The Top Landscape Trends for Parks and Public Spaces in Florida

A well-designed and well-thought-out public space, park or place can add huge amounts of value to any public landscape.

Think about it, a beautiful, useful landscape is extending one of the most pleasant invitations you can offer to the public — an open, free-to-use space that’s been beautifully crafted and mindfully designed.

It’s like you’re offering out a soft, gorgeously-manicured handshake to the public —except, this time, that soft, gorgeously-manicured hand takes on the form of a community garden or a playground or an outdoor kitchen (or something else entirely).

Further, if you’re a commercial company with a large landscape and would want to create a stunning public space, you’ll end up gifting a beautiful, public area to people who aren’t directly affiliated with your commercial business. Aside from the fact that it’s simply a generous thing to do, that does wonders for your reputation.

By designing a flawless, state-of-the-art park or public space within the bounds of your Florida landscape, you become more accessible, more positively associated, and even more in demand.

Our Favorite Landscaping Trends for Public Spaces and Parks in Florida

So, how exactly do you go about designing an intricate-yet-understated park or public space? It just takes a little vision.

Check out some of our favorite public space and park landscape trends here!

Community Gardens

Gardening is all the rage right now, which we couldn’t be more excited about. Not only does this mean there’s a healthy shift toward wellness and eco-friendlier landscape opportunities, but it also means people are getting back to the roots (no pun intended) of working together to grow something beautiful.

Think about adding in a space (shared by the public) that hosts vegetable gardens, fruit trees, herbs, and more! Encourage people to share their growing tips and split the harvest among the garden members.

Multi-Purposes Spaces

Utilizing your park or public space as a multi-purpose area is great for a few reasons — it gifts you the flexibility to use your space for what you want when you want it but also allows you some room to rent that space out. Think about designing your space to be an amphitheater, a dog park, a concession area —something that can be used for multiple purposes. That way, if you plan to schedule several different types of events, you can get several uses out of this space!

Greenspaces

Greenspaces, like community gardens, are all the rage right now. And again, we couldn’t be happier to see this trend thriving. A greenspace is defined as an area that’s filled with grass, tree, and other vegetation among an urban environment — think of it as a pop of lively, plant-filled wonder in the midst of a city’s greyscale. It brings life to your space, it adds color, and it can dramatically improve the overall vibe of your landscape  — especially if you’re in a metropolitan area.

Greenspaces can be just about anything – you can implement things like green walls and food walls, green roofs, and even living playgrounds.

These eco-friendly, sustainable ideas can help to create a balance in your landscape, as well as usher in a more organic feel to your public space or park.

Trails

Adding in trails to your public space or park can be an astounding natural addition to your landscape — it also doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to do it! With walking trails, running trails, or hiking trails, you often don’t have to tear down a bunch of natural resources to get the type of trail you want. Instead, you can work with the natural area around you. Are you a coastal landscape? Let us help you set up a trail that leads to the beach. Do you have a wonderful collection of Florida flora and fauna on your property? That’s wonderful! We can set up a walking trail or running trail through this area that will highlight these beautiful features without having to tear them down. Adding in a trail or two to your public space or park can help to get people up and moving while encouraging the public to explore the beautiful, natural environment your property sits on.

Outdoor Common Kitchens

Another theme that’s circulating among public spaces and parks is to implement a homey feel within that space — adding in extensions of a home, like an outdoor kitchen or a pavilion for picnics is a great way to accomplish this.

Overall, you want to use this type of trend to accomplish a communal, cozy feeling —think grills or outdoor ovens, maybe a few TVs, perhaps a fireplace of a fire pit with great seating.

Adding in features like this gives your public space or park an at ease feel and will encourage people to spend more time in this area.

Water Features

As always, water features are a huge hit in public spaces and parks. If you’re going for more of a Zen vibe, try implementing peaceful or soothing fountains or waterfalls.

If you’d prefer to implement a more organic, eco-friendly vibe, try setting up a community hydroponic pond in your public space — like the community garden, this will encourage people to work together to enjoy the space you’ve provided them.

If you’re wanting to entertain rather than calm, consider fun splash pad features or a full sprinkler system set up for parents who have young children (we can guarantee they’re both going to love this one).Public places are designed to be attractive and welcoming to all, and our outstanding landscape designers are experts in creating 100% unique plans that fulfill those criteria. From complementing and enhancing the pre-existent landscaping to developing designs that reflect the natural beauty of your one-of-a-kind space, let us elevate your public spaces to the next level. If you’re interested in chatting with us, check out our site’s contact page or give us a call at (727)-201-3947. Want to explore even more landscape inspo? We’ve got you covered. Check out our regularly-updated blog here for more ideas, tips, and tricks!