The plot turns an ordinary garden into a real work of art. Appearance personal plot largely reflects the essence and mood of its owner, especially if the design was done without the participation of specialists - on its own.
It is quite possible to create a garden landscape design with your own hands; the main thing is to clearly formulate your desires and correctly reflect them on your site. In order for your ideas to become reality in the best possible way, you need to know the basic principles of landscape design.
It is unity that is one of the main requirements in creating a garden project. It can be achieved by combining individual elements or repeating them. It is by repeating various details that you can achieve a complete picture, and the principle of combination is based on the combination different characteristics elements, such as their size or color scheme. Chaotic arrangement of flower beds, stones or decorative ornaments is unlikely to help create a harmonious picture. The easiest way to give unity to the design is to subordinate all its elements to one theme, creating a common garden style. It is one theme that will unite all the details and make appearance holistic.
Ease of execution.
How simpler idea, the easier it is to execute - this principle is applicable to many areas of activity, and it also serves as the basis for creating beautiful landscape design. Simplicity is especially important for beginners in garden design; you can complicate the design later, when confidence in your abilities increases. This principle can be embodied in the choice of 1-2 shades that will prevail or the minimum number of various small architectural forms and garden sculptures .
The principle of symmetry and asymmetry in the garden.
In a well-designed garden, everything should be balanced; landscape design includes two types of balance: symmetrical and asymmetrical.
The principle of symmetry implies the same arrangement various plants, trees and decorative elements on both sides of the imaginary line. That is, in essence, mirror image the opposite side. Symmetry always looks harmonious; creating such a garden is quite simple; its design does not require high costs time and effort.
An asymmetrical garden is a little more difficult to create; firstly, several styles can be combined on such a site, and each of them will be equivalent. Secondly, a garden built according to this principle is quite abstract, so it is difficult to balance its appearance. Creating a single picture can be achieved by adding repeating elements, for example, stones of the same shape, to different corners of the garden.
Of course, each person has his own color preferences, and it is they who will influence what colors the garden will sparkle with. But when choosing a palette, do not forget that light shades seem closer than they really are, and dark ones appear further away. That is why many designers advise placing dark plants in the foreground and planting bright flowers behind them. This technique will make general view more voluminous and rich.
Knowing the basics of landscape design, you can easily, and most importantly - competently, create the garden of your dreams!
Why is it necessary to design sites and create them? landscape compositions? To provide a certain mood, impact and mood in a person.
Landscape design requires a careful and thorough approach, preparation and implementation of the plan.
Exists huge amount rules and professional tricks to create the ideal site. They are successfully used in practice by leading specialist designers. If you decide to develop your site yourself, then to achieve excellent results it will be enough to know and use the “rule of three”.
Triangle rule theory
The "rule of three", or the triangle rule, refers to the number of unique folk wisdom: everything ingenious is simple.
The “rule of three” is found in our lives at almost every step:
- classic three sizes - large, medium, small;
- classic three colors - white, black, red;
- classic three shapes - square, circle, triangle;
- three parts - a lot, less, little.
Number 3 is a subconscious feeling of reliability and stability; number 3 is guaranteed to create harmony and order in the environment. Anything less than three is too prim and boring, anything more threatens at any moment to step beyond the brink of disorder and chaos.
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Practical application of the triangle rules
Garden furniture with forged elements will look easy and harmonious in any garden.
Three sizes. This rule is used as follows: to create compositions from stones or alpine slides, it is necessary to combine stones of three sizes: large, medium and small in approximately proportions 9/6/3. Any other combination will make your slide look like a simple pile of stones.
To create amazingly beautiful, unusual path The rule of three is also used: three shapes and sizes of tiles, three sizes of bars or stones.
The rule of three sizes also applies to choosing plants for your site: big trees, medium bushes and small flowers. Plants of these sizes harmoniously complement each other in any area.
Three colors. The rule of ideal taste in clothing is successfully applied in landscape design. Any woman knows that the combination of black, white and any bright color is relevant and stylish anywhere and at any time of the day. Apply your life skills when creating flower beds: for example, 9 parts white flowers, 6 parts red flowers and 3 parts orange - a formula for color harmony.
You can experiment with color, choosing colors and shades in accordance with your choice general style: white, blue and blue; red, pink and yellow; blue, purple and pink. No matter what color you choose for your flowerbed or hill, the universal rule of the triangle will not allow you to spoil the composition.
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Styles and directions of landscape design
IN given time there are no problems in choosing directions for creating perfect corner nature on your site. Albums from landscape companies contain the best creations of stylists created over the past decades. All you need to do is correlate your desires with your financial capabilities and choose the style that you like best.
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Classic landscape design style
Large flowerpots with flowers are one of the main elements classic style in landscape design.
This style is designed in a combination of straight lines, right angles, clear symmetry and orderly construction. To create a garden or plot in a classic style, different plant elements are rarely chosen. As a rule, the garden is designed in one direction: a garden of trees, a grassy area or a composition of shrubs.
The combination of regular lines and the use of heavy rocks such as granite or marble. Preferably use garden furniture containing forged elements. Steps and protruding parts of groups, on the contrary, should be round, heavy and stone.
They will look very harmonious in classic version landscape design large ceramic flowerpots and plant pots. They can be used as separate elements interior, and in groups.
A slightly different option is a classic rose garden. Despite the fact that it uses the basic elements of the classical style: stone paving and the predominance of straight lines, the use of bright annual flowers of other varieties is allowed in the layout of the rose garden. As a rule, they are planted in portable containers or flower beds so that they can be changed general composition without changing uniform style and the direction of the rosary.
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Romantic style in the garden
Graceful benches and climbing flowering plants will help create a wonderful romantic garden.
This direction can be safely classified as completely opposite to the classical style. Landscape design is created based on inspiration, emotions, and intuition. Often such corners of nature are created with little or no adherence to any rules or concepts. The exception is the rule of creating a mood.
Flowers and plants such as:
- peonies;
- climbing roses;
- delphinium;
- clematis;
- chrysanthemums.
Mandatory attributes include a flower-covered gazebo, a fountain, lanterns and benches under trees or arches. A babbling brook throughout the site, hiding or starting in an artificial grotto, will add romance to the landscape.
Soft, pastel colors, white stone, sundial and angels peeking through the entire territory in chaotic disorder, soft lines of openwork furniture in light colors and other attributes that convey the mood of romanticism - these are the main details of the romantic design of the site.
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Country style
To create rural style An old wooden wheel, small mill or cart would be ideal in the garden.
This style is also called rustic. This ideal option for areas with a small territory. In country style, there is always an artificially created neglect of the garden, which is achieved by density and abundance. flowering plants. A country style garden always looks like an old garden that is many years old.
In such a landscape it would look quite appropriate vegetable beds and combination fruit trees with lush flower beds. Such leafy plants, How peppermint, lettuce, dill and onions are used as a frame for an unusual vegetable garden, where small flower beds are laid out between the beds of vegetables. Ceramic borders or miniature pots with field plants, lilac or jasmine bushes, bright inflorescences velvet - all these attributes only enhance the ambience of belonging to the rural trend.
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Russian style
The phrase “Russian style” brings back memories of boyar estates and royal palaces. The main attributes in this style were and remain fountain groups, driveway alleys, antique sculptures large sizes, stone benches, urns, pedestals.
If on summer cottage birch trees grow - the best option its design will be the creation of a Russian style.
Plants participating in the Russian style of landscape design, as a rule, do not change the natural concept of the site, but only add to it, creating the harmony of the landscape with subtle touches. If the house on whose territory is created landscape group Russian style, located in the area where birches grow, it is the birches that will create a unified direction. Stylists and landscape designers will select shrubs and flowers for flower beds to match these magnificent slender white trees. Accordingly, where pine trees or poplars set the main tone, the landscape development concept will adapt to them.
A beautiful area, like beautiful house, - it is cozy, comfortable, each element complements the other, emphasizing the advantages and hiding the shortcomings. Regardless of size, having developed custom design, the territory can be turned into a masterpiece of landscape art, guided by the basic rules of landscape design.
Just like the interior of an apartment, the interior of a park, a personal plot or a dacha, we create, based, first of all, on our own individual preferences. And it will please us only if it corresponds to the owner’s ideas about an individual park. However, fantasy alone is not enough, because you can imagine too much.
Idea
The main components of the garden - earth, water, air, smells and sounds, as well as plants, animals, stones must be used to the maximum. You need to imagine what should happen in the end, so the basis of any landscape project is an idea that must be followed to the end. It could be a tiny plot of 6 acres or a huge park with an area of several hectares, but all its improvement should be subordinated to one plan.
First of all, review a lot of albums, photographs, materials. Write down the main elements of the design you like: round or elongated tree shapes, gravel or paved paths, gazebos or fountains, etc. At the same time, try to mentally try on this or that detail for your site.
Large trees will not look good in a small area, narrow paths will get lost among large areas, and create alpine slide It won’t be easy on completely flat terrain. Very soon your idea will be clearly formulated for you, and then you can voice it to a designer or implement it yourself.
When the idea is finalized, be sure to try to set a goal: do you want to simply hide unevenness or, for example, create cozy corner for meditation. Depending on this, the idea may be modified, but the main idea should not be lost.
Try to identify the most significant components: flower beds, lawns, artificial stream etc. Each element must fit harmoniously into the project and carry a semantic load. This is important to ensure that your landscape masterpiece does not fall apart.
So, armed with an idea, a goal and sketching out an approximate view of the site for yourself, you can move on to practical things.
Composition
The basis of any work of art is composition. Not even visible at first glance landscape project, she is the connecting link, the skeleton of the garden, so to speak.
Composition in landscape design implies such a relationship of shapes, colors, textures, and sizes of parts in space that would create harmony. Natural space, elements located in a plane and created volumes must be in harmony with each other.
Geometric combination. First of all, the compositional elements must be combined with each other according to geometry. They can be voluminous, for example, spherical crowns of trees, planar - flower beds and flower beds create a compositional plane, as well as linear - borders, paths, fences are used for this. All elements must be combined with each other: large number paths and voluminous crowns without the support of flower beds will look unfinished.
Relationship in size and shape. An indispensable condition of composition is the ratio of elements in size and shape. Often in this case the principle of contrast is used: big - small, high - low, etc.
However, if it is used in one corner of the garden, it should be repeated in another part of it. So, you can’t plant a group of people in one corner tall trees, and in the other there is a shrub in front of tall conifers. At the same time, there must be a relationship in form: if the garden is based on round shapes, then you should not make a square platform or a triangular fountain.
Once the chosen form must be continued in various details - the path, the flowerbed, the pruning of the plants must support the general principle.
Creating a focal point. Another condition is the creation of a focal point. This can be either a small architectural form, such as a gazebo, pergola, house, or a tree or group of trees with a characteristic haircut. As an option - a fountain or pond, an artificial stream or rock garden.
The main thing is that they do not differ in shape, size and style from all the elements of the garden. So, the house should fit organically into the compositional idea of the entire site. The mud hut will not be combined compositionally with correct geometry paths and tree crowns, and plastered big house with columns is unlikely to be suitable for Japanese garden.
Texture ratio. The compositional relationship in texture is important, which is clearly visible in plant elements. They take into account the crown of the trees (coarse, medium and fine), the density of the bushes and the combination of materials used in the design: stone, sand, concrete. If the fence is forged, then the decorative elements should not be wooden or stone.
Color combination. Pay attention to the color combination. Select plants in such a way that the shades at each time of the year complement each other, because plants change their color almost every month. Therefore, when planting shrubs or laying out flower beds, do not take into account the color of the plant at the time of planting, but look at the catalog for its shade in a mature state. Try to avoid variegation in the garden, and if the principle of contrast is the basis, let there be 1-3 contrasting shades, no more. Take into account not only the exterior, but also the interior of the house. If the interior is dominated by warm shades, try to plant plants with flowers in the same warm colors.
Pay attention! It is important that in ready garden there was no impression of excessive variegation or oversaturation of color. Color combinations should be built on the principles of color harmony, taking into account contrast or as a combination of shades of the same color.
Zoning
When applying the zoning principle to small area the area seems larger, especially if several zones are used. Large space divided into functional areas, becomes neat and compact thanks to clear boundaries.
Small areas, depending on the relief (presence of a hill or lowland), lighting (shade, partial shade, sunny place), the owner’s ideas, as well as plants, can be divided functionally. So, at one end of the garden you can set up a small rock garden for privacy and meditation, and at the opposite end you can make an area for receiving guests.
Emphasize the functionality of each zone with characteristic elements: a set of furniture for relaxation, a children's slide in play area or a cozy bench in a romantic corner. Zone boundaries can be created using living borders, paths or even hedges.
When creating “living” borders, use shades of plants that would emphasize the functionality of the area: a small pond can be highlighted with deep green shades, and sports ground bright flowers.
When applying zoning techniques, remember that the site changes throughout the year, and zones should not stand out from the general landscape. For example, so that it does not happen that in winter one zone will delight with the diversity of conifers, while the other, on the contrary, will gloomily display bald shrubs.
Pay attention!
One of the important rules of landscape design is to do no harm, namely to make the most of what is given by nature. You can use not only what is located directly on your site, but also the surrounding landscape. Features of the site - different soils, existing plants, hills, depressions, dry stream beds need to be made to work for your idea.
Let's consider the basics of landscape design, namely its fundamental rules. Setting up a dacha or country house, the owner is faced with a choice not only interior design at home, but also with the arrangement exterior design the site itself - designing landscape design.
A natural landscape combines five main components: water, weather conditions, earth, animal and flora. There are almost no natural corners left in nature in their original form. Therefore, when creating a landscape design for a plot of land, you need to be guided by the laws of nature, harmony, and beauty.
Composition is a harmonious combination various forms in space. In other words, by arranging plants and buildings, you need to achieve harmonious combination which is pleasing to the eye.
When solving problems of constructing a composition, the properties of compositional forms are taken into account: geometric appearance, size of the form, its mass, texture, location, color, light and shade.
The means of composition are: proportions, unity, the laws of aerial and linear perspective. This also includes techniques of symmetry, asymmetry, contrast, scale and others.
In the totality of properties and relationships, it is difficult to identify the main and secondary ones; they are difficult to separate, due to their close mutual connection.
Perspective is the imaginary visual change of objects depending on the point of observation. Perspective is divided into aerial and linear. Linear - the convergence of parallel lines on the horizon, leaving vertical lines that decrease in size. Aerial includes the brightness and clarity of objects, their color, which change depending on the distance from the observed point.
Perspective combines a point of view, objects of view and an intermediate field. All components form a single whole.
The color of plants in nature is constantly changing and the surface of the earth is also taken into account in the overall picturesqueness: sown, material for paths and platforms, the color of buildings, the color of the sky and its reflection in the water.
Colors are divided into warm and cold. Warm colors These are all shades of red. Cold ones are violet, blue and blue. Green- the middle of the spectrum and “the color of the so-called physical balance.” 
Color therapy has always attracted scientists. In medical institutions they create “ blue gardens» in silvery blue tones that soothe nervous system person. Landscape therapy treats nervous and mental disorders in nature. The created landscapes - cheerful or sad, create a feeling of security and freedom. Walking through such a garden, your mood changes.
Warm colors are foreground colors. Cold ones are needed to convey the depth of space. IN color scheme There are approximately one hundred and thirty shades. The landscape itself does not change three times a year, but has nine phases of change.
Using chiaroscuro, the volume and expressiveness of plants is emphasized. The transition from light to shadow depends on the location of the light source. The gradation of light and shade includes: the overall intensity of illumination, the color of the object, and the density of the shadow. If the light source is in front of the subject, the composition becomes expressionless. When using side lighting, objects are expressed more expressively and in more relief. If the light is located from behind, the color and color are enhanced, emphasizing the silhouette and group of plants.
The use of different light sources allows you to realize different lighting effects.
The inclusion of the following techniques in landscape design allows you to diversify the landscape:
symmetry and asymmetry
in symmetry, balance in the composition is achieved by equality of shapes and distances; in asymmetry - inequality of sizes and dissimilarity of forms;
contrast and nuance
contrast – comparison of mini compositions of different shapes and colors; nuance - easy transition few different spaces, shapes, colors;
rhythm
repeatability of distances and individual elements located between them;
landscape paintings
in a small area, you can create two or three simple paintings with different plots, but with a common concept.
Combine all the laws and techniques of landscape design in a small landscape garden plot Not everyone succeeds. Must be guided many years of experience predecessors for the creation, implementation and maintenance of the microlandscape.
We will talk about things that we often don’t think about, but a professional starts with them. Ordinary people create your own design at will and perception often without paying attention to such things as compatibility, appropriateness, size. But there are also others important aspects, with whom landscape design pros are sure to work.
A fence as a projection of a sense of protection in one’s own natural complex
The first rule is not just one of the rules for landscape design of a site, but the root into which the entire composition looks. The fence is the frame that completes the whole picture. Well, take it and attach the simplest thin plastic frame to Rembrandt. Blatant evil! Likewise, the garden, together with the house, wants its own frame. Fences are not just a way to protect your territory, but also an aesthetic pleasure. Some people fit in their garden (but this is not a common occurrence, and, say, not cheap), others “match it to the house” and then populate the rest of the territory with plants, others go beyond their capabilities (in most cases), and at dachas - this is generally optional (grandparents did not always consider their presence around the site necessary).
The fence allows you to create multi-level compositions, introduces vertical lines into the garden, and becomes a backdrop for green spaces. It can be metal, stone, brick, smooth, structured, of different heights, combined in materials, etc., etc. In general, imagination has no limits, as long as it does not rest on money. Although…
The only rule for a fence in a calm and cozy garden is harmony between it and other elements. Just remember, this is your own cozy world, where you relax or work for your own pleasure, detached from the surrounding bustle.
Regulating lines
Very important rule for any garden style - be it Italian, French or super modern garden with technical innovations. Lines help you see the composition in parts and as a whole and adjust it. They connect the house and the garden, move from the house to the garden and vice versa.
Lines are created by trees, plants, architectural forms, bodies of water, fences and the house. They can be simple and complex, straight, horizontal, vertical, diagonal. With the help of plants, the hard straight lines of a modern style house can be softened with plants characteristic of a Japanese garden - sakura, maples, chrysanthemums.
When planting young plants, it is important to remember how they will change over time. After all, the entire composition was created for you and should, in all its forms, bring the joy of contemplation to you.
The golden ratio rule
This rule of landscape design of a site has become so ingrained in a person’s life that when using it, he does not notice it. In all areas of science, technology and art there are proportions, symmetries and asymmetries are subject to it.
The ancients used the rule of the “golden ratio” to create the pyramids, the Parthenon, and, as you can see, they still stand and will continue to stand. A more recent example is the famous drawing of a man by L. Da Vinci. As a scientist, he explored this concept. It helped correctly and helps to distribute not only the physical load, but also the aesthetic one.
The “Golden Ratio” is an integral part of a person’s life and himself. So the garden needs it. Competent landscape design of the site is designed based largely on it. The point is that the area is divided into segments (segments, not parts because not only the sizes are different, but the shapes are also different). It works approximately like this: the smaller part relates to the larger one, as the larger part relates to the whole. The percentage is like this: 62% to 38%.
Appeal to the works of famous landscape designers
At independent work When working on your project, you should turn to the works of already established designers. This will greatly facilitate the work and give you the opportunity to use ready-made techniques. Here are the top ten world gurus of landscape design of the site.
- Christopher Lloyd is a master at combining the classics and the new.
- Roberto Burl Marx is a symbolist, a graphic artist who can transfer a picture to a site.
- Jean-Paul Ganem is a designer who is suitable for those who want to recreate a rural landscape.
- Charles Jencks is a master graphic artist and philosopher, capable of realizing the wildest cosmic fantasies with the help of the most ordinary things.
- Andre le Notre is the boss of French style.
- Lancelot Capability Brown is the king of the English garden trend.
- Piet Oudolf is a master at using native plants.
- Koichi Kurisu is a Japanese-style landscape designer.
- Mary Reynolds is a lover of natural landscapes.
- Patrick Blenk – if you don’t know how to create verticals in the garden, refer to his work.
Proportionality of the architectural content of the garden
We often say that more is better than less. It’s ideal in the garden when the main architectural forms balanced and have nothing to do with the above. We understand that you want to boast to your neighbors and friends, for example, like this: we have a large pond or a large gazebo... But at the same time, the plot is small and these structures occupy almost the entire area. So, a large pond requires a lot of effort and expense to care for it, and a large gazebo is difficult to decorate with plants and is rarely used to its fullest. Big things for big gardens.
If you are still ready for large sizes, then make a pond irregular shape with bridges and small quiet pools, and fill the gazebo with container plants - standing and hanging.
From big to small
It applies more to plants, but it also applies to buildings. However, good landing- the success of the entire garden. Here it is worth referring to three small guidelines that significantly simplify further care behind the garden.
- You need to start planting plants with large trees, then bushes, shrubs and flowers. Finally, leave the grass cover.
- Before planting plants, you need to calculate the area they will need for normal life.
- The number of plants should not go to infinity.
The last point is important, because often our dense gardens are collections that occupy a minimal area and create a lot of problems (does not bloom, does not grow, often dies...). He is also connected with the others. In the first case, we “plant” the plant in inappropriate places (well, we liked it so much and wanted to have it). In the second, most often they simply don’t remember about it at the time of planting, and then, during growth, we try to understand and “cure or destroy” diseases and insects (the problem with dense plantings: plants become infected from each other, and the midge simply migrates there - here).
Group plantings
Group plantings on a site are not just a phenomenon, but a law of landscape design. Gardens and solitary plants are incompatible concepts. Their fullness depends on the style of the garden and, to one degree or another, one plant will dominate. It can be either a perennial or an annual. In the first case there is less hassle, the second involves, if the owner wishes, a change of mood every season.
In group plantings, you should also adhere to the “from most to least” rule. The exception will be flower beds with a certain pattern, ridges, borders, and hedges. For them, the height is immediately predicted (it can also be part of the picture).
Availability
This is the simplest and clear rule. It cares most about the owner of the garden. Not everyone can ignore it. Its essence is to take care of the owner’s wallet from the period when the garden is just being established and works throughout its life, periodically slightly adjusting its (wallet’s) capacity.
Availability is a selection of plants that takes into account price, zoning and care. If you want something exotic, but the local climate does not allow it, then buy yourself this pleasure, just keep it in a pot and replant it in time.