When designing a new garden, or looking with fresh eyes at your old one, its useful to understand the key elements and principles that go into sculpting a beautiful and functional outside space. Even with limited experience using elements such as colour and texture, along with principles like proportion and balance can help the space feel harmonious as you consider all aspects and required functions of the land and what’s needed to make it look its best. As well as collecting images online of gardens that you like, you can begin to see the garden like a designer would, following these simple principles. Also you can book a designer even just for an hour consultation to kick start this process.

Xmas time is great time to imagine your outdoor space, as there is little work to do, imagining the coming Spring is a pleasant activity and it can also help you concentrate on the structure of the garden, as the ‘bones’ of the garden reveal themselves this month, and are what makes  a garden feel timeless.

Elements vs principles:

It’s important to recognize the difference between landscape design elements and principles. Elements are the separate components that when working together help shape a cohesive design with a clear visual appeal. Compared to principles which act as guidelines for how to organize the elements into well balanced and beautiful landscape.

Elements:

Line

Lines are powerful tools as they define edges and create forms guiding the eye through the landscape. They can occur in more obvious ways, such as the contrast of two materials on the ground like a patio and a lawn or less geometrically, like a trees outline against the sky. These lines can be used to create patterns and forms which bring together a cohesive theme in a space. Different types of lines serve different purposes such as creating patterns and forms bringing character to a garden. Curves have become more popular again over the last ten years as a lot of people are wanting a more naturalistic garden. Straight lines will always be appealing if the house needs to connect more with the garden as you can run the lines out from the house to marry up with the lawn or particular paths and planting beds.

Brick edging, hedging, tiles or paths can be the material of choice. Hedges, set internally in the garden, can also create internal lines that criss cross or met perpendicular to create ‘ garden rooms’.

Form

This refers to the shape and structure of objects within the landscape that can be hardscape features or specific plants. This element usually determines the style of the garden, whether its formal with structured geometric shapes or more naturalistic with informal organic shapes.

Plants can be chosen and shaped like topiary into columns, squares, triangles or balls. Hedges can be chosen to give ‘weight’ to an area. A combination of plants can balance out the mass of another part of the garden. A pergola can be an enticing destination in the garden, and when linked with the style of the house, can provide a balancing effect.

Designing emptiness into a space is just as vital as the shape of objects, as each empty space has its own potentials and possibilities that our bodies instinctively respond to.

Tone

An unsung aspect of garden design is tone. If you look out into your garden and squint your eyes your garden will reduce itself to dark shapes and light shapes. What makes a dramatic oil painting can often be reduced to the effective use of contracting tones. In the garden this might consist of a dark Yew hedge with pale cream planting, a light bright path with dark edging, the brightness of a lawn with a dark evergreen planting scheme.

Texture

Texture creates the overall ambiance of the garden as it adds a tactile quality. By combining different textures, a variety of visual effects can be created. Plants with a rough texture are more dominant so often seem closer compared to fine textured plants which make a space feel more open. This concept can be used both for plants as well as hardscaping making texture a great

This is mainly achieved  in the plants that are chosen but extends to textured riven paving, rough wood pillars, soft grass, metallic sculptures.

Colour

Colour is one of the most powerful but also aesthetically pleasing element to add interest and variety into your garden. However, it is also the most temporary element with flowering plants often only lasting a few weeks and green foliage fading in the winter months. Colour theory is a great way to guide what colours complement each other and create a cohesive theme. Whether this is a monochromatic, analogous (colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel e.g., red, orange and yellow) or complementary colour scheme all can create visual flow and enhance the spaces’ style and emotional effects.

Mass/ visual weight

Visual weight is the composition of the garden and how the different features have varying visual strengths which draw our attention. Features with high visual weight are often larger in size with bold colours in upright forms. These draw more attention but too much can make the space look cluttered and chaotic. Low visual weight features such as low lying, fine texture plants are good for providing a background to bring the stronger features together and making the space more balanced.

Principles:

Proportion

Proportion is the size of plants, hardscaping or buildings in relation to surrounding elements in the garden. When these features are in proportion the space should feel balanced. This feeling can also be achieved by having an equal proportions of open space between plants and structures. The size of a person is a good base for reference when it comes to scale of features but it’s also important to consider the size of the garden. Otherwise, a small space can be easily crowded if there isn’t balance between planted and non-planted spaces.

Balance

Balance is the idea of having an equal visual weight and attraction around a central axis, creating a sense of equilibrium. Symmetrical balance involves creating equal weight on both sides of the axis doing this by mirroring the objects from one side into the other, this can be plants, trees and structures. Symmetry gives a more formal and classical style to a garden often reminiscent of historical gardens. Whereas asymmetrical balance achieves equal visual weight by using non-equivalent elements like colour, texture and form. This style of balance is known for giving a more relaxed, informal feel that has a sense of movement.

Rhythm

Rhythm involves creating a sense of movement and a flow within the landscape. This is often done by repeating patterns or motifs throughout the space to channel the viewer’s gaze. To create rhythm often the type of plant, size, texture or colour is repeated or alternated to create a cohesive feel to the garden, as although different section of the garden may differ they are brought together by these familiar shapes and colours. The way you organize repetition in your garden can be thought of as a similar process to creating music, with gaps, spaces and repeat planting the notes and time signature of the song.

Unity

Unity is when there is a consistent theme, style or character that is linked through the use of lines, materials and plants. This can be repeating a certain feature or using a consistent colour palette to really tie the space together.

I hope this is useful for you over Xmas. When you want to escape the family, sit by a window and let your imagination go wild, and formal, and geometric, and……….

December:

It’s the right time to plant trees and hedges taken straight from the field. They are normally called ‘bareroot’ as opposed to ‘container grown’. They are half the price and settle in nicely into the cool moist earth.

It is still ok to order and plant bulbs. The soil is still very warm even if the air isn’t.

You can prune heavily sapping trees like Birches now and Grape vines before the winter sets in.

Harvest the rest of your root crops and lift and store your Dahlia, Canna and Ginger Lilly bulbs.

Don’t worry if your garden looks messy. The more mess the better for wildlife that needs a place to hide away during the winter.

You will have plenty of time to clean your beds in Spring. Just think- Your laziness now is creating a 5 star hotel for wildlife.

However where needs must, continue to rake up leaves and store them separately from the summer’s grass clippings as they need a different process to break down quickly.

What to do in December

Obviously it is the time of Xmas Fairs- Horsham Sunday Xmas market, plus the Ukfield Festival of Xmas, Arundel by Candlelight and ice skating at the Pavillion in Brighton are just a few things to do!

Happy Xmas Everyone!