The Easy Living Yards Podcast

How to design a beautiful garden-ELY109

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Show Notes
Today’s links: ely.how/episode109
  • How to create a landscape vision
  • Find your landscape design style
  • How to design like a pro
  • Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder Tool
  • Ask Ben a Question for Free!
  • Easy Living yards can help you create your beautiful yard, no matter your budget or location.
    • Create your eco friendly yard today.
    • Find me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest
      • How to Design a Beautiful Garden Bed Like a Pro

      When you’re looking for eco friendly landscaping ideas, it can be difficult to come up with a design that looks good.  We want easy DIY landscaping, right?  These design basics will help you design low maintenance landscaping that will look great and require less work.

      Topic Outline:

      • Goals  for your landscaping
      • Functions in a good landscape design
      • Design Basics
      • Low maintenance plant selection

        • How most people design a garden: We usually want to start with the plants.

        The wrong way to design a garden: wanting to start with the plants!

        The right way to design a beautiful low maintenance landscape:

        • Landscape Design Goals
          • Start with your goals for your garden and entire property
            • What does your garden do?
            • What does your garden mean to you?
            • What do you want your garden to say about you?
            • Functions in a good landscape design
              • What functions does your landscape perform?
              • Providing access
              • Welcoming guests
              • Visual barrier
              • Bringing beauty to your life
              • Providing a relaxing space
              • Others
                • How to design a landscape like a pro – The basic essentials
                • Your landscape design should be:
                  • an expression of your landscaping goals
                  • an implementation of your landscape functions
                  • Form in a landscape design
                    • The structure or backbone of your design
                    • You can see structure and form by looking at a landscape in black-and-white
                    •  You want variation in your form to not be monotonous
                    • Texture in a landscape design
                      • Texture is your differences in leaf patterns, lighting, shadows, branching, etc.
                      • You also want varied texture to avoid dull landscapes
                      • Color
                        • You consider color after focusing on form, structure, and texture.
                        • This is the last bit – like decorative icing on a cake
                        • Color is usually a temporary, changing process in the landscape
                        • Balance
                          • How various elements across your design are distributed
                          • In form, structure, texture, color
                          • Symmetry
                            • Provides some sense of intent
                            • Does not need to be entirely symmetrical
                            • Repetition
                              • Use of similar elements across your design
                              • Plants, colors, texture

                                • Plant Selection (woo hoo finally!!!!)

                                • Plants should
                                  • fulfill your goals and design intent
                                  • be adapted to site conditions
                                    • Moisture, sun, soil, etc
                                    • sometimes provide a funtion
                                      • foot traffic, sight lines
                                      • be available for you to find (duh – I promise you might get hung up on a plant and not be able to find it)
                                      • Meet design needs
                                        • Evergreen, bloom time/color, mature height/width

                                          • Good luck!  Let me know how it goes!

                                          You deserve a beautiful yard!

                                          Easy Living Yards can help you create your beautiful eco-friendly yard.
                                          See below to find the options right for you. Start today!
                                          Create your Dream Yard

                                          Note: Some of the links on this page contain affiliate links.  If you click on these links to make a purchase, I may obtain a small commission at no charge to you.  All of these products are either products I own or have researched and would like to own.  You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.

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                                          The Easy Living Yards PodcastBy Ben Hale | ecological landscaping, permaculture, native plants
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