When people come to your house, almost all the time the design landscaping that surrounds your house and defines the areas of your garden are the attributes that give people the first impressions of your property. The landscape design that you use is one of the most significant elements in determining how the people who visit you will feel once they arrive at your home. Additionally, the landscaping around your house will also have a significant impact on what your house and property will be valued at.

There are many different kinds of ways to improve the landscape surrounding your home. There are some people who are worried that in order to improve their landscape design properly, they would need to hire landscape contractors or landscape architects. This can be a very helpful option if you have the ability to afford it, however there are many people that successfully undertake landscaping design of their houses on their own.

If you as a type of person that is interested in taking on the challenge of completing design landscaping for your home and garden, then one of the first things that you need to do is educate yourself on some of the basic landscaping design principles. There are basically four main aspects to all good landscape design and if you combine them with your own attention to detail and sense of style, then likely you’ll be well on your way to creating a landscape environment around your home that is unique.

Balance

One of the first components of landscaping is the concept of balance. If you concentrate the majority of your new plants in one area, then the rest of your garden landscaping area will appear to be rather neglected. You need to distribute the plants around the yard or garden at least to some degree in an even manner and with a sense of flow. This will help to draw the eye through the entire landscape design and help to engage your visitors.

Proportion

The second element of good landscaping is that of a proportion. The concept here is to make certain that any landscape design feature that you select fits in appropriately, in terms of its size, the surrounding areas, structures as well as fixtures. For instance if you try to wedge a huge gazebo into a very small backyard it will end up looking almost comical and will not give you that superior effect. While at the same time, if you have a very big front lawn, then the addition of larger elements in features or plantings will be required so that they will be noticed and not as overwhelmed.

Transition

The third principle is that of transition and you will need to have some knowledge of this for your landscaping project as this element is closely related to proportion. Despite your landscape design including large shrubs and flowers, plants, bushes and even some trees, the way to really make them work in a graceful beautiful way is through the use of transition. It is the smooth flow from one kind of plant and size to that of another. Your goal is to lead the eye from delicate plants to larger types with some size variation in between. Transitions of color can also be a very effective element of your overall landscape design plan.

Unity

One of the last of the four concepts of landscaping is that of unity and it is this ultimate sense that you’re attempting to express with your design. All of the different selections that you make and how you balance, proportion, transition of the various sizes, colors as well as textures of landscape elements should be principally governed by a unifying theme. This is what actually brings a landscape design together to make it work in harmony in creating a unique home and garden.

One thing that can make design landscaping much simpler and also more cohesive is to determine on the type of scene that you want to use and then be certain to stay true to that theme. Having a specific idea in mind can help make any future decisions much simpler when it comes time to add furnishings, plants or any type of accent pieces to your landscape.

Listen to Corbin Newlyn as he shares his insights as an expert author and an avid writer in the field of home and gardening. If you would like to learn more go to Above Ground Koi Ponds advice and at Building Concrete Ponds tips.