Landscape Design Made Simple and Easy

Winter is a great time to plan a landscape of your dreams. The basics of residential landscape design planning are an essential part of creating an outdoor living area you'll love. Your front yard and back yard landscaping design will blend the natural grounds surrounding a home with its architecture to create a beautiful, unified and inviting place to live.

There are many other key creative elements and principles that play a significant role in the basics of landscape design to provide an outdoor living area that is creative, functional and appealing. Whether your landscape project is simple, with only a small variety of plants and features within a limited space, or large and complex; all successful landscaping projects have a few things in common.

 

Understanding the Creative Elements of Landscape Design

The creative elements of landscape design are the five artistic characteristics of planning an outdoor garden:

• Color - A complementary color scheme creates harmony among the green grass, trees and house exterior color.
• Line - Linear patterns are used to direct physical movement while drawing attention to areas in your garden and home, such as drawing the eye to the front door as a focal point in the front yard.
• Form - Form can be expressed through trees and shrubs of various shapes and sizes which create natural patterns. Choosing the right shrub with the correct mature size and shape helps reduce maintenance; no need to prune heavily.
• Texture - Plants with varying textures can add to the feeling and formality or informality in the garden.
• Scale - Our design needs to balance the size of the building, plant materials and hardscape while maintaining a comfortable space for the people who will use the yard.

Understanding the Principles of Landscape Design

The seven principles of landscape design to be considered include:

• Unity - Create a central theme to build your outdoor plan. A unified look is important to a beautiful landscape design.
• Balance - The plants, walkways, and other hardscape features should be laid out in an asymmetrical design with balance, not symmetry.
• Transition - Changes in colors, plant styles, textures and accessories will blend better with planned transitions to slowly move from one look into the new look.
• Proportion - Plan a design that incorporates trees and shrubs that are relative to the size of the house, people and other features.
• Rhythm - Create patterns with colors and lines that give the landscape design a natural rhythm that is relaxing and enjoyable.
• Focal Points - With the use of lines, form, and balance, you can develop a landscape design with specific focal points to draw interest and turn heads. For example, a meandering path can lead the eye to a focal point such as a bubbling rock fountain in the back yard with the correct design.
• Repetition - Repeating patterns and rhythms, in just the right amount, gives your outdoor design the perfect, calming look without being overpowering.

Putting It All Together

There is much more to planning the enhanced landscape design than selecting colors and creating lines and curves. Here are some additional considerations before we start the design phase:

a)     Determine the primary purpose and function of your outdoor area first. What are the specific activity areas? Where these areas will be located?

b)     Obtain a plot plan of the property.

c)     Examine the landscaping site and make note of any troublesome grades, areas that flood or water run-off issues. A soil analysis will assist in choosing the right plants for your area.

By understanding the basics of landscape design you can create a beautiful garden that extends your home into the outdoors. Not everyone has the time or the knowledge to develop their landscape design, so for many, the next step is a call to your professional landscape service. Reach out to a professional thought partner and create a better outdoor living space this year.