• "Cool" landscaping is in the eye of the beholder.sculpture of mushroom in garden. garden decoration image by L. Shat from Fotolia.com
  
  Minimalism in landscaping is in. So is extravagance. But, in both cases, the landscape is only as cool as the deliberate sense of style behind it. Turn your tar beach into an oasis that's a low-maintenance retreat. Create your own Petit Trianon in the crabgrass. Or contemplate the essential emptiness of a spare natural landscape and resist the urge to reshape it.
  
  

Almost Heaven

• The roof is the new yard--go totally green or just arrange a container patio up there for a breath of fresh air and a closer vantage point for star gazing. Landscape your roof with deck areas for chairs and tables and sections of plantings that add foliage, flowers or organic vegetables. Rule No. 1 is keep it simple. That's also rule No. 2. Containers that are custom-designed in sleek modern or bold sculptural shapes can hold low-maintenance green bushes, trees and plants. Repurposed metal tubs or wooden barrels give the roof the appearance of a "found" hideaway and can hold wildflowers, herbs and tomato vines or a desert full of cactus. Add a self-contained waterfall or water wall and conceal lighting to create evening ambiance that won't overwhelm the view of the city or the night sky.
  
  

Personal Palace

• Borrow ideas from famous palaces and estates to transform your yard into something royal and mysterious. Villa Vizcaya on Miami's Biscayne Bay is an entire estate and grounds imported and embellished by a wealthy industrialist to be an Old World home in the New World. The gardens are famous for secret rooms and passages, statues and sculptures placed among banks of ferns and overgrown by tropical trees. There are reflecting pools bordered by carved limestone paths, columns and pillars that hold up nothing but sky, stone benches, fountains and winding walks through herbs and flowers. You may not have bayfront acreage and a large fortune, but you can tuck a small grotto with a waterfall or fountain into a corner and pave a path to it through plantings of hedges, rose trellis or bamboo. By choosing a few good ideas you can enter another era every time you step into your backyard.
  
  

Un-landscaping

• The coolest landscape may be the one that's already there. Site your vacation home on a rocky promontory, in a whispery, sun-dappled forest, at the edge of a fishing village or an endless prairie--or any other place that is inherently striking. And then don't do very much at all. Survey the views from every window, door and deck. Check each season to see how the landscape changes. Research indigenous plants and learn everything you can about the native geology. Aim for the smallest possible footprint on your land. Be sparing when planting. Try to find vegetation that can thrive in the natural climate without elaborate irrigation or gardening. Leave vistas uninterrupted--set outdoor chairs and tables right on a flat stretch of rock or in a clearing. Let large windows frame the view like a painting. Keep a waterside deck and dock unadorned. Consider recreational vehicles--boats, all-terrain vehicles, even the family car--for form as well as function and leave them out where they become part of the scenery. Inhabit, don't decorate, your space.