space. Here are the hottest summer trends to update your landscape design:
Minimalism with color
An emerging trend for the summer is the increasing popularity of smooth and sleek, contemporary design elements for your landscape. Maximize the use of straight lines and edges in your design, complemented with uniform and smooth curves where needed. For hardscaping, consider pavers with subtle surface textures and clean, straight edges. In contrast to the strictly subdued hues most modern designs followed in the past, you can be more adventurous with your color choices in 2018. Artline pavers remain a popular choice for achieving this aesthetic with their clean, straight-edged design. This paver sets a foundation onto which brighter accents can be added.
This trend extends to softscaping as well, with evergreen shrubs and trees being favored over deciduous plants. Complement your hardscaping with bright flower beds as a focal point in your design. In areas where you are challenged for space, make use of planters with bright flowers, such as along walkways and driveways.
Outdoor Kitchens
Outdoor kitchens have been trending strongly for many years and continue to do so into 2018. Imagine an open kitchen complete with counters, storage space, and grill extending smoothly into a dining area on your patio. Outdoor kitchens continue with the trend of sectioning outdoor spaces into rooms. Use strongly contrasting borders and accents to clearly separate your kitchen from your dining and sitting areas. Outdoor kitchens will also go a long way in enhancing the functionality of your yard. Be sure to keep the surrounding masonry in focus when creating your grill island, and remember to keep the overall design conforming to the texture or color of your paving with some contrasting accents to keep things interesting.
Sustainability
The trend of increasingly sustainable design elements continues this summer. This means minimizing the environmental impact of your whole design from construction to daily maintenance. Consider using a Unilock Authorized Contractor with a strong background in sustainable construction practices to minimize waste. In keeping with this trend, lawns are being kept to a minimum and being replaced by trees, shrubs, and softscape elements that are less thirsty and retain more water. You can also minimize the impact of your hardscaping by using eco-friendly pavers such as the Eco-Priora line from Unilock. These permeable pavers allow rainwater to pass through the paved surface, fortifying underground water resources while minimizing surface water runoff, soil erosion and water usage throughout your yard.
Fire Pits
Fire pits continue to be a highly sought-after addition for Midland landscapes, especially as the warm summer days descend into chillier nights. Moreover, fire pit kits, such as the Rivercrest Firepit Kit offered by Unilock make the installation quick and painless, with the added advantage of top-notch quality and seamless integration with your existing hardscaping. Fire pits can be the life of a party, providing warmth and light and motivating people to gather around and converse.
