Decide whether you prefer the instant gratification of annuals versus the long-term investment of perennials, or a combination of both. When choosing flowers, for example, consider the almost infinite combinations of color, the flower and foliage shapes, the timing of blooms and their duration, and the height of the plants. The color of your plantings should complement your home's color. The house is almost always the dominant feature of your landscape. When deciding which plants to use, keep color in mind just as you would when painting your home. Color used wisely will accent your garden, while too much color can appear harsh or grating. A well-designed landscape can look good without any color (other than green). Consider the year-round appearance of your prospective plants.Ĭolor: Color is the most obvious aspect of the landscape and may be the least understood. Foliage that is lacy in appearance would highlight a plant with more rounded leaves. Finding plants and features that contrast or complement is basic to a good garden design. Texture: Leaves, flowers, stems all have texture. Establishing bed lines is one of the first things to do when designing a landscape. Line: Whether curved or straight, lines are used to draw your eye towards a focal point or to separate areas of the garden. If it's a deciduous tree, imagine how it will look without leaves in fall and winter.
In addition to a tree's form during the growing season, consider how much shade it will provide and where the shade will be during the spring and summer. They can be weeping, round, pyramidal, spreading, oval, vase or columnar. Resist the urge to fill every inch.įorm: Plants large and small have various forms, each offering something different to the landscape. Use them to draw the eye towards a focal point. If you have the space, consider having several outdoor "rooms" - each with a different theme. When the best features of your landscape have to compete for attention, they may go unnoticed. Be careful though, too much variety can be annoying or distracting. Variety and diversity allow you to be creative and have some fun. A faster-growing neighbor can easily hide smaller shrubs, perennials and other plantings. Proportion also applies to smaller plants. That 8-foot tall maple tree at the garden center may be 20 feet tall in a few short years, on its way to up to 100 feet. It is critical to keep the ultimate size of a tree or shrub in mind when selecting one for planting. Proportion addresses the need to keep the landscape features in scale with the house. An asymmetrical design would not be identical on each side, but would have equal points of interest. In a symmetrical design, the left side will be a mirror image of the right side. As tough as it sometimes is, try not to buy a plant, take it home, and only then decide where to put it.īalance can be formal (symmetrical) or informal (asymmetrical), but it should achieve exactly what the word means - even distribution or equality. Repeating the same plants in various parts of the landscape gives unity. To achieve unity, resist the urge to have one plant of each variety and in every color. Unity is the principle that ties the landscape together as a whole. A well-designed landscape will incorporate the following:
0 kommentar(er)
