Landscaping Proportion

In general, you should aim for the sections of hard landscaping, lawns and beds to be about a third each of the total area, so that hard landscaping never exceeds soft landscaping.

Mystery

No-one should be able to see all the garden from any one vantage point or from the house, otherwise there is no incentive to venture into the garden to explore it.

This determines part of the shaping of the three sections: it will influence the planting scheme, and may make it desirable to introduce a change in level of the ground.

Area Shape

Circular shapes are static and induce a wish to remain within that area, whilst rectangles cause restlessness and the wish to move on. This will influence the shape of all three sections in each area of the garden.

Focal Points

Using shapes, you can create sight lines to different items within or outside the garden to act as focal points. These focal points provide some of the incentive to draw the viewer into the garden.

Design Procedure

You need to look at the whole existing garden to see where it needs splitting into broad sections to either make it look shorter, longer, narrower or wider. For example, for a garden that is twice as long as wide, you might split it into two square sections, or make the beds twice as long as wide.

Using the above design concepts, you can enhance

good internal/external views and screen eyesores,

take account of the prevailing wind direction and strength with wind barriers, and

create shaded garden areas to allow for shade tolerant plants,

or adapt a planting scheme to accommodate prevailing conditions.

You can allocate each of the features you have chosen to a proposed garden layer on the plan, showing the proposed broad shapes and colours.

This is then followed by the general irrigation and electrical system layers on the plan.

Take a break

At this stage, it is worth putting the plans to one side. Coming back to them; after a period of time; will often give you a fresh perspective on them. You might want to make changes, ideas you originally planned might strike you as odd or too extreme. Make your changes, discuss it with friends and family, and then repeat the process one more time.

What you end up with should be the ideal basic design for your new garden. You can now start to look at things in more detail.