If you plan to “borrow ideas” or plan to create your own landscape design, you should have at least a fundamental understanding of the principles of landscape design.
This does not mean that you have to apply every principle to all parts of your plan. But only an understanding of these principles will help you generate ideas and increase your creativity.
The great landscape is in the eyes of its creator. So, while the principles of landscape design are great guidelines to follow, they do not feel like they are the “rules” of the landscape. Abstract and creativity are allowed.
The unit must be one of your main goals in your project. It can be better understood and applied as consistency and repetition. Repetition creates unity by repeating elements such as plants, plant groups or decorations throughout the landscape. Consistency creates unity in the sense that some or all the different elements of the landscape adapt to create an integer.
The unit can be reached by the consistency of the character of the elements in the drawing. By character, I mean height, size, structure, colors, etc. Of different elements.
A good example would be in the use of accent boulders. If you’ve ever seen a landscape design that features a large white round boulder here and another big red granite boulder square there and so on, then you’ve seen that the unit was not created by this specific element.
This is just one example, but the principle applies to all other elements such as groups of plants and materials.
An easy way to create a unit in your landscape is to create themes. And one of the easiest ways to create themes is to use a small garden or garden statues. Creating a theme garden is easier when it’s connected to something you’re interested in or that has a passion for.
If you are, for example, butterflies, you can create a theme that uses plants that attract butterflies and uses statues, ornaments and other decorations that are related to butterflies.
The unit must be expressed through at least one element in your landscape and preferably more. The use of elements to express a main idea through a coherent style and a specific theme is what creates harmony.
Simplicity is actually one of the principles of design and art. It is one of the best guidelines you can follow as a beginner or make your browser. Just keep the simple things to start with. You can do more later.
The simplicity of the plantation, for example, would be to choose two or three colors and repeat them all the garden or landscape. Keeping the furniture to a minimum and within a specific theme as well as keeping hardscapes as consistent boulders is also practical simplicity.
Balancing in design is just like the word implies. Equality. There are basically two types of balance in landscape design. Symmetrical and asymmetrical.
The symmetrical equilibrium is where there are more or less equidistant matching elements of the garden design. With a fairly divided garden, both sides could share the same shape, shape, height of the plant, plant groupings, colors, shapes of bed, theme, etc.
You might remember to create something similar when you were a kid in art class at school. Where you take a piece of paper, spray the paint on it, fold it in half, explain it, and magically create an interesting symmetrical design. So balance or symmetrical design is a bit of an image or a specular reflection.
The asymmetrical balance on the other hand is one of the principles of landscape design that is a bit more complex. While textures, shapes, colors, etc. They can remain constant to create a unity, forms and hardscapes can be more random. This form of balance often has distinct or different themes, each with an equal but different kind of attraction.
A good example of this would be where bed shapes or paths differ on both sides of the dividing line. One side could be curvy with a sense of flow while the other side is direct, direct and hard.
This can also create an accurate contrast. The flowing lines are pleasing to the eye, but the bold contrast of a curve with a straight line can be very interesting.
Asymmetric balance is not necessarily limited to the shape of your garden.
An example would be one in which one side of the garden is mostly large shadow trees while the other side is predominantly a growing flower garden or even a mix of both examples. This is only limited to your imagination.
Contrast and harmony can also be achieved by using plants. The leaves of the foliage abound the coarser foliage, the round leaves pour the broken leaves as well as the compliments and contrasts of color.
The height, color and structure of plants can vary from one area to another, but each area must remain consistent in its theme.
You hear me talk a lot about the topics. Many achievements make yourself designs follow a fundamental theme to achieve most of the principles of landscape design described on this page. Proper use of plants and garden decorations or a mix of both is an easy way to reach themes.
Color adds the dimension of real life and the interest in the landscape. Bright colors like reds, yellows and oranges seem to advance towards you and can actually make the object closer to you. Cold colors like greens, blues and pastels seem to move away from you and can make an object farther away from you.
Grays, blacks and whites are considered neutral colors and are best used in the background with bright colors in the foreground. However, to increase the depth of a landscape, you can use dark and coarse structured plants in the foreground and use finely structured and colorful plants in the background.
Colors can also be used to direct attention to a specific area of the garden. A bright display among the colder colors would naturally catch the eye.
Natural transition can be applied to avoid radical or sudden changes in landscape design. The transition is basically a gradual change. It can be better illustrated in terms of height or color of the plant but can also be applied to all elements of the landscape, including but not limited to texture, leaf shape or size and size and shape of different elements.
In other words, the transition can be achieved by the gradual, ascending or descending arrangement of different elements with different textures, shapes, colors or dimensions.
An example of a good transition would be a stepping effect from large trees to medium trees to bushes to bed plants. This example is where a small knowledge of a correct selection of plants would be useful.
Transition is one of the principles of landscape design that can be used to “create illusions” in the landscape. For example, a transition from taller plants to shorter ones can give a sense of depth and distance (as in a painting), making the garden larger than it is. A transition from lower to higher plants could be used to frame a focal point to make it stand up and look closer than it is.
The line is one of the most structural principles of landscape design. It can mostly be connected to the way the beds, walkways and entrances move and flow.
Straight lines are strong and direct while curved lines have a more natural, soft and flowing effect.
Proportion refers simply to the size of the elements in relation to each other. Of all the principles of landscape design, this is quite evident, but still requires thought and planning. Most elements of landscape design can be intentionally designed to meet the correct proportions.
For example, if you are creating a small courtyard garden, a huge seven-foot garden statue placed in the center would be a proportional and somewhat insignificant way out to say the least. Or a small waterfall and a pond of four feet placed in the middle of a large open courtyard are lost in the expanse.
Do not misunderstand this means that if you have a large yard you can not have small features or decorations in the garden. The proportion is relative and the elements can be scaled to fit creating different rooms in the garden. The goal is to create a pleasant relationship between the three dimensions of length, width, depth or height.
A small function of water can be proportioned if placed in a corner or on the edge of a large area and becomes a focal point of the larger area creating a distinct atmosphere. You can create an entire room, a sitting area or a theme. Other rooms and themes can be created as well. See small gardens for ideas on creating rooms and for creating illusions.
Furthermore, a particular consideration and study should be given to the appropriate selection of plants to avoid using spill plants.
Repetition is directly related to unity. Its good to have a variety of elements and shapes in the garden, but repeat these elements gives expression of variety.
The unit is reached by repeating objects or similar elements. Too many unrelated objects can make the garden look embarrassed and unplanned.
Here is a thin line. It is possible that too much of an element can make a garden or a sensible, disinterested, boring and monotonous landscape.
However, the unit can still be created using different different elements repeatedly. This in turn keeps the garden interesting.
For those who want to give their garden a face-lift have some options available to them. These options range from simply adding new plants and other garden accessories to your garden to hire landscaping businesses. You could look into some landscape ideas before beginning any major general changes to your garden.
Looking at these landscaping ideas first you have the ability to see what items you might like to have in your garden. These ideas will also allow you to see how you can change your garden in a reasonable way, regardless of whether it is large or small, in one that reflects your personality.
The DPR 31/2017, in force since 6 April 2017, lists the interventions not subject to any landscape authorization and those of minor entity subjected to simplified landscape authorization which are involved in a quick and streamlined procedural process thanks to the unified models for the presentation of the instances.
