If you want to enter the new year with fresh ideas for your design/build projects, it may be time to seek out new sources of inspiration.
One of the best ways to expand your toolbox of design concepts is to visit other gardens and landscapes. These locations can expose different approaches to common landscape challenges or unique takes on where certain plants can be used.
Places to Visit
While traveling internationally will definitely provide novel perspectives, it might not be exactly practical for your organization to fund this type of travel, so we’ll be focusing on options you can visit within the U.S. and some may even be in your backyard, depending on your location.
Botanical Gardens
There are numerous botanical gardens scattered across the country and often feature curated plant palettes and numerous landscape styles throughout their grounds. These gardens can be used to also gain an understanding of how different plants mature over time.
Revisiting botanical gardens during the various seasons can also provide ways to create seasonal interest in your clients’ properties throughout the year.
Where to visit:
- Longwood Gardens – Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
- Missouri Botanical Garden – St. Louis, Missouri
- United States Botanic Garden – Washington, D.C.
- Desert Botanical Garden – Phoenix, Arizona
- New York Botanical Garden – Bronx, New York
Historic and Specialty Gardens
Historic gardens can provide insights into plant maturity and long-term scale and highlight which design principles are timeless. Pay attention to how different materials weather and how spaces evolve over time so you can create designs that keep clients happy long-term.
Public gardens that focus on a particular specialty, such as the Portland Japanese Garden, offer the opportunity to explore specific concepts and see which plants work well for specific styles. Â
Where to visit:
- Biltmore Estate Gardens – Asheville, North Carolina
- Portland Japanese Garden – Portland, Oregon
- Bellingrath Gardens & Home – Mobile, Alabama
- Filoli Historic House & Garden – Woodside, California
- Stan Hywet Hall – Akron, Ohio
University Campuses
An easily overlooked source of inspiration are university campuses. Because of their high foot traffic, these locations can be studied for their pedestrian flow, where people naturally gather and their sustainability initiatives.
Campuses can be useful from a residential or commercial viewpoint as the concepts can be scaled up or down depending on the client.
Where to visit:
- Michigan State University
- University of Washington
- Texas A&M University
Mixed-Use Landscapes and Urban Parks
On the commercial side, visiting boutique hotels, resorts and corporate campuses that are open to the public can give you ideas for generating curb appeal as well as what works as focal points.
You can also take note of how they create year-round interest and their usage of container plantings.
Urban parks, plazas and waterfronts are ideal for finding which plant material thrives under real-world stress. Consider the hardscape-softscape balance across different commercial spaces as well.
Where to visit:
- The High Line – New York City, New York
- Lurie Garden – Chicago, Illinois
- Klyde Warren Park – Dallas, Texas
Other Inspiration Sources
If travel is not an option due to time or budgetary restrictions, other inspiration sources include industry design magazines, reviewing recent award-winning projects, and exploring interior design concepts.
Also, inspiration doesn’t have to be a solo pursuit. Oftentimes your fellow designers can have a fresh take on a project you are struggling with. Consider having show-and-tell inspiration sessions where your design team discusses their sources of new ideas or hobbies that have helped them approach designs with a different lens.
Depending on the project, sometimes delving into the history of the site can also provide additional concepts you can incorporate into the design.
However you choose to find new inspiration, make sure you capture these ideas and build a library of these concepts you can return to throughout the year.
