8 Basic Principles of Landscape Design

What are the basic principles of landscape design? Are there 7 elements of landscaping design, 5 basic elements of landscape design, or 4 elements of a landscape? Whether you’re planning to “borrow ideas,” or coming up with your customized landscape design, you need to know the basic principles of landscape design. Understanding these landscape design principles will increase your creativity while at the same time help you generate new ideas. A great landscape design lies in the eyes of the artist, and these 8 basic principles of landscape design will not only boost your creativity, but also ensure that the elements in your design have balance and harmony.

8 Basic Principles of Landscape Design

1. Unity

Unity is a basic principle of landscaping, and is the repetition and consistency of a design. Repetition is used to bring about unity in your design by repeating like elements which include plants and decor in the landscape. Consistency is used to create unity by fitting different elements of a landscape together to create a common unit or theme.

2. Balance

Balance is simply a sense of equality. There are two types of balance in design: symmetrical and asymmetrical balance. In symmetrical balance, two sides of the landscape are identical while in asymmetrical balance, the landscape composition is balanced using different elements and objects which have almost similar imaginary weight.

3. Contrast and Harmony

Contrast helps highlight certain elements in your design, while harmony helps elements in a landscape composition look unified. Contrasting elements draw the viewer’s attention when they’re placed next to each other. Contrast and harmony are achieved by the juxtaposition of any elements of art or using complementary colors side by side.

4. Color

Color gives your landscape design the dimension of real life. Warm colors (e.g. red and orange) seem to advance towards you, making an object seem closer. While cool colors like blues and greens seem to move away from you. Blues and greens are used to create perspective.

5. Transition

Transition is simply a gradual change. Transition in a landscape design is illustrated by gradually varying the plant size or the color intensity. Transition can also be applied to texture, foliage shape and size of different elements.

6. Line

Line is the mother of all elements in landscape design. Lines are used almost everywhere including creating beds, entryways, walkways, texture and perspective. Lines are also used to give an illusion of depth and distance.

7. Proportion

Proportion refers to the size of an element in relation to the other. Among the 8 principles of landscape design, this is the most obvious one but still needs a little planning and thought. One must ensure that all the elements in a landscape design have proper proportions.

8. Repetition

Repetition is directly related to unity. It’s good to have several elements and forms in a garden, but repeating the same elements gives your design various expressions. Too many objects that are not related can make your design look unplanned and cluttered. Also, don’t overuse an element since over using an element can make your design feel boring, uninteresting, and monotonous.

In Conclusion

With these 8 basic principles of landscape design designing a landscape can be a nice way of unleashing your creativity. Utilizing, colors, contrast, and lines all can help influence the design of your landscape. When creating a new landscape, or sprucing your current one, the experts at Richard’s Total Backyard Solutions know how to incorporate design to give you a functional backyard that is also visually pleasing.