5 Basics for the Best Landscape Design
DECEMBER 2 , 2024 . Jill Livingston
Once you’ve decided to hire a landscape architect, designer, or even attempt doing a design yourself – these tips will make you a more informed design client or first-time designer.
Essential Steps for a Great Landscape Design
1. Analyze your Site
Take photos – You might be thinking why take photos of my landscape – I see it every day? Often, we become desensitized to what’s NOT working, the views from the street or the neighbors. How often do you look at your property from across the street? In the old days before smart phone cameras, I would use a sharpie marker and circle things on client property photos that didn’t look or “feel” right. In the digital photo era, I view client property photos numerous times and create a checklist of What’s NOT working. Hint: Your eyes should dance gracefully through a pleasing landscape. If your eye gets stuck in a specific area this is often a sign that something is not working. Items in the existing landscape that ARE working should be included in the new design.
Detailed Measurements – A professional landscape design should be drawn to scale. Starting with accurate measurements is the first step to creating a base plan so that the new additions – hardscapes, mature plant material, water features, and other items on your wish list can be added with precision.
Pro-Tip 1: The best landscape designs ALWAYS include the WINDOW and DOOR openings of the house or structure. This is an instant indicator that your designer is considering the views of the future landscape from inside the house.
Site Lines - I start every design by drawing bright red lines from the center of all the house windows/doors. These temporary lines ensure that I always remember where I’m placing plants or hardscapes. Is the view out of the house going to be enhanced or obstructed?
2. Answer the Most Important Design Question
I have a questionnaire that I have every design client complete before I start the design process. I also share this list with my students and say, “if I could only ask a client ONE question from the list, what question would give me the most important information for creating a perfect design?” After 10 years, I’ve never had someone choose the most important question.
Pro-Tip 2: The MOST important question a designer should ask is “What do you NOT LIKE about your current landscape?”
The best landscape designs solve problems. Identifying problems in an existing landscape becomes my checklist for creating beautiful solutions. The design isn’t finished until I’ve solved all the landscape issues on the list.
It doesn’t matter how many wonderful things you add to a landscape design if you’re not addressing the real issues. As my grandmother would say, “it’s like putting lipstick on a pig.”
2. What Inspires You?
Memory - Is there a memory in nature from your childhood that brought you joy? Is this something that you can recreate in your new landscape design?
Form - Are you drawn to straight lines, curved lines, or a combination in the landscape?
Space – Do you like spaces that feel cozy/intimate versus wide open spaces? Or maybe you like a mix of the two?
Color – Do you prefer landscapes with warm jewel tones or a cooler color palette?
Pro-Tip 3: Create a visual dream board or wish list of landscapes that inspire you! I always create an “inspiration” folder with images that get me excited about the particular property I’m designing.
4. Balance Hardscape and Softscape
An existing landscape already starts with a larger percentage of hardscapes – the house, driveway, porch/patio, and privacy fence, for example.
Hardscapes are more permanent features or surfaces – consequently they add more to the final project cost. If I add more hardscapes to a landscape design, I always ask, is this necessary? It might seem like an obvious question, but it’s surprising how many designs I’ve seen over the years that “over-hardscape.” My theory – the designer was trying to increase the cost of the project and generate a larger profit.
Too much hardscape can make a space feel more sterile and less inviting. You’re outdoors after all, so it’s important to have a balance of hardscape and softscape.
There are general landscape design hardscape/softscape ratio recommendations like 1:2 or 1:3, meaning for every square foot of hardscape surface add 2 or 3 square feet of softscape (plants and/or lawn). My recommendation – lean into more plant material, not less.
Many modern-day properties are smaller but have larger houses. Since the house is already larger than the usable yard space, adding more plants or “softscapes” will instantly make the space feel more inviting and the home feel connected to the earth.
Pro-Tip 4: Limit your hardscape variety to no more than two – three different materials. If you use too much variety, your landscape will look chaotic or like a landscape materials display shelf at a big box store. It’s great to recycle and reuse but using all the hardscape materials you have on hand or gifted to you by the neighbors is a recipe for what my grandmother called “hodgepodge.”
5. Design for Year-Round Interest
One of the most common landscape complaints we hear from potential design clients is that their landscape lacks year-round interest. It might look great in the spring, tired in the summer, lack fall color, and look barren in the winter.
Creating a planting plan that provides year-round interest requires following a proven system.
Choose your plant color scheme – select 3 or 4 colors. Avoid using every color in the rainbow so your yard doesn’t look like a bowl of confetti exploded!
Use a piece of paper or spreadsheet (orientated horizontally or in the landscape view) to create a Plant Brainstorming Table with three columns. Label each column with the headings – Spring, Summer, and Fall/Winter.
Divide the three columns in half with a horizontal line. You now have a total of six large squares.
Start brainstorming and adding perennials in the top three boxes according to their bloom season. Make sure to have roughly an equal number of each of your colors in your color scheme in each season.
Now add a list of shrubs and trees in the lower section of your plant table by their bloom time.
It’s also helpful to write the mature height and spread next to each plant as a reminder.
When your plant brainstorming table is complete, highlight the plant material that you place in your design, so you know that you have selected a variety of trees, shrubs, and perennials from all three columns of the table – Spring, Summer, and Fall/Winter.
Pro-Tip 5: Always choose plants following the rule of FOLIAGE FIRST. When plants aren’t blooming their foliage provides color contrast/depth. And, of course, texture creates tons of interest too, particularly when you contrast a rough and soft texture.
My final litmus test – if I’m genuinely excited to share my design with the client I know that I’ve created a great design! To learn more, read Landscape Design Principles for Residential Gardens – a favorite article I’ve shared with past design students.
