Landscaping 101

Lesson 3: Looking at the various design elements

Design Elements, Part II

Part I of this section of design elements went over the very basic elements. Part II will address additional design elements you need to keep in mind as well as talking about a few design concepts you may want to integrate into your landscaping.

Movement is of one 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 & scale refer to the size of elements of the features of the landscape and their relation to each other. Remember that scale and proportion include the house, walkways, paths, fences, garden beds and plantings and people. No one element or feature should overpower all of the others.

Natural transition should be applied to avoid radical or abrupt changes in your landscape design. Transition is just making changes gradually. It can best be illustrated in terms of plant height or color, but can also be applied to all other elements in the landscape.

Simplicity: This is the result of using constraint and it keeps your design from being cluttered and unfocused. A design shouldn’t be a hodgepodge of ideas or look like it was created by “a little kid in a candy store”. This does not mean that your landscape will be boring. Use the above techniques, look at various gardens, and use your imagination to create a pleasing and unified landscape design.

The following concepts are not actually design principles, but are other elements you should consider while planning your landscape.

Focal points or accents can be a specimen plant, character boulder, fountain, container planting or other garden amenity. These tend to create emphasis, can draw your eye to a particular part of a landscape and help keep a design from being monotonous.

Progressive Realization: The thrill of your landscape is generated by the diversity of the various areas of your landscape, your use of the design principles and also how you perceive these elements. Progressive realization takes effect when you mask parts of the landscaping (through the use of trees, shrubs, gates, etc.) so that you perceive portions of it at a time. Viewing the entire landscape all at once can be boring and anti-climatic. View the landscape in small bites and save the best specimens, features, etc. for the “grand finale”.

Color adds real life and interest to the landscape. Bright colors like reds, yellows and oranges seem to advance toward you and cool colors like greens, blues, and pastels seem to move away.

Symbol surrogate. Plants and landscaping can be used on your home grounds on a small scale to represent a much larger portion of nature or a particular eco-system. One person I know spends a great deal of time camping and studying grasslands across America. He has created a fragment of a prairie that is a “symbol” of the solitude and beauty that he finds in those areas. As you are hiking you may notice how water gently rolls over rocks or the beauty of a wildflower meadow. You can find ways to incorporate these details into your home landscape and have a “physical realization” or “symbol surrogate” based on natural landscape features that are important to bring back memories.

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