Creating the Design

There is a bewildering array of plants, building materials and stones to pick from when designing a garden. It is important to bring these details together in a harmonious manner. Successful coordination creates a garden that is pleasing to the eye, the garden appears natural, balanced, and comfortable. Coordination also helps camouflage the negative while accentuating the positive features. The details to coordinate are color scheme, line, form, volume, texture, and transition. To create transitions it is important to coordinate color schemes, lines, and textures.

Create a color scheme by first examining what already exists on your property (house, fence, trees, hedges, hardscape, etc.). Next, consider your color preferences, and organize a color palette that works for you and your property.

•	Choose a shade of green for the hedges. This will be a primary color as hedges are the “bones” of the garden. Does a soft gray-green shade, or a medium forest green, or pale spring green, or a shiny fresh green appeal to you?

•	Include complementary, neutral colors if your preference leans toward strong, vibrant color combinations.

The outer edge of a color wheel shows the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) along with their secondary colors (orange, green, and violet). The middle circle shows pale tints of the primary and secondary colors as a result of mixing them with white. The inner circle shows shades made by mixing black with the primary and secondary colors.

Warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) are considered energizing. If you want to tone down these colors, place them in filtered light or against a dark background. Be spare with these colors, because too much may appear overwhelming and tire the eye.

Cool colors (green, blue, and violet) recede and calm. To brighten (highlight) cool colors, combine with white. This is useful for bringing attention to a shaded area. Cool colors disappear in shade and moonlight. White and pastels are washed out in sunlight.

Warm colors (and white) make items seem closer and appear larger. Warm colors planted at the foundation line will make your home appear closer to the street.

Cool colors (and black) make items recede and appear smaller. Cool colors planted at the foundation line will make your home appear farther from the street.

A complementary color scheme combines a color with its opposite. A color wheel may be useful for this type of color scheme. Examples of complementary color displays include: green plants next to a red house, fiery fall color with a blue-sky backdrop, or a rustic bench with yellow striped pillows against a purple garage wall.

An analogous (or adjacent) color scheme combines adjacent colors on the color wheel.

A monochromatic scheme combines various shades and tints from just one color family. Examples of a monochromatic scheme include moss and gray green grasses against a gray stone fountain.

A triadic scheme (split-complementary) occurs when three colors equidistant on the color wheel are combined. Some examples of this combination are using red with yellow and blue, or red-orange with yellow-green and blue-violet.

Repeating the color schemes creates a rhythm that will move the eye through, around, and/or beyond the landscape. For example: alternate rose-pink windowsills and group purple flowers with green shrubbery.

Annual plants are considered accent plants because they bloom once and must be replaced each year.

Fall color plants (deciduous) are sound investments. Color change can start in early summer and last through spring. However, fall color usually means leaf drop, so design with maintenance in mind.

Choosing plants that reflect, or echo, existing lines (natural and architectural) on the property will help unify the garden.

For example: many one level, contemporary homes are styled with horizontal lines, so the garden should mimic the flow of those lines to create harmony.

Besides horizontal and vertical lines, keep in mind the major shapes that occur on your site and try to mimic them with plants.

•	Find out how high and wide the plant will be at maturity before purchasing. Plant height, width, and mass should be in proportion to the home and appropriately sized for the planting location. For example a 60 foot tree with a 40 foot spread will dwarf a single-story ranch style home.

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Create a focal point (terminus) in the garden to provide a visually satisfying resting point. This can be accomplished with either straight or curved lines, or both. An example of a focal point would be a small gazebo in the middle of the garden. To draw the eye to the gazebo, the view of the gazebo is framed by three planes: an overhead plane represented by the sky or overhanging trees, a vertical plane by hedge or wall and a base plane by paving, lawn, or groundcovers.

•	To complement a stately, symmetrical home, use straight (axial) lines to reinforce the style. To further the formal effect, be sure to create a visually balanced pathway in which each side, is a mirror image of the other.

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An informal, asymmetrical home may use curved lines to create a flowing, relaxed garden. Curved lines are stronger when curved toward each other than when curved outward. A design is asymmetrically “balanced” when opposite shapes on either side of the focal point equally draw your attention. For example: a tree and a shrub, although opposites, create a balanced appearance.

•	Lines should be flowing and graceful and form either a definitive shape or end at a focal point. Avoid the “uncertain,” weaving, in-and-out line.

•	Avoid a static line with little or no change. The eye moves easily from one section of the garden to another using lines of continuity. A blank wall, a pathway that ends abruptly, or a formal garden with no focal point will result in a feeling of confusion, or discord.

Make note of the dominant shapes (structures, trees, shrubs, hardscapes, etc.) on your property. Choose plants that complement or mimic these forms.

•	A columnar shape is essential for a formal garden, as it creates living walls and boundaries (garden rooms).

•	Fan-shaped leaves on a plant can soften a building edge, however, as you can see, it also may obscure the view as the plant matures. Consult the Plant List or other sources for dimensions of mature plants.

When designing and drawing a garden plan, don’t forget about “volume.” A two-dimensional drawing may appear more spacious than the garden itself.

•	To avoid overcrowding plants in the garden, be sure to represent the mature size and shape of plants in the drawing plan.

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Hardscapes will make a garden appear large and spacious. Be generous with the dimensions of a concrete path, a brick walk, or a stone patio. Even a small garden will appear spacious if it has paths that are five feet or more in width. Once constructed, the ample paths will provide safety, stability, and a frame for your garden.

Texture is the surface quality of an item that can be seen or felt. Surfaces in the landscape include buildings, walks, patios, groundcovers, and plants.

Texture can be coarse, medium, fine, smooth, rough, glossy, or dull. As with the other details, dominant or favorite texture should be used as a guideline in the design in order to unify the garden with the house and rest of the property.

•	Paverstone, and some flagstone, have a rustic, coarse texture. They are often used to complement stucco and/or wood structures such as walls, fencing, and outdoor furniture.

•	Weathered brick and Arizona flagstone have a medium rough texture that is very complementary to brick, wood, and plants with small to medium sized, dull leaves.

•	Hard-fire brick complements Mediterranean and modern structures, galvanized steel cable fencing, wrought iron, plants with medium-sized shiny leaves, stucco and hardwood planters, molded ornamental plastic pots, and outdoor plastic furniture.

•	Tile, such as cut slate and mosaics, can have a texture that is fine, smooth, and glossy. Tiles complement town-garden entryways and patios, wrought iron fencing, ornamental arches, small-leaved groundcover, smooth foliaged plants, hard-fire clay pots, and stone containers.

Design: Michelle Derviss, Landscapes Designed A single polished painted tile floats on concrete

•	Use mulch for a soft, dull surfaced pathway. Mulch allows water to penetrate the soil and helps prevent weed germination.

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Gravel is good for achieving a hard, dull surface. Pea gravel has the finest texture, however, it needs to be replenished often due to gravel seepage (loss of rock due to tamping down and spill over into adjacent beds). Gravel surfaces are attractive, informal, allow water to penetrate the soil, and are low maintenance. It is a good idea to edge gravel areas to help prevent seepage.

Design: Michelle Derviss, Landscapes Designed Design: Michelle Derviss, Landscapes Designed

The gravel path lends informality to the The gravel path also allows for rapid drainage

Transition is the gradual change from one scheme to another. Applying transition, as with the other design concepts, helps create a surrounding that is pleasing to the eye. For example, to entice an individual from an enclosed, intimate area to one that is spacious and open, the designer will make the gradual transition by placing plants and forms that graduate in size, height, texture, color, etc. along the exiting pathway. By doing so, one is gently drawn into the open, spacious area.

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Transitioning can create a feeling of distance both visually and physically. To generate transition, first choose a focal point that is prominent on the site: a distant hill, structure, a large tree or a shrub. Place tall plants near an area where someone would naturally stand. Position shorter plants along the pathway heading to the focal point. Transition from dark to pale colors and from coarse to fine textures.

Before you start laying out your garden on paper, there are other details (building codes, utilities, soil, weather/climate, etc.) that need to be addressed in planning your garden.