Garden Design: Creating the Garden of Your Dreams
Designing a garden is an art. It involves creating plans for the layout and planting. A simple home needs nothing more than a beautiful garden that can complement it through the use of several elements in order to make it something more. Creative landscaping ideas not only add to the overall appeal of the lot but also improve the value of the property.
Designing a garden has been an activity practiced for many years. The Japanese have done it to create tranquility in the area and in an attempt to bring more luck to the residents. Ancient Romans designed their gardens specifically to include vegetables, fruits and herbs for household consumption. The good thing about garden design is that you can do it yourself or you can hire a professional to do it for you. However, nothing is more pleasurable than to have the bragging rights for the marvelous garden you have designed yourself.
The Elements and Principles of Garden Designs
The key to creating a beautiful garden design lies in the elements you include. Gardening is a living art form and like many forms of art, garden designing is always subjective. There are no fixed rules in gardening but rather guidelines.
There are three elements important to remember when coming up with landscaping and garden design ideas that, when combined together, can constitute the typically accepted version of a good garden design. Among those elements, the first one encompasses the order, balance or proportion. In a basic garden, the order can be achieved through symmetry, repetition of colors or plants and balancing of bold or bright features in combination with a comparable weight of muted or fine features.
Harmony or unity is the second element. Within this principle, the parts of the garden must work together as a whole. You can easily accomplish this by utilizing limited color scheme, colors of structures, clear focal point, and repetition of plants. Additionally, unity can be achieved through the use of garden themes.
Lastly, in order to keep the eye moving and focused in the direction you want it to, the flow, transition or rhythm should be considered. You can accomplish this by creating gradual changes in the design to prevent the eye from making a sudden stop. Transition can be used to make the illusion of extra space and can be done by creating intensity as smaller plants flow back into taller plants.
The Focal Point
Focal points are normally used in garden designs to direct and draw the eye. Basically, a focal point is any striking feature in your garden, such as: a large architectural plant, a vibrant color, a single white plant, an ornament, large boulders, a dwarf tree or shrub, or an unusual specimen of a plant.
You do not necessarily need to start your garden project with a focal point already incorporated in one of your landscaping ideas, though you do want to avoid simply throwing one in as an afterthought. You may want to think about the style of the garden and the plants you are considering. After that, list all the possible features you want to complement. It is easy to create a focal point in small gardens but larger gardens usually have more than one focal point.
Always be careful to choose plants that don’t tend to get sick or are easily affected by things like diseases, climate changes, or pests native to your area. Additionally, make sure that the focal point has a long peak period. It is also possible to have seasonal focal points, though this requires diligent maintenance and planning. Just keep in mind that you should resist the temptation to center the focal point and plant around it.
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