Garden Design

Beautiful gardens start with some basic garden design principles.
Don't worry, they aren't hard to learn!

Each principle will be uncovered one at a time so that putting your garden together will be as simple as decorating your living room.

What's the difference between Garden design and Landscape design?
You've probably heard these terms used many times but what do they mean?

Landscape design covers the overall design of your property. It would be what your property would look like if a picture was taken from up in an airplane. It includes the house, walkways and gardens. A good landscape design brings harmony to your yard.

Garden design covers the individual planting areas of your yard. Just think of Garden design as the individual rooms of your house and Landscape design as how they all fit together. Each individual garden serves a purpose just like each room in the house serves a purpose. Each room has its own color scheme, furniture, accessories and layout yet they flow together. Each garden can have its own color scheme, plantings, accessories and layout yet flow together.

A Quick Glance at the Design Principles

Color
Function
Repetition
Shape
Size
Texture

Color can do amazing things in a garden. You can use colors to calm an area, brighten up a dark corner or even blend individual gardens together.
Read more about using color in your garden and creating movement with color.

Function relates to how plants are used in the garden as well as how the garden itself is used. Do you need to hide an eyesore area? Do you want a vegetable garden? What is the purpose of your garden going to be?

Repetition unifies a garden and your landscape. Too much repetition can break a garden. Learn how to bring unity to your garden without overdoing it.

Shape pertains to the leaves, plant, stuctures and walkways in your landscape. Shapes can make a garden seem formal or informal. Here are some tips for using shapes in your garden to create the look you are aiming for.

Size of the garden beds and walkways as well as the mature size of your plantings need to be in balance with the exsisting structures. See our section on size does matter for some tips on getting the balance right.

Texture is sometimes overlooked in outdoor design. Foliage, flowers, bark, and accessories in your garden all have textures. Here are some helpful hints for using texture in your garden design.

There are no gardening mistakes, just garden experiments.

Each person will have their own vision of what their garden should look like. You may follow one or two garden principles and be happy with the results. You might want to follow all the principles.
The most important thing to remember is that the design needs to make you happy.