Flowers have given way to food. Instead of pruning roses, people prefer to pick vegetables, herbs and fruit. Any ornamental gardens need to be low maintenance. Micha believes the popularity of food shows has increased our appetite for home-grown produce, but only in small amounts.
"People are really into cooking their own food outdoors. Raised vegetable garden boxes are definitely the craze at the moment."
They're not doing a lot of gardening but Micha says people find it satisfying to grow a few lettuces and tomatoes. Outdoor fireplaces, barbecues and pizza ovens really appeal to the foodies. Traditional wood-fired pizza ovens are quite popular.
"There is so much available now, even with pizza ovens, you can actually purchase bricks and ready-made kit sets to do it yourself. There are ready-made light pizza ovens that can be installed. It doesn't need to be horrendously expensive."
As for the rest of the garden, Micha says people are looking for clean lines and planting areas that are low maintenance. Grasses are a big favourite. With the dry conditions, native grasses have given way to Australian hearty grasses which can handle drought. The Lomandra family of grasses can be seen along the motorways and are also popular for home use.
Micha says plants and grasses in gardens today are more like architectural features that blend to create simple clean lines as opposed to older gardens where plants stood out as individual features themselves.
"Modern gardens are minimalistic but still architecturally well designed. The living area or courtyard gives the feeling of an outdoor room where you cook and eat."
Small stone fruit trees which don't grow too large or need a lot of maintenance are also common. Retaining walls can help to form clean lines and create planting areas that are low maintenance.
"If you've got a slope or hill that's planted out you need to mulch it and trim it, or weeds grow. If you build a retaining wall, that's a nice clean line and you can put a hedging plant on top."
Lawns are still popular with young families and dog owners. It's nice to be able to sit on a lawn under a shade tree but Micha recommends the lawn be clean from other plants or trees so that they're quick and easy to mow. Trees work best on the edge of a lawn.
"The old-fashioned style where you had trees and shrubs in the lawn, that's certainly out of fashion. The lawn areas are becoming less popular," says Micha.
A lawn is still the simplest way to achieve the 35 per cent permeability each section must have by law, but outdoor eco tiles can also create a permeable surface. For people who want to fully landscape all or part of an outdoor area, Micha recommends an eco-approach to weed control.
"A lot of home owners use weed mat because they think it will actually stop the weeds growing. It's a proven fact that it might stop them for little bit but the weeds will grow on top of the weed mat eventually," Micha says.
Weed mat also deprives the soil of oxygen and prevents the plants from absorbing nutrition as easily. Mahler suggests using something that will decompose such as coconut fibre instead. The best way to stop weeds long-term is to densely cover the area with underplanting such as grasses, buxus, ivy or low-growing shrubs.
Double hedging is also popular -- a small hedge in front of a larger hedge. With rows of plants in this situation it's good to have a drip line at the base of the plants for irrigation. Watering systems that sprinkle or spray aren't environmentally friendly because water is wasted through evaporation.
Water features in the garden have also changed over the past few years. The main rule of thumb is that they must not have standing water in them. Ponds create algae, are high maintenance and breed mosquitoes. Modern water features often incorporate a statue or sculpture which can be appreciated whether the water is running or not.
When the water is on, it flows down through pebbles on a grate and back into the pump system. Water features might not be a great selling feature if they are not well built or are too personalised. Micha says to consider your target market.
"If your house is modern, the garden is modern; and the modern sculpture will certainly go down quite well."
