Beautiful landscapes aren’t created by chance. It’s almost impossible to simply “throw together” a landscape design and have it turn out to be exactly what you are looking for. Why? There are just too many factors involved and if everything is not perfectly aligned, the chances of your landscape thriving are minimal at best. Quality landscape design takes careful planning and a good measure of experience, but the one thing that all successful landscape contractors do have in common is the fact that they follow the same set of basic principles, which, if you look carefully enough, you will be able to spot in any good landscape. This is because these principles represent the “code” which landscape design is built upon. If you are attempting to implement a new landscape design in your yard, having knowledge of these principles would put you at a significant advantage, which is why we are going to guide you through the main ones during this post.
The Main Principles that Combine to Form the Landscape Design Code
Many people fail at landscape design, even some so-called “pros”, simply because when formulating their plan they do not consider Line, Form, Texture, Unity and Colour, which represent some of the main landscape design principles that simply cannot be ignored. To have the best chance of succeeding always consider the following when making changes to your yard.
- Line – There are many different types of “lines” in a good landscape design. Some will be used to outline each individual section of the landscape (you may feature some practical areas, while others might be designated for purely aesthetic purposes). Other lines should be used to draw these various areas together, just like the needle and thread on a patchwork quilt. The lines that are used in a landscape design can also have a big influence over how people look at the landscape since our vision naturally follows lines.
- Form – What do we mean by form? While in sports this word is used to describe how well a particular player has been playing lately, in a landscaping context, form is used to describe the shape of the plants and other features that are incorporated into the landscape design. Different plants grow to different heights and have different size leaves and branches, and it’s always advisable to include an assortment of sizes in the design to make it visually appealing.
- Texture – This is usually associated with how something feels when you touch it with your hands, but in the landscaping world it refers to how something appears when you see it. Form can have an impact upon the texture as can the appearance of the leaves and branches of a plant. One thing that you have to bear in mind is that there are several factors that can influence, and even change, a feature’s texture including your proximity to it and the lighting.
- Unity – A landscape design that contains many different features that just don’t seem to fit together well doesn’t typically appear attractive. Your landscape design should be unified and one of the best ways to achieve this is to use a certain amount of repetition throughout the design (although not too much otherwise it can have the opposite effect and look boring).
- Colour – Just as with interior design, colour can have a big impact upon the overall mood and feelings that are created by the landscape, which is why the colours used should be carefully considered. This is the one design principal that homeowners make mistakes on most commonly as they typically select colours that they personally like, rather than those colours that complement the features that have been included in the landscape design.
At DonRos Landscape Construction we always try to be as thorough as possible when coming up with a landscape design for our clients, looking at it from every angle and factoring your requirements into the equation. If you live in either Thornhill, Richmond Hill or Woodbridge and are looking to make changes to your yard, contact our team today at 416-984-0180 or 416-688-8511.