Landscaping 101

Lesson 3: Looking at the various design elements

Design Elements, part 1

Why is design so essential to your landscaping? "Every good garden design owes its effectiveness to certain basic design principles. These rules apply to all levels of gardens, from a simple garden border to an elaborate classical design. Remember, in any well-designed garden no one feature, plant or structure is completely dominant. Instead, all features work together to establish a sense of unity." (Gizmo Creations)

Unity should be your main goal in landscape design. A design achieves unity when all of the various elements mesh together to form one attractive whole. There are several ways to achieve a unified landscape. Instead of using a scattering of assorted plants and features, think of using concepts of consistency and repetition to make your landscape one whole design instead .of several mini-designs.

Repetition is the principle of utilizing similar elements throughout a design composition. No repetition or similarity results in a visually chaotic composition. Create repetition by repeating certain varieties of plants, colors, textures, or hardscaping elements. There is a fine line here - too many unrelated objects can make the garden look cluttered and unplanned; but too much of one element can make a landscape feel uninteresting, boring and monotonous.

Consistency is an extension of repetition; using a constant type of plant, color or texture helps to achieve a landscape that works as one concept.

Unity of Three Whenever three similar elements are grouped together, a sense of unity is almost automatically achieved. When the eye perceives an even number in a grouping, there is a tendency to divide it in half. Plants used in quantities of 3, 5 or 7 are not easily split and more readily seen as a group.

Balance in design is just as the word implies: Equality. In landscaping you think in terms of visual balance. The idea here is to visually balance the weights of objects in your landscape. Think of dividing the landscape in half. If both sides attract the eye equally, the landscape is balanced.

If a landscape is balanced, it probably will not be noticeable. However, if a landscape is poorly balanced, the eye tends to pick up on that almost immediately.

There are two types of balance in landscape design. Symmetrical and Asymmetrical.

Symmetrical balance is where one side of the garden design is the same as the other. With the garden equally divided, both sides share the same shape, form, plant height, plant groupings, colors, bed shapes, theme, etc.

Asymmetrical balance is a little more complex. It combines and uses different forms, colors and textures on either side of the dividing line to create a pleasing design. This form of balance may come across as separate themes with each having an equal but different type of attraction.

For an example of balance, take a look at the following photographs:
Balance

Balance 2

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