Most people see garden design and landscaping on two different levels. While designing a garden implies a smaller more intimate project than an entire landscape plan, the principles are the same for both.

So before you put anything to paper or on the ground, you should become familiar with the Basic Principles of Landscape Design. This will give you a better understanding about color, balance, form, choosing gardening plants, and tricks like Repetition and Contrast. It doesn’t matter if you plan on creating your garden yourself or borrowing ideas.

Your garden will either be viewed as a work of art, an extended livable room of your home, walked through and enjoyed, or whatever. Purpose and function go hand in hand. Purpose will help determine the functionality of your design. And both can often layout a lot of the primary shape.

Other than choosing the right gardening plants, shape is where most people have a problem. Of course, shape and design are very important as we all want our gardens to stand out, be unique, and be tasteful.

With the purpose of your garden or landscaping in mind, you need to be prepared to draw your plan as you put your ideas together. This is all good to know whether you plan on pencil drawing or are considering using landscaping software.

Small Gardens

Designing small gardens has its own special set of rules and tricks. It can actually be quite a challenge. But for whatever reason, if you live where your outdoor space is limited, you shouldn’t and don’t have to sacrifice your love for gardening.

Making the most of what limited space you have and proper plant selection are the main tricks in creating small gardens. However, there are ways of making your space seem larger than it really is. This is what garden designers refer to as “creating illusions”.

Planting Ideas and Color Theory

As stated earlier, besides shape, choosing plants is usually one of the most difficult steps in designing gardens. With the many different types and colors of plants available, it’s just not something that most folks have knowledge of or time to study.

If choosing plants was simply a matter of creating good color combinations, it wouldn’t take much thought. However, it’s all the variables that determine what can be planted where that can make it a frustrating task. And from an economical point, trial and error isn’t the best way to populate your garden with beautiful plant and color combinations.