Landscaping
There are other less contentious areas of modern gardens where we can now see the use of tightly clipped hedging. Rather than being used for marking a boundary or backing a border, the blocks of hedges here are building blocks of the design. On a practical basis, creating controlled sections of hedging within borders, instead of having traditional plant groupings, reduces the amount of maintenance to almost zero.
Step-over hedges. I stirred up a hornet's nest in my ideabook on step-over hedges. These tightly clipped low hedges are becoming quite popular on new housing estates and are used to separate front gardens from the pavement or road. The contentious issue is that the species that tend to be used, such as Viburnum tinus and Prunus laurocerasus, are large, strong shrubs if left to grow unclipped.
Here we see a formal low-clipped boxwood hedge under the raised hedge of Photinia x fraseri 'Red Robin'. Both are evergreen, creating great year-round interest.
Hedge & grass
Around trees. Many trees have a unique form to their trunk and branches — a feature that should be emphasized. Instead of planting shrubs and perennials around the base of a feature tree, try incorporating a carpet of ground cover that will allow the root form to be appreciated. Mosses like Irish moss (Sagina subulata, zones 4 to 8) also form interesting mounds that bloom with tiny flowers in midsummer
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