Landscaping Ideas - The Steps To Creating Your Own Landscaping Ideas

While it may sound strange, giving free landscaping consultations and ideas has been one of the reasons for the major success of our company, S&S Designed Landscaping. It really doesn't take much time to come up with a design idea so we'll draw circles and brainstorm ideas right in the clients yard and the ideas are theirs to keep and use regardless if they use us or not. It's been good business.

Over the years we've come up with a simple walk through that helps us and clients create base landscaping ideas fairly easily. Our main goal of the exercise is to decide on a theme, some shape, elements, and some planting ideas.

Every project and yard is different and of course will have a unique approach. However, the methods and steps we use to come up with ideas are the same for most yards. I'm not sure how this will come across in writing as I'm sure I will venture off course a bit. However, maybe you can follow along and it will at least be a beginning for your own landscape design plans and ideas.

It's been my experience that most folks get stuck on shape of the landscape and types of plants. These are the two biggies that we'll focus mainly on. However, we need to go through a few more basics and considerations as well.

The first thing we need to discover is what type of landscaping you want to create and then what elements make that type of landscape design look the way it does. Think about it. What elements and details make a Mediterranean landscape design look Mediterranean? Or French, Colonial, etc.?

The Principles Of Landscaping

I'm not going to address this in detail in this page. But since I'm not standing there in your yard it would do you good to skim over the principles to get familiar with their influence on the design process. I wrote a page on this several years ago that covers the principles in more detail. You can check it out at The Principles Of Landscaping.

Coming Up With A Design Plan

So if I was to consult with you, I would first want to know the character and atmosphere you want to create. I would prefer that you already know this but if we have to figure it out on the spot, we will.

Many times this can be based simply on the style of home you have. Mediterranean, Southwest, Colonial, etc.? Possibly a specific cultural influence you wish to follow? Is there any specific theme you would like? Cottage, butterfly, etc.?

If you're not already familiar the theme you want to create, you'll need to get familiar with some examples, landscaping pictures, books, internet, and existing yards to get some ideas. While we'll work on shape in a bit, we'll use these ideas to find details of types of materials, hardscape elements, and plant types. These elements in themselves can create the entire atmosphere and theme of the garden or landscape.

Let's use plants as an example to understand the importance of this. We can start with two yards with the exact same design shape and planting bed areas. In one we'll place Mediterranean plants such as small Palms, small shrubs, Lavender, and vines. And in the other we place some Ocotillo, succulents, and a few Desert trees such as Desert Willow. Now we have two yards with the exact shape but with totally different character and atmosphere. You would have to look closely to see the similarities. If you can picture this, then you can understand how the elements we use and their placement has the most influence in the "character" and "atmosphere" of the landscaping. For more details on choosing plants, see Landscaping And Garden Planting Ideas.

Again, you need to know what type of landscaping you want to create and then what elements make that type of landscape design look the way it does. Simply look at the fine details of other gardens. Pillars or pots? Marble or flagstone? Climbing vines or groundcover or both? Curves or straight paths? Look at the details.

Special Circumstances And Obstacles

Before we go on I want to restate what I said earlier. Every yard and landscaping project is different. This is just a basic guideline for creating shape, theme, and deciding on elements. It's been my experience that there will most always be some type of special circumstance involved in every yard.

One of the biggest challenges is landscaping on a slope or hillside. This often involves terracing or adding elements such as retaining walls. We encounter this quite often. And in case you'll possibly be needing some ideas in this area, I've added the video below of one of our designs on an extreme slope.

Even if you don't have a problem with slope or hillside, you may still get some good design ideas from it. This exercise is continued below the video.

Landscape Design Tutorial Continued

Next. Are there any specific activity areas that you want to create? Pool, Jacuzzi, vegetable garden, play area for the kids, parking areas, pond or waterfall, dog run, sitting areas, hidden gardens, etc.? Let's look at existing elements and designate these areas if possible. At this point we should also create a bubble graph to help give us an idea of proportion, placement, keep track of things, and make changes.

For existing yards. Are there any existing elements that you want to keep or that we can use to help accent, influence, or help the new landscape? For instance, if there are existing large trees or shrubs, they should be left and incorporated into the new landscaping if at all possible. Elements like these will help give the landscape design an already established look. Look at all elements including old sidewalks, curbs, existing lawn, boulders, hills, and such. If you can incorporate them the way they are, leave them. Or you can possibly refurbish or alter them and create something else entirely. Or, of course, you can remove them for a clean slate.

What's necessary? Now we look at possible existing influences and take the activity areas you want to create into consideration. How are you going to access designated areas? Paths, sidewalks, walkways? This is where we're possibly going to start creating some shape. These elements have to occupy some space and so what you place on either side of them and how you place them, can create shapes for lawn and planting areas. The design at the top of this page which can be seen in detail at Cul De Sac Landscaping Idea is a great example of how we used this method to create a simple plan for an entire landscape.

If you're getting ideas, you should be drawing all of this on your bubble graph. Don't take it too seriously yet. You can erase and change this as much as you want.

The design example above is a simple idea. Most of the designs we show on the free landscaping ideas directory are simple ideas like this. Don't get me wrong. There's more to it than that. Like I stated before, our goal was to get a theme, some shape, and some elements for the new landscaping. Now you may have to do a little study to actually create the pieces of the design.

Now you should have a place to start, maybe some ideas, or even a complete landscaping plan. In all of this you should have created some final thoughts on elements and how they tie into or even create the atmosphere of your landscaping. Good luck with your project.

More Information:

The Landscape Design Site

Video Landscaping Ideas