Lawn Alternatives and Ground Cover Design Ideas and Photos

What to use instead of thirsty turf — groundcovers, native grasses, gravel, stepping stone paths and where a small lawn is still worth keeping. Lawn is the most demanding surface in most gardens: it wants water, feeding, mowing, edging and full sun, and it repays that effort only where people actually walk on it. The intelligent approach is not to abolish lawn but to shrink it to the shape and size that gets used, then replace the leftovers — the shaded strip, the awkward corner, the nature strip, the slope — with something better suited. Groundcovers do the job where light foot traffic is occasional. Native violet in shade, dichondra for a soft green carpet, myoporum and grevillea prostrate forms on banks, thyme and chamomile in sunny pockets where crushing releases scent, and pigface or succulent mats in coastal heat. Planted at proper density with mulch between while they establish, they knit into a continuous surface within a season or two and need only an occasional trim. Grasses and gravel handle the rest. Lomandra, dianella, poa and carex in blocks give movement and structure and never need mowing. Decomposed granite or crushed stone with steel edging makes a beautiful, permeable...

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Beach House Designs

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens, Off-White Render and Bronze Fittings, Coastal Banksias, Spinifex Grasses and Windswept Dune. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com — Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens, Off-White Render and Bronze Fittings, Coastal Banksias, Spinifex Grasses and Windswept Dune Planting, featuring a Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle and Evening Deck Lighting, finished with Sculptural Feature Planting and Inviting

Bh 11 is part of our Beach House Designs collection — one of 57 large-format widescreen concept visuals in this section. It is presented here at full size so you can study the layout, the planting, the surfaces and the way light falls across the design before you commit to building anything on your own block.

Classic and modern coastal homes, dune gardens, decks and ocean-front living. Use this concept as a starting point: note the proportions between built form and greenery, where shade and shelter sit, how paths and paved areas move people through the space, and which materials repeat to hold the whole scheme together.

Every visual on this site is a design idea created for Home Design Photos. Browse the rest of the Beach House Designs collection, or open the complete image catalogue to see every home, garden, pool, pergola, furniture, lighting and beach house concept in one place.

← Relaxed Seaside Holiday Home Design with White Weatherboard Cladding and Verandah Lounge, BBQ Bench Relaxed Seaside Holiday Home Design with White Weatherboard Cladding and Verandah Lounge, BBQ Bench →

More Beach House Designs concepts

Modern Ocean-Front Home Design with Limewashed Timber and Plunge Pool, Shaded Cabana and Boardwalk

Modern Ocean-Front Home Design with Limewashed Timber, Charcoal Roofing and Glass Balustrades, Frangipani, Agapanthus and Soft Silver Coastal Foliage, featuring a Plunge Pool, Shaded Cabana and Boardwalk Approach, with Considered Outdoor Zoning and Soft Layered Textures Throughout

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding, Sandy Stone Paving and Woven Cane Detailing, Sea Grasses, Pigface and Low Sculptural. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding and Sheltered Alfresco Dining Terrace and Sun

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding, Sandy Stone Paving and Woven Cane Detailing, Sea Grasses, Pigface and Low Sculptural Shrubs, featuring a Sheltered Alfresco Dining Terrace and Sun Lounge Zone, complemented by Durable Weatherproof Finishes and Low-Maintenance Detailing

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens, Off-White Render and Bronze Fittings, Coastal Banksias, Spinifex Grasses and Windswept Dune Planting, featuring a Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle and Evening Deck Lighting, finished with Sculptural Feature Planting and Inviting

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

Dune-Side Beach House Design with Bleached Timber Battens, Pale Render and Black Framed Glazing, Clipped Hedging, Feature Palms and Pale. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Dune-Side Beach House Design with Bleached Timber Battens and Wide Ocean-View Deck, Outdoor Shower

Dune-Side Beach House Design with Bleached Timber Battens, Pale Render and Black Framed Glazing, Clipped Hedging, Feature Palms and Pale Pebble Borders, featuring a Wide Ocean-View Deck, Outdoor Shower and Relaxed Lounge Setting, balanced by Clean Sightlines, Shaded Retreats

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding and Sheltered Alfresco Dining Terrace and Sun

Complete image catalogue

Aerial Top View Garden Layout Design Ideas and Photos

Why looking straight down reveals a garden's real design — grids, axes, proportion, circulation and the layouts that read beautifully from above.

Photographed from directly above, a garden cannot hide behind planting or clever angles. The plan is exposed: the proportion of paving to green, whether lines relate to the building, how circulation actually works, and whether the spaces have deliberate shapes or are simply what was left over. That is why designers draw in plan first, and why aerial photographs are the fastest way to learn what makes a layout work.

The strongest layouts are built on a grid taken from the house. Extend the lines of walls, window openings and doorways into the garden, and use them to set the edges of terraces, lawns, pools and beds. Paving modules aligned to that grid, a path centred on a door, a pool parallel to the main elevation — these decisions cost nothing and they are what makes a garden feel resolved even when the planting is young.

Proportion and shape do the rest. Give each area a clear geometric footprint — a rectangle of lawn, a square terrace, a long rill — rather than curves drawn to avoid obstacles. Where curves are used, make them generous and confident, struck from a single centre rather than wandering. Leave one area deliberately open, because a garden with no empty space reads as clutter from above and feels busy at ground level.

Garden Plans design ideas photo from the Aerial Top View Garden Layout Design Ideas and Photos feature. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Then check circulation and light in plan. Paths should follow the route people actually take, with widths that suit two people side by side on the main run. Mark where shade falls at midday in summer and midwinter and place the seating accordingly. Finally, look at the ratio of hard surface to planting: the gardens that photograph best from above are usually around one third built and two thirds green, no matter what style they are.

House Design Photos is a HUGE Library Gallery and Directory of Home Design Photos

Lawn Alternatives and Ground Cover Design Ideas and Photos

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

More Beach House Designs concepts

Aerial Top View Garden Layout Design Ideas and Photos