Whether you intend to "borrow ideas" or plan on creating your own landscaping design, you ought to have at least a basic understanding of the principles of landscape design.
Don't feel that you have to apply every principle to all of one's plan. Just having a knowledge of these principles will help you generate ideas and boost your creativity.
Great landscaping lies in the eyes of the its creator. So, while the principles of landscape design are great guidelines to check out, don't feel like they're the "have to rules" of landscaping. Abstract and creativity are allowed.
Unity should be among your primary goals in your design. It can be better understood and applied as consistency and repetition. Repetition creates unity by repeating alike elements like plants, plant groups, or decor through the entire landscape. Consistency creates unity in the sense that some or all of the different elements of the landscape fit together to create a whole.
Unity can be created by the consistency of character of elements in the look. By character, After all the size, height, texture, color schemes, etc. of different elements.
A good example would be in the usage of accent rocks and boulders. If you have ever seen a landscape design that had a number of different colors and sizes of boulders, then you've seen that unity wasn't developed by this particular element.
This is just one example however the principle applies to all other elements such as groups of plants and materials.
A simple solution to create unity in your landscape is by creating theme gardens. Creating a theme garden is easier when it's linked to something you're interested in or like.
If you're thinking about butterflies for instance, you can develop a theme using plants that attract butterflies as well as using statues, ornaments, and other decor that are linked to butterflies.
Unity should be expressed through a minumum of one aspect in your landscape and preferably more. Using elements to express a main idea through consistent style and a specific theme is what creates harmony.
Simplicity is actually one of the principles in design and art. It's the most effective guidelines it is possible to follow as a beginner or take action yourselfer. Just keep things easy to begin with. That you can do more later.
Simplicity in planting, for instance, would be to pick two or three colors and repeat them through the entire garden or landscape. Keeping decor to the very least and within a specific theme along with keeping hardscapes such as boulders consistent can be practicing simplicity.
landscaping Stuart Florida in design is just as the word implies. A sense of equality. You can find basically two forms of balance in landscape design. Symmetrical and Asymmetrical.
Symmetrical balance is where there are more or less equally spaced matching elements, areas, and shapes of the garden design. With a garden equally divided, both sides could share all or the main same shape, form, plant height, plant groupings, colors, bed shapes, theme, etc.
You might remember creating something similar to this when you were a kid in art class at school. Where you have a piece of paper, splash paint onto it, fold it in half, unfold it, and it magically creates a fascinating symmetrical design. So symmetrical balance or design is somewhat of a mirror image or reflection.
Asymmetrical balance however is among the principles of landscape design that's a bit more complex. While textures, forms, colors, etc. may remain constant to generate some unity, shapes and hardscapes could be more random. This type of balance often has separate or different themes with each having an equal but different kind of attraction.
Asymmetrical may be better understood as actually being unbalanced, abstract, or free form while still creating unity and balance through the repetition of some elements.
A good example of this would be where bed shapes or paths differ on both sides of the landscape dividing line while still sharing some of the same elements and plants. One side could possibly be curved with a sense of flow as the other side is straight, direct, hard, and completely opposite. Again, unity and balance will undoubtedly be created through other elements.
Contrast can be quite interesting and this kind of form can make a neat contrast. Flowing lines are pleasing to the eye but the bold contrast of a curve coupled with a straight line can be quite interesting.
Asymmetrical balance isn't influenced by the shape of one's garden. It is usually but generally it's not.
An example might be where one side of the garden is mainly large shade trees while the other side is predominately a lesser growing flower garden or perhaps a mix of both examples. Like I stated earlier, the landscaping could be abstract while still maintaining unity through other elements such as rocks, plants, and decor.
Contrast and harmony can even be achieved using plants. Fine foliage verses coarser foliage, round leaves verses spiked leaves along with color compliments and contrasts.
Plant height, color, and texture may be varied from one area to the next but each area should stay consistent within its theme.
You'll hear me discuss "themes" a whole lot. Many successful do it yourself designs follow a simple theme to achieve most of the principles of landscape design described on this page. It's a simple starting point for do it yourselfers which can be added to later.
Color adds the dimension of real life and interest to the landscape. Bright colors like reds, yellows and oranges appear to advance toward you and will actually make an object seem nearer to you. Cool colors like greens, blues, and pastels seem to move from you and will make an object seem farther from you.
Grays, blacks, and whites are believed neutral colors and are best used in the background with bright colors in the foreground. However, to improve depth in a landscape, you need to use dark and coarse textured plants in the foreground and use fine textured and light colored plants in the background.
Colors could also be used to direct your attention to a specific area of the garden. A bright display among cooler colors would naturally catch the attention.
Natural transition could be put on avoid radical or abrupt changes in your landscape design. Transition is actually gradual change. It could best be illustrated with regards to plant height or color but can even be put on all elements in the landscape including however, not limited to textures, foliage shape or size, and the decoration of different elements.
In other words transition may be accomplished by the gradual, ascending or descending, arrangement of varying elements with varying textures, forms, colors, or sizes.
An example of a good transition will be a stair step effect from large trees to medium trees to shrubs to bedding plants. This example is where a little knowledge of proper plant selection would can be found in handy.
Transition is probably the principles of landscape design that can be used to "create illusions" in the landscape. For example a transition from taller to shorter plants can give a sense of depth and distance (like in a painting), making the garden seem larger than it really is. A transition from shorter to taller plants could possibly be used to frame a focal point to make it stand out and seem closer than it truly is.
Line is of the more structural principles of landscape design. It can mostly be linked to the way beds, walkways, and entryways move and flow.
Straight lines are forceful and direct while curvy lines have a more natural, gentle, flowing effect.
Proportion simply refers to how big is elements in relation to each other. Of all the principles of landscape design, this one is quite obvious but still takes a little thought and planning. The majority of the elements in landscape design could be intentionally planned to meet up the proper proportions.
For instance when you are developing a small courtyard garden, an enormous seven foot garden statue put into the center will be way to avoid it of proportion and a little tacky to say minimal. Or perhaps a small four foot waterfall and pond placed in the center of a large open yard would get lost in the expanse.
Don't misunderstand this to imply that if you have a large yard you can't have smaller features or garden decor. Proportion is relative and elements can be scaled to fit by creating different rooms in the garden. The target is to create a pleasing relationship on the list of three dimensions of length, breadth, and depth or height.
A small water feature could be proportionate if put into a large part or on the edge of a large area and becomes a focal point of the larger area while creating its own distinct atmosphere. A whole room, sitting area, or theme could be created around it. Other rooms and themes could be created as well. See small gardens for ideas on creating rooms and creating illusions.
Also, special consideration and study ought to be given to proper plant selection to avoid using plants that are out of proportion.
Repetition is directly linked to unity. Its good to get a selection of elements and forms in the garden but repeating these elements gives variety expression.
Unity is attained by repeating objects or elements which are alike. Too many unrelated objects can make the garden look cluttered and unplanned.
There is a fine line here. It is possible that too much of one element could make a garden or landscape feel uninteresting, boring and monotonous.
However, unity can be created by using several different elements repeatedly. Therefore keeps the garden interesting.