How to design a beautiful garden-ELY109

Show Notes

Today’s links: ely.how/episode109How to create a landscape visionFind your landscape design styleHow to design like a proMissouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder ToolAsk Ben a Question for Free!Easy Living yards can help you create your beautiful yard, no matter your budget or location.Create your eco friendly yard today.Find me on Facebook, Instagram, or PinterestHow to Design a Beautiful Garden Bed Like a Pro

When you’re looking for eco friendly landscaping ideas, it can be difficult to come up with a design that looks good.  We want easy DIY landscaping, right?  These design basics will help you design low maintenance landscaping that will look great and require less work.

Topic Outline:

Goals  for your landscapingFunctions in a good landscape designDesign BasicsLow maintenance plant selection

How most people design a garden: We usually want to start with the plants.

The wrong way to design a garden: wanting to start with the plants!

The right way to design a beautiful low maintenance landscape:

Landscape Design GoalsStart with your goals for your garden and entire propertyWhat does your garden do?What does your garden mean to you?What do you want your garden to say about you?Functions in a good landscape designWhat functions does your landscape perform?Providing accessWelcoming guestsVisual barrierBringing beauty to your lifeProviding a relaxing spaceOthersHow to design a landscape like a pro – The basic essentialsYour landscape design should be:an expression of your landscaping goalsan implementation of your landscape functionsForm in a landscape designThe structure or backbone of your designYou can see structure and form by looking at a landscape in black-and-white You want variation in your form to not be monotonousTexture in a landscape designTexture is your differences in leaf patterns, lighting, shadows, branching, etc.You also want varied texture to avoid dull landscapesColorYou consider color after focusing on form, structure, and texture.This is the last bit – like decorative icing on a cakeColor is usually a temporary, changing process in the landscapeBalanceHow various elements across your design are distributedIn form, structure, texture, colorSymmetryProvides some sense of intentDoes not need to be entirely symmetricalRepetitionUse of similar elements across your designPlants, colors, texture

Plant Selection (woo hoo finally!!!!)

Plants shouldfulfill your goals and design intentbe adapted to site conditionsMoisture, sun, soil, etcsometimes provide a funtionfoot traffic, sight linesbe available for you to find (duh – I promise you might get hung up on a plant and not be able to find it)Meet design needsEvergreen, bloom time/color, mature height/width

Good luck!  Let me know how it goes!