Your garden is more than a dash of green. It’s a private retreat that requires order and beauty to feel like your own sanctuary. Even the most beautiful flowers can appear disorganized and unneat without any apparent format or eye-catching visual points. Order provides peace, harmony, and direction. Beauty adds personality. Combined, they make your out-of-doors peaceful, inviting, and unmistakably yours.
Design a Focal Point
A good focal point betters any outdoor space. That can be a sculptural feature, an impactful container, a water feature, or a sculptural tree in a landscape. All these visual attractions bring order and calm, ground the space, and place focal points where lines of sight converge or at pathway terminations. An all-season focal zone can also be created by installing a pergola, which is perfect for defining space and providing year-round structure.
Start With the Design
Don’t plant until you’ve got your design in place. Create defined areas with paths, edges, or hedges. Use geometric shapes, squares, curves, or diagonals, to guide the eye and organize space. Bedding and edging material, like stone or brick, provide clarity. Position pathways and flowers in and around placed features like a pergola, fountain, or seating to organically incorporate them. This tactic creates flow, defines focal points, and gives the garden a sense that it is intentional, not randomly made.
Repeat Notable Features
Repetition brings rhythm. Repeat the same color, shape, or texture all over the garden. That means plants, containers, and even hardscape. Subtly done, repetition brings unity without tedium. It’s reminiscent of music, where a repeated chorus makes the tune memorable and structured.
Balance Soft and Hard Materials
Too many plants without contrast can be confusing. Soft plants are countered with hardscape. Gravel, wood, or steel accents serve as a visual form. Smaller accents like edging or a trellis will interrupt masses of plants and create space. The contrast between the soft and complex textures achieves the garden’s elegance. Even a modest element like a stone path along heavy foliage may be something that can destroy the visual monotony and make the whole space look more thoughtful and sophisticated.
Choose Furniture That Fits the Tone
A garden oasis isn’t just a looker; it’s a slow-down. Choose furniture that complements the house’s aesthetic. Sleek metal is appropriate for modern designs, while rusty wood is suitable for cottage or rural gardens. Comfort is key, but so is harmony. Don’t murder the mood with clashing furniture. Match materials with the atmosphere of your garden.
Layer Your Planting
Flat gardens are lifeless. Make use of height and layering to achieve depth. Start with trees or tall shrubs, followed by mid-size perennials, and end with low groundcovers. Staggering permits the replication of natural growth habits and the achievement of depth, taller plants towards the back or middle and lower ones towards the front, depending on the design.
Employ Color With Appreciation
Colour says something, so pick wisely. Stick to a unified palette, cool colours, warmth, or neutrals. Chaos can result if there are too many incongruous colours—group together the similar tones to make an impact. Employ strong flowers or foliage only where you must make an impact. Colour used under control makes your garden sophisticated, not flash.
Structure comes before style. Start with layout, create space, and layer carefully. Use the application of focal points and repetition to keep it simple-looking. Consider lighting to highlight paths and focal areas at night. And if you have ample garden space, mirrors or vertical planters can create a sense of visual expansion.