Contemporary Cool: A Lush Modern Garden Design

A few steps can make your modern design lush and inviting.

By Courtney Olander Fine Gardening - Issue 189

There’s plenty of room for people and plants. A big knock against modern landscapes is that they can be uninviting and lacking in plants. This space, however, is neither.

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One of the first times I met Ahna and Ryan, the homeowners of a property in Seattle I’d just been asked to landscape, I knew they were a creative, industrious, and ambitious pair. They had just renovated a “tear-down listing” into a model of modern chic, though the lack of storage at their new dream house prompted the need for an outdoor shed. Unfortunately, nothing they saw matched their contemporary aesthetic, so the couple ended up designing and building their own. This custom shed ended up being not only the impetus for a new company, Modern Shed, but also the inspiration for a contemporary and stylish garden I got to design.

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