Landscaping Fayetteville AR adds beauty to homes and business, reduces soil erosion, lowers energy costs, and provides a habitat for wildlife. It also boosts a property’s value and makes a positive first impression on homebuyers.
When reshaping the landscape, it’s important to follow design principles. These include: color, form, line, texture, and unity/balance.
A landscape’s visual appeal is a crucial element in its success. Color, in particular, plays a significant role in its appearance. Flowers and plants can provide season-long color and interest to a garden, while contrasting hardscapes can add depth and create focal points in the space. But beyond the simple aesthetic value, a garden with the right colors can also boost mood and emotion. For example, studies show that when people look at flowers, their hormones release dopamine and increase feelings of happiness and life satisfaction.
Understanding how color works in a landscape is the first step to using it effectively. The color wheel explains how primary colors mix to create secondary hues, and how those mix further to make tertiary shades. This makes it easy to select hues that complement each other and will stand out in the landscape.
Dominant colors set the tone and style of a landscape, establishing its overall theme. Then, accent colors can be selected to highlight unique elements or to showcase a homeowner’s personal taste and style.
Warm colors, like reds and oranges, tend to energize and stimulate, which is ideal in spaces that are intended for activity and interaction. Cool colors, like blues and greens, bring a natural calmness to the landscape that can help reduce stress and improve mood.
Complementary colors are those that most optimally accentuate each other. This allows a landscape to be visually striking and at the same time balanced, harmonious and well-rounded. This is a classic color combination that is easy to replicate with many annuals and perennials available in your local nursery.
A well-landscaped property will elevate your home’s curb appeal, making it more appealing to potential buyers and neighbors. But a garden filled with flowers and lush plants can benefit your mood as well, increasing life satisfaction through the release of dopamine from the brain when you see the beautiful flowers.
Landscaping is more than just an extension of a home’s architecture and interior decor; it is a creative expression of the homeowner’s lifestyle and needs. A landscape that balances beauty and function will create an environment that not only provides a place to relax and unwind, but also elevates the home’s value and curb appeal.
Form
The way a landscape appears in three dimensions is a crucial part of its design. The shape of plant material like hedges and flowerbeds, ponds and outdoor structures and the shape of the soil are all important components of the landscape. The shapes of a landscape can be influenced by the overall landscape theme, such as formal or informal. The shapes of a landscape can also be shaped by its location on the property.
Form refers to the structure and arrangement of a landscape. It includes determining the height and length of plant materials, the size of plants in relation to each other and the distance between trees and features. Form also includes utilizing linear elements, such as lines and circles, to create a sense of movement in the landscape. Circles, for example, can be used to emphasize focal points or to link different elements of a garden together. The size of a landscape also determines its form. A smaller garden is more intimate while a larger garden can feel open and spacious.
Unlike color, which is temporary and can be affected by lighting, form and texture are more permanent elements of the landscape. Texture, for example, can be perceived mainly through touch although it is also a visual element of the landscape. A landscape can have a variety of textures, from the smoothness of sand and gravel to the coarseness of cactus and brush.
While function ensures that a landscape meets practical needs, form is what gives a space its emotional resonance. A well-designed landscape balances the two, creating spaces that are both aesthetically appealing and meaningful to those who use them. For instance, a public park might include shaded seating areas (functional) with locally-sourced materials and artistic sculptures that reflect the cultural heritage of the community (form).
The most important consideration when designing a landscape is scale. The size of a landscape depends on the size of a home and available yard. The landscape should fit the proportion of the home to avoid a disproportionate look and feel. Scale is also determined by the proportion of the various elements that are included in the landscape, such as plants, ponds and outdoor structures.
Lines
Lines are one of the most important design elements and can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal or curved. They add structure and definition to a landscape, eliciting emotional responses, and creating physical flow. Lines are used to accentuate an object, control movement or draw attention to a focal point such as a water feature or fire pit. Lines can be created by contrasting structures such as paths and walkways versus planting beds, hardscape lines like fences and garden walls, or the outlines and combinations of plant material.
Line is also used to create a sense of depth and distance in the landscape. Horizontal lines pull the eye across the ground plane and can broaden views, while vertical lines carry the eye upward and can make spaces feel larger. Arbors and tall trees are commonly used to add vertical elements to property line landscaping.
Landscape plants come in a wide range of shapes, sizes and colors. Some are upright or groundcover while others are vines and sprawling shrubs. Plants that are circular or freeform provide organic lines while plants that are square and rectangular can provide formal lines. The size relationships between different plants and hardscape features is referred to as proportion, which is essential to a balanced composition.
Another element of landscape design that is often overlooked is texture, which refers to the surface characteristics of a plant or hardscape. Surface textures can be rough, smooth, scaly or fuzzy, providing visual interest and adding contrast to the landscape.
A well-designed landscape can be balanced using all of the above elements. It can even be enhanced by integrating the principles of geometry into your plan. Geometry is a method of arranging plant and hardscape materials that produces proportional, symmetrical, and balanced compositions.
As you begin to landscape your property line, start by determining your goals for the project. Do you want privacy, security, a windbreak or simply to beautify the area? If you’re looking for a privacy screen, evergreens are a popular choice. They’re also good for blocking the view of neighbors or busy roads and highways, and their dense foliage helps mitigate winds that can damage gardens, patios, outdoor living areas and property. If you’re looking for a way to add eye-catching curb appeal, consider the addition of a traditional stone wall.
Texture
Texture is the perceived surface quality of landscape elements. Rough textures like gravel and bark add ruggedness to designs, smooth textures like paved paths or still water create a sleek appearance, and soft textures such as moss or grass offer a more natural feel. Landscape architects use texture to steer visual interest, evoke emotions and guide experiences within outdoor spaces.
Plants offer the most opportunities to introduce texture, with different foliage and branching shapes, colors and sizes. But non-plant textures can also contribute to the overall texture of a garden. For instance, pavements, wood structures and metal sculptures all offer different textural components that complement the plant-based elements of a design.
When designing with texture in mind, it’s important to keep scale and balance in mind. A landscape with too many coarse textures can overwhelm a space, while an overabundance of fine textures can look cluttered and ununified. The goal is to strike a perfect balance between contrasting and complementary textures to create depth, definition and intrigue in the garden.
Physical texture also influences how a space feels to touch, and this can be particularly important for community spaces that are designed to encourage interaction with nature. For example, incorporating textured surfaces like tactile paving can help the visually impaired navigate outdoor spaces more easily and prevent injuries caused by uneven or slippery terrain.
The perception of distance and scale is also influenced by texture. For example, placing fine textures in the background and coarse textures closer to the viewer makes a space appear larger. In addition, varying textures throughout the season can offer new and engaging experiences, from the delicate tracery of bare winter branches to the full, lush beauty of summer foliage.
Choosing plants that offer a variety of textures is a simple way to increase the overall texture of your garden. But it’s also important to consider maintenance considerations when choosing plants with particular textures, as some may be more prone to disease or pests than others. A skilled landscaping expert will take these factors into account when creating your garden, so you can enjoy it for years to come.