All right so let's talk about the six principles of landscape design. if your landscaper or somebody that's just dabbling in landscaping design this might be for you. here's a quick outline: 

• Unity
• Balance 
• Emphasis
• exposure or placement
• Proportions
• variety

Unity

All right so let's talk about Unity first. in Plain Talk, this just means we have to know what the end in mind is. when thinking about how to do your landscape design, we have to think of what the whole is about before we even put down a rock. some kind of general idea of what we're planning is the key to this step. an easy way of thinking about this is we need to have some kind of theme. whether you want a Japanese theme landscape design or more of an Amazon-type landscape design maybe even a Mediterranean landscape design. just think of it as the theme of your backyard landscape design. Whatever your style is, make it consistent.

Balance

All right now let's talk about balance. there are two ways of making your landscape design more balanced, symmetric or asymmetric. these are pretty self-explanatory,  right? you can say symmetric design is when all things are proportional. one side won't be too heavy and the other will just balance it out. A great example of this would be a water feature right in the middle of your yard whether that's in the front or the backyard design, it doesn’t matter. Where asymmetrical balance is more used when there's an emphasis on the design. a great example of this would be a large tree right in the middle of your backyard that you want to emphasize as the centerpiece of your design.

Emphasis

Now let's talk about emphasis. an easy way to think about how emphasis is, it's the thing that you're trying to give an exclamation point of. Let's go back to our tree example from earlier. Many people get this confused. A centerpiece does not necessarily mean that it needs to be the emphasis of your landscape design. to make a point, let's say the centerpiece is your tree. but you want to emphasize that there's a treehouse on that tree. then you would do everything you can to show off that you have a treehouse on that tree to where the tree becomes just the centerpiece and it just becomes  one of the props of the treehouse. Do you see now the difference between the centerpiece and the emphasis of your landscaping?

Exposure

Now, let's talk about exposure. In plain speak, this just means knowing where the place which plants were in the design of your landscape. because there are different types of plants and there are different types of needs of each of the plants and flowers. some need more soil. some need more water. Some need a ton of sun, and some need all three of the above. knowing which and where to place a plant is the mastery of being a landscape designer. this is what separates the new from the pros. so if you're looking for a pro to do this for you, give Pro  Savannah Landscaping a call. some folks want a flowery backyard and that's fine. some have a desert theme landscape design and that's great also. each will have its own needs, and you need to be the professional that puts the right piece in the right place.

Proportions

All this means is that we need to put things on the right scale within the design. we don't want one side to have all the large items and the other side is all rocks and pebbles.  proportions just really refer to how the object is sized compared to all its surroundings. Think of a large shrub in your backyard. you don't want this to dominate the whole of your backyard right? because it'll just look very unsightly. you might want to balance this out with other shrubs or whatever you need to do to balance it out. and it's okay if you don't want it to be balanced, it just depends on your theme and what you're going for.

Variety

Ahh.. variety, this sounds cliché', but, it's the spice of life. when everything looks the same feels the same all the colors are the same nothing pops out. but when once you put a bit of change in the uniformity, it just stands out. and if you put enough of those together, your backyard just pops to life. especially if you use colorful hardscapes or colorful props. adding designs and other poppers on your gazebo or pergola just makes things stand out. think of liberty Bell. If the Liberty Bell was just an old ordinary Bell without the crack, it probably wouldn't be special. same thing when it comes to our landscape design. if everything looks straight and proper and neat. it'll probably look boring. there needs to be some kind of Splash of color or something that messes up the uniformity of your design. unless you're looking for an architectural type of theme here. which will probably need all these straight lines and edges that you're going for.

Well, that's it for today folks. go ahead and use these six landscape design principles and have fun with them. Have fun with it like I was when I'm deciding my first landscape design. it's just an expression of who you are as a person. sometimes is an expression of who you want to be. you got this of which one you want to do, have fun with it. happy Landscaping.

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