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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!
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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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