Home Improvement

In the first millennium, a wealthy Roman family would most likely have had a garden surrounding their home. In it, you might find an open-air palazzo, pergola-style structures dripping with vines and blooming flowers, a dining area with couches for relaxation, water features such as an outdoor water fountain or wall fountain, and walkways that led out into the garden proper, perhaps to a prized rosebush or into an olive grove. These are some of the elements characterizing what is now called classical landscape design, also known as traditional landscape design.

Classical landscape design is a subset of formal landscape design that uses linear, clean lines to develop an uncluttered look. These lines can be drawn with rows of trees and well-trimmed hedges, perfect plantings for the classical landscape design. Or perhaps a seat wall made of regimented terra cotta tiles can do double-duty. Here and there, vines, such as ivy or wisteria, can soften any harshness. In this regard, this style is similar to the Mediterranean landscape design with its Roman and Greek influences.

The History of Classical Landscape Design

Borrowing influences from previous civilizations, classical landscape design solidified in Rome and the surrounding countryside. Villas were built with comfortable courtyards, sparkling with the sound of water, shaded by large trees, fragrant with rosemary and citrus fruits. It was from this setting that we got the term “pleasure garden.”

In England of the late 1700s, property owners started looking backwards, past the Baroque period and the Renaissance, to the beginnings of western civilization. There, they found classical landscapes making use of woods, water, indigenous plants and small temples. These elements were incorporated into the gardens of that day, further defining the principles of traditional landscape design.

By the way, when Rome fell to the barbarians, the gardens had become so exquisite that the barbarians chose not to ransack them. Instead they kept them up and learned from them. This development is one of the early examples of how we, as humans, learned that beauty can change the world: it can stop violence. This principle is now being used to excellent effect in gardens started as rehabilitation projects in prisons, inner cities and ghettos.

Choices in Classical Landscape Design

As with all landscape design, the architecture of the house needs to be considered when using a traditional landscape design. For this style, the home and landscape can be tied together through the subtle placement of a hardscape feature, such as the use of tumbled travertine for the courtyard flooring.

Because of the formal principles inherent in this style, you want to strike a balance when choosing materials between dull blandness and baroque lavishness. Reckon instead in terms of fascinating variety. For instance, well-contained decorative gravel can provide color and texture. Courtyards, pool decking and patios should use materials that are symmetrical, in keeping with the formal style. Stone, terra cotta tiles and flagstone are appropriate choices. Granite benches, concrete grottoes and marble urns add sturdiness and reference antiquities.

Your preference for classical landscape design can also be demonstrated in the plants you choose. Your residential garden will be enhanced by fruit trees and other dwarf trees-or perhaps a stand of cypress, mulberry or fig trees. The cheery colors of marigolds, hyacinths and roses are well suited for the classical landscape design. Herbs planted in terra cotta pots scent the air and provide fresh flavor in your outdoor kitchen cooking.

Hardscapes in Classical Landscape Design

Color, form, line, scale, and texture are your means of expressing classical landscape design preferences just as they are with modern landscape design.

Hardscapes to include:
• Outdoor rooms for outdoor living. These living areas, in effect, make your home larger. They also serve to make transition areas that connect the indoor and outdoor spaces. Plus, they further the notion that a garden is a place of rejuvenation. In particular, outdoor kitchens are vital to the traditional landscape design.

• Outdoor water fountains. If you remember your ancient world history classes, you know that the Romans perfected the aqueduct. So water is prized within classical landscape design and nothing showcases it like a picture-perfect outdoor water fountain. Look for fountains in formal, Romanesque, Italianate, Mediterranean and rustic styles. Those made of tile, cast stone, cast iron and concrete work particularly well with this style.

• Swimming pools. When placed within a classical landscape design, the shape of your swimming pool should tend towards basic geometric shapes like rectangles and ovals. Thus, the shape of the pool frames the water and turns it into a classical design element of the landscape. It is often efficient to combine the pool with an outdoor water fountain to eliminate some maintenance redundancies.

• Landscape lighting. Landscape lighting is another vital element of traditional landscape design as it makes ambiance and lets you delight in the outdoors, night and day.

Classical Landscape Design: A Houston Setting

”We implemented a classical landscape design for one of our Houston clients, whose home was French Country. For the garden, we chose a design that closely resembles a well-known garden in Florence,” says Jeff Halper with Exterior Worlds. “The landscape design makes excellent use of gravel and limestone, which looks very natural in a Houston garden. And we planted boxwoods, which we trim and shape regularly as part of a well-thought-out residential landscape maintenance plot. It is a lovely and relaxing space.”

Modernism, in the context of landscape design, is a result of forms and functions that reflect the need for outdoor living spaces that enhance contemporary lifestyles. As Garrett Eckbo, one of the central figures in modern landscape architecture, said, landscape design is the “arrangement of environments for people.”

Contemporary garden design tends to focus on scale as opposed to formal landscape designs that are based on axial relationships. It also foregoes the more classic landscape design forms and larger scale from Greek, Roman, and classical architecture traditions. This design motif became well loved in the 1950′s baby boom, particularly in California where weather and lifestyle was very conducive to this innovative style.

In modern landscape design, boundaries between areas of color, textures and shapes are undefined-or conversely, sharply defined. Color and composition make the emotional response. Combining freshness and flair, these designs use dramatic geometric shapes to make a point of view that is fluid and natural. Water and light are often used, as in artfully-lit outdoor water fountains, to enhance the sensual loveliness and liveliness. The designs are arresting, both close up and far away.

Form and Function in Modern Landscape Design

As the maxim says, form follows function. Modern landscape design is an aesthetic that shows only what is necessary while often leaving surfaces exposed. The simplicity of modern design reveals itself in that every form has a function, even when that function is merely to engage the senses.

It is possible, sometimes desirable, to use modern design techniques without making a high-tech look. That is, to make use of horizontal and vertical planes that manufacture a modern sculpture effect-and let colors and plantings evoke a warm, welcoming feel. It is that juxtaposition-hard and soft, linear and non-linear, energetic and restrained-that is the essence of modern landscape design. “Less is more” is the modern landscape design mantra. A huge plant palette is not necessary. Rather, it is how plants, materials, and textures are used and mass them together that make the contemporary effect.

The architecture of the house needs to be carefully considered when using a contemporary garden design. If the house is bold, the grounds need to be strong also.
The home and landscape can be tied together through selective use of plantings or the intelligent placement of a hardscape feature, such as an organic approach to the front door.

Using Today’s Technology in Your Modern Landscape

Naturally new technologies in building materials are a huge component of modern landscape design, which can mean a new approach using ancient materials or a new approach using new materials. Often, it is the contrast of material usage that suggests modernism.

Concrete, with its sturdiness and malleability, has won a firm place in contemporary garden design. Its cool, gray color alone establishes its credibility. Its uses run the gamut from flooring to columns to stark, amorphous benches. In addition to concrete, advances in steel and glass technologies, plus construction methods, can be even further exploited within the modern landscape design.

Often materials, such as stone, metal, plastics, steel and glass, are left in an exposed or raw state. Part of the beauty of these materials derives from their interplay with nature-the way steel rusts to a warm, burnt look, for instance.

The Spaces of Modern Landscape Design

Landscape themes such as English, Asian, Zen gardens, natural, Japanese or modern identify not only your property but also your tastes and style. Color, form, line, scale, and texture are your means of expressing those landscape design preferences.

Your choices can be demonstrated in the plants and hardscapes you choose. Beauty can be a maple imported from Japan. It can also be the wild grass native to the Texas coastal plains. You may have outdoor works of art to show in your landscape. Or you might use a stream that ends in a waterfall as an ever-changing sculpture of sound and movement. Landscape lighting is another crucial tool of contemporary garden design as it makes ambiance and lets you delight in your landscape night and day.

Other uses of space in contemporary designs include:

• Outdoor rooms for living. These living areas, in effect, make your home larger. They also serve to make transition areas that connect the indoor and outdoor spaces. In this regard, this style is similar to a Mediterranean landscape design with its underlying principle that the outdoor living area should be just as enjoyable and functional as the home’s interior.

• Outdoor kitchens. The center of outdoor entertainment, outdoor kitchens provide a natural gathering place. Their design should complement both the house and the landscape. Above all, their design should be functional.

• Luxury swimming pools. When designed from a modern viewpoint, luxury swimming pools are anything but a dull rectangle or kidney-shaped pool. They become sophisticated and exciting, eye-catching and mesmerizing. Often, you can combine them with an outdoor water fountain that eliminates some redundancies while adding vitality to your overall design.

Thoroughly Modern

Modern landscape design is even more appropriate today than it was 50 years ago. Jeff Halper with Exterior Worlds says, “Contemporary garden design has gotten only better with time. With today’s busy lifestyles, there is less time for gardening. Also, we need to use our gardens for multiple functions these days-sanctuary, entertainment, a place for children to play safely. Modern landscape design addresses all these wants and needs.”

Robert Irwin, the landscape architect of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, puts it this way: “…maybe the world is an art form [and] the gardening of our universe” reveals our participation in that work of art.

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Landscape architecture speaks for itself. You can see it in professionally-designed residential properties, public parks and playgrounds, parkways and golf courses. The purpose of landscape architecture is to make spaces that are functional and gorgeous. Residential landscape architects plot the location of flowers, shrubs, and trees, and the arrangement of hardscape elements, such as outdoor water fountains, arbors and gazebos, and luxury swimming pools. They are also charged with designing and plotting landscapes that suit the natural environment and conditions.

Landscape Architects: Background

Who can deliver landscape design? To become a landscape architect usually requires a bachelor’s or master’s degree in landscape. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are two undergraduate professional degrees: a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) and a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture (BSLA). Typically, these degrees entail four or five years of study in design, construction techniques, art, history, and natural and social sciences.

For landscape architects seeking advanced degrees, there are two routes. Those who hold undergraduate degrees in landscape architecture can earn their Masters (MLA) in two years. If you hold an undergraduate degree in a field other than landscape architecture and want to go into landscape architecture, the MLA usually takes three years of full-time study.

In 2007, 61 U.S. colleges and universities offered 79 undergraduate and graduate programs in landscape architecture that were accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

The Steps

Working with home architects, surveyors, engineers and contractors, landscape architects help determine the best arrangement of the property’s elements. Landscape architects, in collaboration with these professionals, make detailed plans indicating new topography, vegetation, walkways, and other landscaping details, such as outdoor kitchens, gate placement and other decorative features.

In the preliminary stages, landscape architects first study the project as a whole. They consider the wants and needs of the homeowner and the available budget. They analyze the natural elements of the site, such as the climate, soil, slope of the land, drainage, and vegetation; observe where sunlight falls on the site at different times of the day and different times of the year; and assess the effect of the existing neighborhood, roads, walkways, and utilities.

The next step in the process is the conceptual design phase that develops out of the meeting notes, site analysis, program of uses, and the architect’s experience. At this conceptual level, a landscape architect conveys the overall design intent, such as the general use areas and their sizes, material choices, irrigation systems, drainage systems, lawn areas, and plantings. An overall cost study is developed from the conceptual landscaping design as well.

Once you have agreed on the overall design intent, sizes of use areas, general material selections and their applications, you are ready to start the landscaping design development and construction phase. The documentation for this phase includes landscaping design drawings for permitting, drawings to convey final design intent, and construction documents, which include specifications for materials and their installation.

These drawings may be accompanied by a full package of additional drawings to include an existing site survey, elevation plot, a plot for tree disposition and tree preservation, landscape planting plot, landscape lighting plot, and construction details for the above plans.

“Having a simple yet unique landscape design can significantly improve the appearance of your place. Through landscaping, you manage to personalize your home and incorporate into it elements that spell your lifestyle, character and interests. More so, your home or commercial establishment’s fascinating landscape helps attain for it a degree of dominance in the area you’re situated. In Massachusetts, concrete pavers make chic landscaping designs for homes and business establishments that contribute to the beauty of the state.

Landscaping is a combination of art and science. Your landscape design should ideally complement the colors and materials making up the structure of your property. Gardening is the most vital facet of landscaping for plants and flowers enhance the look of one’s place.

Before getting down to landscaping, study the accessibility of your garden space and assess which features will best work for it.

Though landscaping makes a difference to an area, it doesn’t always guarantee to improve its appearance. Carelessness or the inclusion of an inappropriate detail in a hardscape design in a Massachusetts home can result in an eyesore instead of an impressive view.

To avoid committing landscaping mistakes, it would be best to hire a pro in the said field. You’ll find countless landscape contractors in Massachusetts who are equipped with the right tools essential in the production or creation of an astounding landscape design.

If you have a huge landscaping design, it is best to seek advice from a professional landscaping contractor. There are also garden and lawn centers where you can buy information and knowledge about brilliant landscaping thoughts. Professional home improvement centers usually have experienced sales personnel who have tried their hands in different landscaping methods. Before you spend money on landscaping, be sure to get the proper guidance from a trusted landscaping source.

An organized and properly designed landscape can be a excellent source of enjoyment for the entire family. It enhances a community picture and increases the resale value of a certain property. Working on a landscape design is far more tedious than planting trees, shrubs and other plants for that matter. It is considered an art that deals with aesthetic arrangement or organization of outdoor space for human satisfaction and enjoyment.

Landscaping companies offer a wide range of formal and informal garden landscaping designs in Massachusetts. Formal landscaping includes geometric plans and straight line designs that are usually well plotted so you achieve a look that is professional by nature. Informal landscaping, on the other hand, contains curved lines and is ideal for small gardens. An informal andscaping plot features random groups of plants and flowers.

Oriental landscaping is useful in large gardening projects for it welcomes the use of different accessories such as water, rocks, potted plans and evergreens. Meanwhile, the woodland style is a complex alternative to landscaping. It perfectly suits backyard designing with an artificial waterfall and woodland plants.”