What Are The Elements Of A Landscape Design?

You are looking for a landscape design service provider. To that end, you probably also want to know what a custom landscape design is likely to entail. These five elements tend to define a landscape design.

Shapes and Paths

Especially if you're starting with a relatively empty landscape, creating visual flow is critical. Unless you have some amazing plants to work with, the odds are low that you want to slam viewers with a wall of life. Instead, you'll probably want the space to include some interesting shapes that guide the viewer's eye through the space. For example, you might install a series of oval-shaped gardens full of flowers along a line that guides the viewer's eye toward a building.

Similarly, you'll likely want the landscape to have paths so it'll be walkable. You don't necessarily need sidewalks, pavers, or gravel to create literal paths, though. Instead, there should be open areas where people can move around the landscape and appreciate its design.

Integration

Unsurprisingly, a landscape design service firm will frequently have to use the existing topography. However, features like hills, ponds, and even buildings can become design elements rather than problems. If you have an architecturally interesting gazebo on a property, for example, you should try to integrate it into the larger design as a point of interest and just as a functional feature.

Color

Flowers, stones, greenery, and even water features can all bring color to the design. You don't want to overload the landscape with too much of one color, but you can use complementary colors to tie the various choices into a theme. Some people also design very green spaces and then employ spots of strong colors to emphasize key features. You might have hedges on the sides of a path that point to a circle with a rose bush in the center. The burst of color will then emphasize the circle as the focal point.

Time

Seasonality can present challenges in custom landscape design. However, it also offers opportunities. The right plant like an Amur maple or a ginkgo tree can explode with color during its seasonal peak. Carefully sequencing in the design will ensure that your landscape has color over much of the year.

Balance

A landscape needs a design that makes visual sense. Balance doesn't necessarily mean symmetry, though. Instead, a balanced landscape might use a mixture of different types of plants to avoid homogeneity.


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