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Beds are gradually being replaced from dachas and personal plots. If they are, then in a small amount and somewhere in the depths. The main place is occupied by flower beds, recreation areas and other beautiful corners. All this together is called landscape design and is taught at the institute. But if you are not going to make money by arranging, gardening and decorating courtyards and cottages, you can try to plan everything yourself. Do-it-yourself landscape design is a long and difficult task, but extremely exciting: it is very pleasant to look at the beauty created by oneself.
Where to begin
As usual, you need to start with a plan. You can draw it on millimeter paper to scale, or you can use design programs. The most convenient Realtime Landscaping Architect and Sierra Land Designer 3D 7.0. In them, all images will be voluminous and you can really appreciate how your site will look. And let, few people exactly adhere to the plan. But while you are drawing, you will develop certain skills in landscape design that will help you bring your plans to life.
If the site is still empty, think through all the little things: where the entrance will be, how the house, toilet, and other buildings will be located on the site. After drawing all the buildings, draw the paths. Straight lines are rarely done – they are harder to beat in the landscape. Curved, with smooth lines will help organize interesting places and landings. On the plan, do not forget about communications – water supply, sewerage, irrigation system, etc. Then gradually add elements of landscape design, drawing their details.
If you will equip an already inhabited cottage or yard, apply everything that already exists as accurately as possible. To do this, you will have to crawl around the site with a tape measure: first sketch out a site plan and write down the measured distances on it. Then the plan will have to be adjusted according to the measurement results. Got the plan you have. It has to be worked on.
Try to immediately draw those changes that you have planned, because you have something in mind. If you like the result, you can implement it. If not, first change the shape, or figure out where the idea can be moved to make everything look better. That’s why it’s more convenient to work with programs: you can see what needs to be changed and how these changes affect the design of the site.
Just one moment. Not everything that looks good on screen also looks good in real life. And it happens the other way around – it doesn’t look “not very good” in plan, but what is brought to life is simply mesmerizing. In any case, you still have to make adjustments more than once …
Landscape Design Rules
The main task of the design of the site is to create a harmonious landscape. If so, then you have to take into account the basic laws and observe proportions. One of the main laws that is used in the development of any design, including landscape design, is the law of the triangle or the golden section.
As applied to our case, it can be interpreted as follows: in order for the landings to look beautiful, it is impossible for the same elements to be present in them. For example, dividing a flower bed into zones. Often, three different sections are distinguished, but it is not worth making them the same mercy: one is the largest and two are smaller, but also of different sizes. Also, one color should be primary, the other two – additional. Moreover, one of the additional ones is generally in a small amount. This also applies to the choice of plants, both in their color and in shape and size.
This rule is true not only for flower beds and flower beds, but also for design in general: the number and size of zones on the site, the design of paths, etc.
When creating landscape design with your own hands, you must adhere to the law of the circle. It determines harmonious color combinations (see photo). If you divide it in half with a vertical line, warm shades will be on the right, cold ones on the left. The main compositions are made in one group of colors – cold or warm.
This does not mean that colors from different parts cannot be mixed. It is possible, but the color from the opposite group should be present as an accent that attracts attention. Such contrasting compositions are made up if it is necessary to divert attention from something (fence, toilet, etc.).
There is also the law of the square. It is difficult to adhere to it in a small cottage or courtyard, but it affects the rules for the location of buildings and planting plants. Its essence is orientation to the side of the world. For example, when choosing a place for a house, remember that if you put it on the south side, almost the entire area will be in the shade. In some areas this is good, in others it is bad. Decide for yourself.
The position in relation to parts of the world is also taken into account when planning recreation areas. For example, it is better to make a pool just on the south side: the water should warm up. But there should be a shaded area, a canopy, a pergola nearby, in which you can take a break from the hot sun.
In relation to planting plants and determining a place for a garden, it can be interpreted as follows: the tallest plants should be in the north (if you do not live in the south and you do not need shade). Then the rest of the space will be well lit.
Landscaping a summer house or courtyard of a private house requires knowledge of what degree of illumination a particular type of plant prefers. There are always more and less shaded places. On the north side of the buildings, there is always more shade. Here you need to plant shade-tolerant trees, shrubs, flowers. Already at a distance of two or three meters, the zone may have good illumination, since the shadow from the house may no longer reach there. Here you will need plants that love an abundance of light.
Create a plan for the location of zones and buildings, taking into account these rules. There are many more, but even if you consider these three, your design will be competent, and, importantly, beautiful and harmonious.
Landscaping elements
Briefly about how you can decorate a cottage, yard, garden plot. There are many elements, their varieties are even more. One of the favorite types of recreation is barbecue or barbecue. And under this zone, a place is necessarily allocated. Immediately after determining the place for the house, they often decide where to put the gazebo, terrace, pergola.
Moreover, the presence of a veranda near the house has never been the reason why they abandoned the gazebo or terrace. In this case, the veranda is made closed, and the gazebo is open. In one they spend time in the winter, in the other – in the summer. Sometimes instead of it they put a canopy and or a modern pergola. Not the one that only supports the plants, although there may be such, namely the structure along which the plants climb. After all, such a structure is one of the best decorations of the site.
An equally popular element of landscape design is artificial reservoirs. They are also made in dachas, in the garden, in the courtyard of the house. The shape, size, type of organization – everything can be different: from mini ponds to quite solid ponds of several cubic meters in volume and a decent water mirror.
A technique loved by many designers is to make a stream. Ideally, if there is a key or a natural stream, but if not, it can be organized. This is not difficult if you have a pond that will be supplied with water. From it, a streamlet can run to the garden or to the garden. This is both beautiful and practical: the irrigation system will be your design element, and not the pipes that you have to somehow hide. This idea is especially easy to implement on the slopes. Even if it is small – just a few degrees, you can take good advantage of the natural relief. Read about how to make a waterfall on the site.
By the way, the garden can also be decorative, and it does not have to be hidden at all. True, greenhouses still will not become a decoration of the site, but they can be placed behind the trees.
Between these and other buildings and zones, places are planned for flower beds, flower beds, alpine slides, rockeries, rock gardens, etc. Their shape, size, type of fence, species composition of plants and the scheme of their planting are determined. It is clear that without experience it is not easy to do this and there will be a lot of alterations, but it is important to start somewhere. Changes in plantings are made almost constantly, so you will create landscape design with your own hands for more than one year, and not even three: after all, you will also use perennials, and they grow slowly.
Paths should be laid between all zones and buildings. Their design, last but not least, forms the appearance of a garden, a summer residence. And in general, landscape design is created in many respects from trifles. Somewhere there is a small bench, somewhere there is a garden sculpture, a rocking chair, a flowerpot, a rockery, a pond, a hammock hanging, beautiful lighting, site lighting, etc. And all this in general is design.
Plot with slope
On the one hand, the landscape design of a site with a complex terrain is technically more difficult: there are more engineering structures, and the terrain needs to be taken into account. But on the other hand, it will look exactly non-standard, since the decisions are all individual.
With a fairly large slope, the principle of terrace design is used. The slope is divided into zones, on the low side of which retaining walls are installed. Thanks to them, the surface in some zone – up to the next wall – is leveled. This is due to the fact that part of the soil is transferred.
The terraces themselves are unusual, but they can also be decorated beautifully. For example, make masonry from rubble stone, and in between plant creeping and undersized plants, plant lawn grass. They will decorate the wall, as well as fasten the soil with roots.
Technical Highlights
The height of retaining walls is usually no more than a meter, maximum – 1,2 m. They are erected from monolithic reinforced concrete, finished with stone on top, and embankments are made. Under each such wall, a foundation is needed. Usually – reinforced tape. With a wall height of up to 60 cm, a sufficiently compacted crushed stone cushion with a depth of 20 cm is used as a support, with a wall height of 70 cm or more, the foundation must have a depth of at least 60 cm, with a height of 1 to 1,2 meters, the foundation depth is at least 70 cm.
Based on the requirements for foundations, the lowest cost for the installation of retaining walls with their height is up to 60 cm. If the slope is not very steep, try to divide the slope into sections with such a height difference. And keep in mind that rectangular terraces, although easier to do, from the point of view of design, this is the worst option, which is almost impossible to make harmonious. See the photo gallery for examples of terracing and decoration.
small garden design
If the yard near the house or the cottage is small, and even of the correct shape – square or rectangular – the fence is most likely visible from anywhere. It feels like being in a box. You can eliminate it if you close the fence with plantings. But they should not grow in a line that repeats the shape of the fence, but in smooth, curved curves or groups that enter the lawn. Plants can be interspersed with shrubs, rose gardens, you can put a corner gazebo or highlight some kind of zone that violates the correctness of the lines.
Another option that allows you to turn the fence into a decor element: let the climbing plants turn it into a green wall, and plant low plants with rounded crowns nearby. If the plants will curl along the supporting structures, it is better to make their tops non-linear. So everything will look even better.
Another option is a hedge. Of course, it takes a long time to grow it, although fast-growing plants can be suitable, in particular, for a quick effect for several years, use willow. You can weave a fence from its young branches, and it almost always takes root, takes root and turns green in a few days.
When making a small space, straight paths are strictly prohibited. They make objects optically closer, which we don’t need at all.
Multi-level planning greatly expands the boundaries. This is the case when the slope is preferable: 6 acres look like a larger area if there is a height difference. If the cottage or yard is small and flat, you will have to do zoning artificially. This will help alpine slides and raised flower beds and flower beds.
There are some landscaping restrictions. Do not plant trees with large crowns. Not only will they obscure almost your entire area over time, but it will appear even smaller. Small trees, shrubs and flowers are what you need to choose from. If you need several tall stands, choose with a pyramidal crown or in the form of a candle. They are unusual for us, and look very good.
DIY landscape design: photo and video ideas
Theoretical knowledge is great, but with a lack of experience, you need to rely on something. Sometimes the impetus for decorating a wonderful corner in the courtyard in front of the house can be the shape of the bench you like, and plants are already “attached” to it. Some interesting details that may inspire you are collected in photo galleries.
Flowers in decoration
house entrance design
Cozy places
And finally, ideas in video format