Your Garden Solutions - How To Design A Garden

You’ve probably seen a couple state gardens and many other beautifully designed gardens in books and on TV. Well, you too can have the perfect garden that you can enjoy for many years with basic garden design principles.

If you are thinking of a home garden design but don’t know where to start, get to know the basic elements of garden design . First of all, you need to exercise your gardening skills. Most of us who have just started gardening don’t have any formal design planned. However, we soon have the urge to make our gardens even more enjoyable to be in. Don’t hold back from this urge, as anyone can learn how to accomplish a home garden design.

The first garden design element you need to consider is style. Just like a wardrobe or interior design, gardens should also have a distinct personality. Start by considering having either a formal or informal look. Think about the location of your garden, design of your home and personal tastes.

Formal gardens remind of a mini Versailles, complete with complex boxwood knot gardens and symmetrical walkways. On the other hand, informal gardens remind of relaxed backyards of country cottages, teeming with tumbling roses and a collage of perennials. Many modern gardens have a mix of formal and informal elements.

Another garden design element you should consider is the element of line. This means figuring out how you’d like a person to view and travel through your garden. Paths can be used to pull together the look of your garden. The perfect garden usually has that sense of art form. Mild, slow curves and horizontal lines encourage a more calm feeling, while vertical lines or jagged diagonals encourage a more upbeat feeling. Lines you can use are paths, edges, fences or walls. You may use materials like brick and flat stones for pathways.

Scale and form are also important garden design elements . Scale is about relating shapes and sizes to each other. Make sure you balance small plants, large plants and pathways in a space so that there are no “awkward corners.” Form is used to define and sculpt the garden as a whole. Consider how plants grow either in a mass or individually and their distinct shape. They can be stringy, pointy, or puffy, and can affect the whole look of the garden.

Gardening is now not just about growing plants. With garden design, lighting is just as important. Lighting can either be functional, atmospheric or both. Lighting can enhance the look of your entire garden. First, consider practical lighting. You may want to incorporate floodlights and other lighting near pathways and doors. Use special lighting under distinctive trees or hang lanterns to highlight their natural form. Or, spread lighting fixtures around the garden to illuminate it at night and make it look like a “moonlit garden.” Moreover, you may use lighting to emphasize a garden feature such as a sculpture or pond. For instance, you may direct light toward a sculpture to play with light and shadow on the undulating surfaces.

Finally, use decorations for your home garden design . Use them to enhance a garden’s theme or as a conversation piece for your guests. Use urns, fountains, bird feeds, gnomes or flags. And there you have it, garden design tips for your perfect garden!