The Elements Of Design For A Garden Bed

Start by using graph paper and drawing a plan of your garden site to scale.

The elements of design for a garden bed. Let s start with two rules that can kick start the process of laying out a landscape then move on to guidelines that help in scaling the proportions of a garden s elements and finally to choosing and using the right plants. The triangle formed by the addition of that island bed picks up the golden mean. The photo on the left shows an island bed with a tree as the anchor the structure on the right is open so you can see this bed from all sides.

Before you start planting you need to create a garden plan. Free newsletter with garden design tips every thursday. Use a measuring tape to get approximate measurements.

Since island beds can be reached from all sides. You need the contract of coarser leaves or wide bold foliage. Luckily the texture is one of the easiest garden design elements to conquer.

It s got a range of modern garden design ideas from the increasingly popular vertical garden to innovative tiered or raised garden beds. Symmetrical gardens tend to be calming and don t jar the eye. Line is one of the most important and useful of all design elements.

Stone garden elements like statues columns or follies also provide points of interest throughout the garden design. Axes are often terminated with a focal point a piece of sculpture or a plant with a sculptural quality whose form contrasts with the straight lines of the design. A sidewalk driveway or fence is a clear and readily accessible line in the landscape.

To keep things interesting you need to keep the eye moving. You may love soft billowy plants but an entire garden of them will look like a blur. These two curves are perfectly in tune with the island bed introduced into the lawn.