Interest pieces and mosaics can be center pieces of your landscape design, get expert yard and landscape design tips in this free video. Expert: Gale Gassiot Bio: Gale Gassiot makes her own organic compost or “gardener’s black gold.”
Landscaping projects are quite hard and complex and it requires trained and qualified professionals to complete the task efficiently and timely. An experienced and talented landscape contractor can make a huge difference to the value of your home. Landscape contractors are specialized in different forms of landscaping; mostly they specialize in commercial and residential landscape design, landscape construction, and grading, loaming, seeding, planting and commercial maintenance. According to a recent poll landscaping can add from 7% to 15% value to one’s home signifying 100% to 200% return on landscape investments.
The fact that gorgeous landscape increases the worth of the house, has given much serious thought to this profession. People are spending their time and money in making gorgeous landscape that has also made landscape contracting a highly competitive field. Landscape contractors are licensed professionals who hold expertise in applying techniques for making gorgeous designs onto a piece of land. A landscape project comprises mainly of landscape management, landscape plotting, landscape detailing, landscape assessment, landscape urbanism and innovative garden designs. Skill and experience of landscape contractor make a huge difference on the creation of landscapes.
Landscape contractor are also known as landscape designer, who convert simple piece of land into fantastic outdoor scenery by renovating and decorating that piece of land. They start their work by disposing unwanted things like pests, plants and unused things. Then they install irrigation and drainage systems so that water can be effectively used and drained out. After this they work according to the design of the landscape and making walkways and then installing fences and patios. At last they plant garden flowers and assure their flowering. Landscape contractors provide with many attractive garden designs but they can also work according to their clients design. Apart from making the landscape they also took maintenance service of the landscapes.
With the use of latest software on landscape project, a lot of variety has been added to the landscape service and more and more professionals are gaining knowledge and training to excel in this field. This has further added more attraction in this field and generated people interest in creation of the landscapes. Landscape contractors help one to make and maintain gorgeous and stress free landscapes. They work mainly for the beautification of the property but they have complete knowledge from plotting of the landscapes to the choosing and designing of right plants.
Have you cut out and collected pictures of fantastic landscaping thoughts, but now wonder how to really place them onto your own property? Have you wanted to capture the vision of a stately French mansion on your property in Houston, Texas? Would you like to know whether the plants you’ve admired in European and New England countryside estates will grow on the Texas coastal plains?
If so, you need the services of an experienced residential landscape design professional. A competent landscape designer or landscape architect takes you through the entire design development process, which includes: consultation and program development, analysis of the existing site, conceptual landscaping design, construction documentation and permitting. And then on towards turning the vision in your mind from virtual reality to actual reality.
Landscape design and Analysis of the Site
An essential part of the initial consultation with your landscape designer or landscape architect is a walk around your property. Here is where you get to share your overall vision, detail your wants and needs and desires. It should be a free-flowing discussion about aesthetics, which includes your likes and dislikes of materials, preferences on arrangements-all the “wouldn’t it be nice if…” things you’ve been considering.
Try to be as specific as you can. For example, you may want a deck to seat a party of ten people or a large lawn area on which your three- and five-year-ancient can play with your Labrador retriever. This detailed information will be brought together by your residential landscape designer or landscape architect to make a program of uses. The program organizes uses by their relationship to one another, much like the inside flow of your home. In fact, the architecture and flow of your home should relate to the architecture and flow of your landscaping. Understanding these relationships and interpreting them well separates the artist-architectural designer from a landscape horticulturalist-contractor.
Residential Landscaping Design
The next step in the design process develops out of the meeting notes, site analysis, program of uses, and the design professional’s experience. At this conceptual level, the landscape designer or landscape architect conveys the overall design intent, such as the general use areas and their sizes, swimming pools and other hardscapes, outdoor kitchens and outdoor fountains, lawn areas, and plantings. This phase will also be the time when it is determined which wish list items are possible on the site and which are not. An overall cost study is developed from the conceptual landscaping design as well.
Moving Forward with you Landscape Design:
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 can be broken down into three groups: 1) landscaping design drawings for permitting. 2) landscaping design drawings to convey final design intent and material selections for you and the installation contractor 3) landscaping design drawings, called construction documents, with specifications for materials, specifications for their installation and installation methods.
These drawings may be accompanied by a full package of additional drawings to include an existing site survey, tree disposition and elevation plot, tree preservation plot, demolition plot, swimming pool plot, landscape drainage systems, irrigation systems, hardscape plot including outdoor kitchen and outdoor water fountains, landscape planting plot, landscape lighting plot, and construction details for the above plans.
As for permits, each city has its own unique requirements for landscape plot approvals. The norm is a submittal of the entire permitting package to be approved or rejected by a committee board. For this reason, it is vital to hire a landscaping company that is fluent in these areas, one who knows what vital information to include, such as lot coverage ratios, engineered drainage plans, pool fencing layout and specifications. It is equally vital to omit unnecessary information that could make confusion or send up a red flag that would keep the project from getting approved. A knowledgeable residential landscape designer or landscape architect helps win approval as quickly as possible.
Garden Design and the End Results
Whether your project is a simple landscaping design that only encompasses landscape planting or is a complex construction package, it is vital that you hire a landscape designer or landscape architect that is competent in the skill sets detailed here. For your satisfaction, it is also vital to distinguish between off-the-shelf landscaping design and a designer who can reflect your unique style. Always question to see a portfolio and visit the website to determine if the landscaping company under consideration has the sense of style you appreciate and is one who can design a landscape that complements your home and lifestyle.
Additionally, it is highly recommended that you utilize a landscaping design company that not only does the design work, but also performs project management and landscaping installation. There is a world of difference between someone who has fantastic thoughts and another person with fantastic thoughts who also knows the availability and best use of local materials, local contractors and their methods of construction, overall cost and budget development, and can then maintain the finished product. In small, you want a landscape designer or landscape architect who can deliver a landscape design solution that flourishes in the Houston climate over the long term.
Whether you plot on “borrowing thoughts” or plot on making 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 plot. But just having an understanding of these principles will help you generate thoughts and increase your creativity.
Fantastic landscaping lies in the eyes of the its creator. So, while the principles of landscape design are fantastic 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 makes unity by repeating alike elements like plants, plant groups, or decor throughout the landscape. Consistency makes unity in the sense that some or all of the different elements of the landscape fit together to make 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 excellent 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 made 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 make unity in your landscape is by making themes. And one of the simplest ways to make themes is by using a small garden decor or garden statues. Making a theme garden is simpler when it’s related to something you’re interested in or have a passion for.
If you’re into butterflies for instance, you could make 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 thought through consistent style and a specific theme is what makes harmony.
Simplicity is really 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 start 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 making 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 makes an fascinating 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 small more complex. While textures, forms, colors, etc. may remain constant to make 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 excellent 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 make a clean contrast. Flowing lines are pleasing to the eye but the bold contrast of a curve with a straight line can be very fascinating.
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 really make an object seem closer to you. Cool colors like greens, blues, and pastels seem to go 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. But, 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 show 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 excellent transition would be a stair step effect from large trees to medium trees to shrubs to bedding plants. This example is where a small knowledge of proper plant selection would come in handy.
Transition is one of the principles of landscape design that can be used to “make 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 go 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 small thought and plotting. Most of the elements in landscape design can be intentionally plotted to meet the proper proportions.
For instance if you are making a small courtyard garden, an enormous seven foot garden statue placed in the center would be way out of proportion and a small 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 making different rooms in the garden. The goal is to make 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 making its own distinct atmosphere. An entire room, sitting area, or theme can be made around it. Other rooms and themes can be made as well. See small gardens for thoughts on making rooms and making 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 excellent 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, dull and monotonous.
But, unity can still be made by using several different elements repeatedly. This in turn keeps the garden fascinating.
