Plants, if you let them, function in garden design like a small business owner wearing many hats. PLANTS CAN ACT AS:
– Architectural structures
– Emphasize the three dimensional quality of your garden
– Give linear perspective
– Divide your garden into areas
and that’s just the beginning…
That said, whenever you need to do some designing, whether it be a container arrangement, or dreaming up ideas and gardening plans, these basic principles of design will come in handy.
1. Framing for Emphasis
Two Palm Trees Used as Framing in Palm Springs, CA.
- About Framing for Emphasis – This could be by using a pair of plants, as in the photo above; or using two of the same shrubs to frame your front door, one on each side. You can also use this design principle to clarify a point of access or circulation in the garden; framing can send a message to your friends and family, “Hey, this way back into the house.” Though it can be symmetrical, it doesn’t have to be.
2. Scale and Proportion
Look at the Scale of these Street Trees in Relation to the Buildings. Most are too Big for the Small Garden.
- About Scale and Proportion – In design this is the relationship of the parts to a composition. So for example, your house, property, plants and all of the elements that make up your garden should work together in unity. A grove of giant redwood trees in a small garden would be out of scale and proportion; whereas a scaled down idea, like considering dwarf tree varieties, espalier options, vertical garden options – which match the space better, is undoubtedly more fitting and will make a more pleasing design.
3. Rhythm and Repetition
Using these Palms Repeatedly Unifies the Planting & Easily Defines the Home’s Boundary.
- About Rhythm and Repetition – Create unity with simple repeated pattern. This could be as simple as using a single pair of similar plants. But to take this further, you can either repeat the same plant in a group, or, for a different effect, scatter the same plant at intervals around the garden. Another interesting idea, especially in a small planting design, is to repeat an association of two or three plants, in various locations in the garden.
4. Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Balance
Plants & Space are Symmetrically Balanced.
- About Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Balance – Formal garden design uses symmetrical balance. This is where both sides are even or visually identical. For example, a row of ornamental grasses on each side of a path. Asymmetrical balance, very common in Japanese garden design, balances both sides, but by the use of different materials, numbers, sizes, colors, lines, forms and textures.
5. Dominance
The Spiky Plant is a Dominant Accent Plant in this Vignette.
- About Dominance – This is the use of one outstanding unit to which all else is subordinated. It can also be called an accent.
6. Contrast
The bold textured Agave contrasts with the fine texture of Lobelia laxiflora.
- About Contrast – Contrast is the unification of opposing elements to emphasize a dominant feature. For example, the straight lines of a hedge to contrast with billowing foliage or the upright form, say bamboo, next to a horizontal form of juniper.
Happy Gardening,
