Whether you want to "borrow ideas" or make your own landscaping design, you should know at least the basics of landscape design.
This doesn't mean that you have to use every principle in every part of your plan. But just knowing these basic rules will help you come up with ideas and make you more creative.
Landscaping is only as good as the person who makes it. So, even though the principles of landscape design are good guidelines, don't feel like you have to follow them. You can be abstract and creative.
One of the main goals of your design should be to bring everything together. It might be easier to understand and use if you think of it as constancy and repetition. Repetition brings together a landscape by using the same plants, plant groups, or decorations over and over again. When things are consistent, some or all of the different parts of the landscape fit together to make a whole.
Unity can be reached when all of the design's parts have the same style. By "character," I mean how different things look in terms of their height, size, texture, colour schemes, etc.
One good example is when accent boulders are used. If you've ever seen a landscape design with a big round white boulder here, a big square red granite boulder there, and so on, you've seen that this particular element didn't bring everything together.
This is just one example, but the same idea applies to everything, like groups of plants or materials.
Creating themes is a simple way to bring your landscape together. One of the easiest ways to make a theme is to use a few garden decorations or statues. It's easier to make a theme garden if it's about something you're interested in or passionate about.
If you like butterflies, for example, you could make a theme out of statues, ornaments, and other decorations that have something to do with butterflies.
At least one part of your landscape should show unity, and ideally more than one. Harmony is made by using elements to express a main idea in a consistent style and with a clear theme.
One of the rules of design and art is that things should be as simple as possible. It's one of the best tips for beginners or people who like to do things on their own. Start by keeping things simple. You can do more later.
For example, a simple way to plant would be to choose two or three colours and use them over and over in the garden or landscape. Practicing simplicity also means keeping decorations to a minimum and sticking to a theme, as well as making sure hardscapes like boulders look the same.
Balance in design means just what it sounds like. Equality. In landscaping, there are two main types of balance. Both the same and different.
Symmetrical balance is when elements of a garden design are more or less spread out in the same way. In a garden that is split down the middle, both sides could have the same shape, form, plant height, plant groupings, colours, bed shapes, theme, etc.
You might remember making something like this in art class when you were a kid. When you take a piece of paper, splatter paint on it, fold it in half, and then unfold it, a cool symmetrical design appears as if by magic. So a symmetrical balance or design is kind of like a reflection or a mirror image.
Balance that isn't even
On the other hand, is a landscape design principle that is a bit more complicated. Even though textures, shapes, colours, and other things may stay the same to create a sense of unity, shapes and hardscapes may change more. This kind of balance usually involves separate or different themes that each have the same amount of appeal but a different kind of appeal.
This would be the case if the beds or paths on either side of the line were different. One side could be smooth and curved, while the other side is straight, hard, and direct.
This can also make a nice difference. Lines that flow are nice to look at, but a sharp contrast between a curve and a straight line can be very interesting.
Balance that isn't symmetrical doesn't have to just be in the shape of your garden.
On one side of the garden, there might be mostly large shade trees, while on the other side, there might be mostly low-growing flowers or a mix of both. This can be anything you can think of.
Plants can also be used to make contrast and harmony. Fine leaves vs. coarse leaves, round leaves vs. spiked leaves, and colours that go together and don't go together.
The height, colour, and texture of the plants in each area can be different, but each area should stay true to its own theme.
I will talk a lot about "themes." Many successful do-it-yourself designs have a basic theme that helps them meet most of the landscape design principles on this page. Themes can be easily reached by using plants, garden decorations, or a mix of the two.
Color gives the landscape a sense of life and makes it more interesting. Bright colours like reds, yellows, and oranges seem to move toward you and can make an object seem closer. Cool colours like greens, blues, and pastels seem to move away from you and can make an object look further away.
Neutral colours are greys, blacks, and whites. They look best in the background, while bright colours look best in the foreground. But you can add depth to a landscape by putting dark, rough-textured plants in the foreground and light, smooth-textured plants in the back.
You can also use colours to draw your eye to a certain part of the garden. The eye would be drawn to a bright display in a room full of darker colours.
Move along naturally
/B> can be used to keep your landscape design from making sudden or big changes. Change happens slowly during transition. It can be shown best by the height or colour of plants, but it can also be used to describe any part of a landscape, such as textures, the shape or size of leaves, and the size and shape of different parts.
In other words, a transition can be made by slowly putting together different elements with different textures, shapes, colours, or sizes in an ascending or descending order.
A good transition would be a stair-step effect from large trees to medium trees to shrubs to bedding plants. In this case, a little bit of knowledge about how to choose plants would be helpful.
One of the landscape design principles that can be used to "create illusions" in the landscape is transition. For example, a change from taller to shorter plants can create a sense of depth and distance (like in a painting), making the garden look bigger than it really is. You could frame a focal point by putting plants of different heights around it to make it stand out and look closer than it really is.
One of the more structural parts of landscape design is the line. Most of the time, it has to do with how beds, paths, and doorways move and flow.
Straight lines are strong and direct, while curved lines make things look more natural, soft, and flowing.
Proportion just means how big something is compared to something else. This is one of the most obvious landscape design rules, but it still needs to be thought out and planned. Most of the parts of landscape design can be planned to fit together in the right way.
For example, if you are making a small courtyard garden, putting a huge seven-foot garden statue in the middle would look out of place and, at the very least, a little tacky. Or, if you put a small waterfall and pond that is only four feet tall in the middle of a large, open yard, it would get lost in the space.
Don't think that this means you can't have small features or garden decor if you have a big yard. Size is relative, and you can make things fit by making different rooms in the garden. The goal is to make the length, width, and depth or height fit together in a way that looks good.
If you put a small water feature in a corner or on the edge of a large area, it will look right and become the focus of the larger area while giving it its own feel. It can be the centre of a whole room, sitting area, or theme. You can also make other rooms with different themes. See small gardens for ideas on how to make rooms and make things look like they aren't there.
Also, choosing the right plants should be given extra thought and study to avoid using plants that are too big or too small.
Unity is directly linked to repetition. It's good to have a lot of different things and shapes in the garden, but having the same things over and over again makes the garden more interesting.
Unity is made by using the same objects or elements over and over again. Too many things that don't go together can make the garden look cluttered and not well thought out.
This is a tricky situation. Too much of one thing could make a garden or landscape feel dull, repetitive, and uninteresting.
But unity can still be made by using several different things over and over again. Because of this, the garden stays interesting.
