Landscaping has often been likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. So in landscaping there must be in the gardener’s mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his landscaping project.
Should you include lots of bare open lawn in your landscaping theme? A large extent of open lusious green lawn space is always beautiful. It is restful.
This type of open landscaping adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. If you cover your lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. A bit like an over-dressed person. Not the most visual appealing result from your landscaping efforts.
When landscaping, a single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees for your landscaping project, keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree. The tree should have a good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit.
For the beauty of landscaping, the catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until way into the winter, add a bit of picturesqueness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech all these are beauty points to consider when planning your overall landscaping arrangement.
Landscaping may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. You should consider the advantages and danger points in each.
In conclusion, plan for open lawn spaces in your overall landscaping design and keep a visually appealing tree to blend in the background. Think balance and you will come up with a beautiful landscaping design for your yard.
Category Archives: Landscaping
DIY Landscaping Tips
Landscaping consists of not only adding plants, bushes, trees and flowers it also includes water features, lawn furnishings and other decorative niceties to your lawn to create an attractive, comfortable garden. You don’t need professional help to landscape your lawn or garden; landscaping makes a fun and easy project that you can do with your own two hands, and it will help the environment by reducing toxic greenhouse gases, preventing soil erosion and producing oxygen.
If you’re thinking of landscaping your garden, start by brainstorming some gardening ideas. You can find landscaping ideas in books, gardening magazines and even at the homes of your friends and neighbors. Once you’ve decided what you’d like your new garden to look like, plan a central feature. Your central feature will serve as your jumping-off point when you begin your project; it will also be the most dramatic element of your newly landscaped garden.
Here are some tips to help you landscape your garden:
You might want to consider landscaping your new garden for function as well as form. “Edible landscaping” means planting vegetables and fruits alongside decorative plants in your garden beds. Use rows of kitchen herbs to separate patches of ornamentals. Plant tomatoes and marigolds side by side; enjoy pea plants as a lovely flowering vine. Edible landscaping makes your garden even more eco-friendly by reducing your dependence on the fossil fuels used to ship food to markets; it will save you money on groceries and, of course, it’s delicious.
The Basic Principles Of Landscape Design
Whether you plan on “borrowing ideas” or plan on creating your own landscaping design, you should have at the very least a basic understanding of the principles of landscape design.This doesn’t mean that you have to apply every principle to every part of your plan. But just having an understanding of these principles will help you generate ideas and increase your creativity.Great landscaping lies in the eyes of the its creator. So, while the principles of landscape design are great guidelines to follow, don’t feel like they’re the “have to rules” of landscaping. Abstract and creativity are allowed.Unity should be one of your main goals in your design. It may be better understood and applied as consistency and repetition. Repetition creates unity by repeating alike elements like plants, plant groups, or decor throughout the 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 achieved by the consistency of character of elements in the design. By character, I mean the height, size, texture, color schemes, etc. of different elements.A good example would be in the use of accent boulders. If you’ve ever seen a landscape design that had one large white round boulder here and another large red square granite boulder there and so on, then you’ve seen that unity wasn’t 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.A simple way to create unity in your landscape is by creating themes. And one of the simplest ways to create themes is by using a little garden decor or garden statues. Creating a theme garden is easier when it’s related to something you’re interested in or have a passion for.If you’re into butterflies for instance, you could create a theme using plants that attract butterflies as well as using statues, ornaments, and other decor that are related to butterflies.Unity should be expressed through at least one element 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 one of the best guidelines you can follow as a beginner or do it yourselfer. Just keep things simple to begin with. You can do more later.Simplicity in planting, for instance, would be to pick two or three colors and repeat them throughout the garden or landscape. Keeping decor to a minimum and within a specific theme as well as keeping hardscapes such as boulders consistent is also practicing simplicity.Balance in design is just as the word implies. Equality. There are basically two types of balance in landscape design. Symmetrical and Asymmetrical.Symmetrical balance is where there are more or less equally spaced matching elements of the garden design. With a garden equally divided, both sides could share the same shape, form, plant height, plant groupings, colors, bed shapes, theme, etc.You may remember creating something like this when you were a kid in art class at school. Where you take a piece of paper, splash paint on it, fold it in half, unfold it, and then it magically creates an interesting symmetrical design. So symmetrical balance or design is somewhat of a mirror image or reflection.Asymmetrical balance on the other hand is one of the principles of landscape design that’s a little more complex. While textures, forms, colors, etc. may remain constant to create some unity, shapes and hardscapes may be more random. This form of balance often has separate or different themes with each having an equal but different type 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 straight, direct, and hard.This can also create a neat contrast. Flowing lines are pleasing to the eye but the bold contrast of a curve with a straight line can be very interesting.Asymmetrical balance isn’t necessarily limited to just the shape of your garden.An example might be where one side of the garden is mostly large shade trees while the other side is predominately a lower growing flower garden or even a mix of both examples. This is only limited to your imagination.Contrast and harmony can also be achieved using plants. Fine foliage verses coarser foliage, round leaves verses spiked leaves as well as 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 own theme.You’ll hear me talk about “themes” a lot. Many successful do it yourself designs follow a basic theme to achieve most of the principles of landscape design described on this page. The proper use of plants and garden decor or a mix of both is a simple way to achieve themes.
Color adds the dimension of real life and interest to the landscape. Bright colors like reds, yellows and oranges seem to advance toward you and can actually make an object seem closer to you. Cool colors like greens, blues, and pastels seem to move away from you and can make an object seem farther 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 depth in a landscape, you can use dark and coarse textured plants in the foreground and use fine textured and light colored plants in the background.Colors can also be used to direct your attention to a specific area of the garden. A bright display among cooler colors would naturally catch the eye.
Natural transition can be applied to avoid radical or abrupt changes in your landscape design. Transition is basically gradual change. It can best be illustrated in terms of plant height or color but can also be applied to all elements in the landscape including but not limited to textures, foliage shape or size, and the size and shape of different elements.In other words transition can be achieved by the gradual, ascending or descending, arrangement of different elements with varying textures, forms, colors, or sizes.An example of a good transition would 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 come in handy.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 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 be used to frame a focal point to make it stand out and seem closer than it really is.Line is of the more structural principles of landscape design. It can mostly be related 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 the size of elements in relation to each other. Of all the principles of landscape design, this one is quite obvious but still requires a little thought and planning. Most of the elements in landscape design can be intentionally planned to meet the proper proportions.For instance if you are creating a small courtyard garden, an enormous seven foot garden statue placed in the center would be way out of proportion and a little tacky to say the least. Or 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 mean 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 goal is to create a pleasing relationship among the three dimensions of length, breadth, and depth or height.A small water feature can be proportionate if placed in a corner or on the edge of a large area and becomes a focal point of the larger area while creating its own distinct atmosphere. An entire room, sitting area, or theme can be created around it. Other rooms and themes can be created as well. See small gardens for ideas on creating rooms and creating illusions.Also, special consideration and study should be given to proper plant selection to avoid using plants that are out of proportion.Repetition is directly related to unity. Its good to have a variety of elements and forms in the garden but repeating these elements gives variety expression. Unity is achieved by repeating objects or elements that are alike. Too many unrelated objects can make the garden look cluttered and unplanned.There’s a fine line here. It’s possible that too much of one element can make a garden or landscape feel uninteresting, boring and monotonous.However, unity can still be created by using several different elements repeatedly. This in turn keeps the garden interesting.
Landscaping Agoura Hills
The community known as Agoura Hills, nestled between the town of Agoura and Westlake Village on the Ventura freeway, is a bustling little metropolis that has managed to retain its California flavor in the architecture and the green space designs that the city planners and the homeowners have incorporated into the cityscape. A major aspect of the look of this community is how the residents approach the job of landscaping Agoura Hills.The proximity of the town to the Santa Monica Mountains and the Los Virgenes-Malibu area network of hike-and-bike trails that are enjoyed by both the townspeople and the many visitors to the area each year is reflected in the choices that have been made when landscaping Agoura Hills. A mixture of high desert geography and coastal flora are infused into the planning of residential and commercial zones, and the result is an artistic blend of history and tasteful innovation.Evidence of the mission era of early California is interspersed with the modern face of glass and concrete, as adobe walls and brick-faced houses are blended with new office complexes that reflect the modernity and architectural style of today’s Los Angeles. Landscaping Agoura Hills is the glue that makes these seemingly diverse influences work together so well, especially in the creative ways in which homeowners and apartment communities choose to renovate the façade of their dwellings.The art of landscaping Agoura Hills does not necessarily require a complete remodeling job. There are many subtle touches that can re-invigorate a house or any structure, for that matter. Even a simple upgrade in lighting around a patio or a courtyard can do wonders for the look of a place. Intelligent use of focused spotlights and softly-hued string lights, discreetly imbedded in the shrubbery and along walkways, can make a backyard come alive at night, completely changing the ambience of the sunlight and shadows of the daytime.The French Provincial look of several of the structures within the town adds yet another layer to the tapestry. Landscaping Agoura Hills often includes the characteristic stone fountains and ironwork that decorate courtyards and inner sanctums of backyard areas. Brick walks and tiled patio walls can be tastefully added to existing exterior themes to enhance the lawn and the garden areas that many homeowners take such pride in.Garden areas in particular are a source of pride in accomplishment for those who have taken an interest in landscaping Agoura Hills. A drive downtown can reveal as many floral splendors as a drive through the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Flower beds are not the only way in which homeowners choose to improve upon the beauty of their dwelling. Vegetable gardens are also quite popular in this town, and clever designing of these plots into the fabric of a backyard panorama adds a genuine rustic feel that agrees with the lay of the land.Many times, these improvements are done in increments, either from budgetary considerations or as the scope of the project expands. There seems to be no limit to the clever ways in which the residents approach the job of landscaping Agoura Hills.
Exciting Landscaping Options to Liven Up Your Outdoor Space
When most people think of Long Island landscaping companies or horticultural designers, they think of people who mow the lawn, plant trees and flowers. There is a lot more to the job of a landscaper. Landscaping companies are capable of creating an oasis in your back yard, around your pool area and other areas throughout your yard. The following are examples of what a professional landscaping can do to improve your yard:
Decorative Lights: To any given environment, if the lights are used appropriately, they can make an immense difference and that is why lights used accordingly to your outdoor structure can enhance the design features and add beauty. Illumination techniques are very attractive especially when used in the correct manner, providing you with a pleasing look at duck or evening.
Fire-pits: These are not limited to an occasion anymore, they are used extensively in homes nowadays and due to its benefit, almost all homeowners want them. A fire-pit installed in your garden makes a perfect excuse to spend an evening outdoor, irrespective of the chilly weather. Whether you love spending time outdoors or have some guest over a party, well having a fire-pit will not limit you indoors.
Patios: Patios have over taken an entirely new look and use as to earlier days. With all the innovations and efforts of landscapers, it is not limited to use. You can enjoy your patio anytime and will definitely help you relax. You have many options to choose from for your patio, ranging from different shapes to diverse textures.
Fountains: Water fountains play a very important role in decorating your outdoor, provided it is installed in the right location and style that goes along well with your outdoor theme. However, this is where you will require the services of a good landscaping company.
If you are looking to improve your landscape next spring, don’t wait until spring, now is the time to start planning. For landscaping ideas, there are several landscaping books and websites that offer great landscaping tips.