Designing a garden involves considering plant placement, hardscape layout, materials and water features. Landscape design principles define how to arrange these elements in an aesthetic landscape.

Being aware of the purpose of a garden helps designers make informed decisions. Whether your goal is to grow food, create a living space or be visually appealing, knowing what purpose a landscape should serve will enable you to design an area that accomplishes those objectives.

Layout

Layout, your garden landscape design Adelaide, strategically is the key to creating a stunning, functional area. Whether you want to revamp your current lawn into something more appealing or incorporate elements that express your style and taste, planning out your garden layout before planting any plants or adding hardscapes is essential for creating an eye-catching aesthetic.

Start by sketching your ideas on paper, or use a garden planning program to visualise your ideal landscape. This convenient tool allows you to drag and drop plants, structures, and greenery for an accurate blueprint that’s easy to scale up or down.

Once you’ve created your plan, decide how you want your landscape to appear and consider which features it should include. For instance, you might desire a path leading up to a gazebo, an open deck for entertaining, seating areas, garden sheds or potting stations.

Considering your site’s topography and how slopes affect the layout would be best. For instance, choose plants that can withstand harsh conditions at higher altitudes if designing a mountain landscape. Conversely, coastal environments need vegetation that thrives in saltier or dryer conditions.

For instance, a shade-tolerant plant can shield your vegetables from direct sunlight. Or you could add a water feature to help cool down your garden during hot summer days.

Basic garden landscape design Adelaide principles, such as proportion, transition and unity, are essential for creating a harmonious overall aesthetic. A garden lacking balance or abrupt changes will feel cramped.

Proportion is the idea that the size of individual elements (plants and structures in a garden) or groups of components should be consistent with the overall design.

A garden with an eye for a proportion will also exude unity or the feeling that all parts are in perfect harmony. It can be achieved through thoughtful placement of plants and structures, thoughtful colour choices, and contrasting shapes and sizes in the design.

Plantings

Landscape plantings such as trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, vines and ground covers provide structure and colour throughout the year to create an inviting space.

Planning your garden design requires understanding how to mix and match plants for maximum beauty that reflects your style and your region’s climate. Understanding this fundamental step will enable you to achieve a stunning, naturally-looking landscape that exudes tranquillity and serenity.

Repetition in plantings is essential to creating a unified aesthetic, but you must also vary the height, shape and colour of each grouping. Whether using tall plants against buildings or in flower beds at the back, make sure the pattern remains interesting yet not monotonous.

Layering creates casual border plantings by layering multiple plant groups into the staggered foreground, middle ground and background rows. This technique can take your garden from ordinary to breathtaking!

Layering your garden can be done through the use of a plant pyramid. It will assist you in deciding how many evergreens, flowering shrubs and groundcovers you need for an attractive, balanced landscape.

Edging adds visual interest, controls erosion, and keeps different plant materials separate (like pea gravel and bark dust). Lavender is often chosen for edging due to its abundance of blooms and low path-lining height.

Landscape edging is low and maintenance, so you can enjoy your garden without worrying about upkeep. In addition to lavender, long-lived hosta is another popular option for garden edging.

Lighting

Lighting is a fundamental element of garden landscape design Adelaide, and it can create an inviting atmosphere for you and your guests. It draws attention to the most stunning aspects of your yard and provides everyone safety and security at night.

Different lighting techniques offer their distinct benefits. LED spotlights, for instance, can bring out the beauty of a trellis wall or pergola, while submerged pool lights turn a pond into an eye-catching water feature.