Martha Stewart Reveals a Hot New Yard Trend in Her New Show, ‘Clipped’

Discovery+

Martha Stewart, doyenne of domestic life, is back on a new reality TV show! In “Clipped” (now on Discovery+), she focuses on the great outdoors, and introduces some really wild plants and shrubs.

It’s called the art of topiary—a hot trend where you trim bushes into distinct shapes such as spheres, triangles, even martini glasses.

“What’s exciting to me about topiary is that you take nature and shape it into something very, very beautiful,” Stewart explains.

In this show, Stewart challenges seven contestants from around the country to clip and snip various forms of foliage into impressive masterpieces that would make your yard the envy of your neighbors. Once they’re done, landscape architect Fernando Wong and horticultural expert Chris Lambton serve as judges and ultimately will help decide who wins the grand prize of $50,000.

And while this competition focuses on topiary design, there’s lots to learn about how to design a gorgeous yard. If you really want your yard to turn heads this summer, here are some Stewart-level moves to try.

Trim the bushes to show off your unique personality

This piece was supposed to look like a martini—it was a good attempt.

HGTV

In the premiere episode, “Getting to Know Yew,” the first challenge is to trim a yew tree into a distinct shape that shows off each contestant’s personality.

Competitor Marie Danielle Vil-Young from Franklin Park, NJ, has the right idea when she tries to clip her yew tree into a martini glass. While it doesn’t end up looking quite like a martini, it’s a good attempt and serves as encouragement to try something different in a yard, whether that’s a bush shaped like your favorite beverage or your favorite animal (more on that next).

Color helps make foliage pop

The color on Marie Danielle Vil-Young’s horse is all on the flower crown.

HGTV

After the yew, contestants move to the main challenge, which is to design and build a “carousel creature” out of a wide variety of succulents, flowers, and other greenery.

Vil-Young shows off a horse with a beautiful multicolored flower crown. However, the judges criticize her horse because they say they would have liked to see more colors throughout.

Meanwhile, Juan Villanueva from New York City decides to create a fanciful seahorse sculpted with colorful flowers. He even dyes his Dendrobium flowers, making them bright blue. In the end, this piece is bursting with color.

This seahorse topiary may not have a lot of definition, but it has a lot of color!

HGTV

While homeowners might not go to the trouble of dying their plants, these two topiaries prove the importance of using color—not just in one place, but ideally throughout the yard.

Branch out when picking plants

Meghan Petricka is using manzanita for the antlers.

HGTV

While many people choose roses and ferns for their lawns and gardens, these landscapers prove that you don’t always need to go the traditional route when picking plants.

In fact, some contestants get really creative when it comes to building their creatures. Meghan Petricka from Eden Prairie, MN, creates a stag using bark for the hooves and manzanita, a shrub with twisting branches, for the antlers.

Meanwhile, Villanueva picks a plant called a corkscrew Juncus to decorate his seahorse.

“This stuff is actually aquatic and grows on the sides of swamps,” Villanueva says. “It gets really long and super curly. It’s one of my favorites, it’s so fun.”

Varied materials add texture to this piece.

HGTV

In the end, Vil-Young is named “Topiary Master of the Week.” But there’s still a long way to go to see who will ultimately win Stewart’s approval overall.

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