Oceanic Landscaping involves creating a beautiful, functional outdoor space. This can include planting trees, flowers, and other plants as well as constructing structures like patios and walkways.
A well-designed landscape can enhance the aesthetic appeal of a home and increase its value. It can also provide practical benefits such as shade and erosion control.
A well-designed landscape can bring a whole lot more value to the home. It can boost the resale value of the property, create an inviting and relaxing space to relax and spend time in, and also provide a place for kids to play and grow up healthy and strong.
To make your landscaping stand out, prioritize the use of color. Warm colors, like red, yellow and orange, draw the eye and create excitement while cool colors, like blue, green and purple, offer tranquility. You can also create focal points by using lines to guide the eyes to different areas of your landscape. These lines can be created by things like walkways and patio edging, or they could be perceived through the placement of objects within your landscape.
Seasonal color programs are popular because they can add interest and increase curb appeal. Cerys Heroman, a registered landscape architect with HeroMan Services Plant Company, LLC in Pensacola, Florida, says customers often choose to have their spring and fall plants replaced twice per year.
A strong brand identity is important for landscaping businesses because it helps clients know who they’re hiring. It builds trust and credibility and lets them feel confident in your ability to meet their needs. To strengthen your branding, create a brand style guide that includes your logo, colors, fonts and language to ensure consistency across all marketing materials. You can even paint your equipment and tools in your brand colors to reinforce your branding at job sites.
Form
Form is the shape of elements within the landscape – the way trees, flowerbeds and hardscape features like walkways and driveways look. It is one of the most important parts of a design because it sets the framework for the entire space. Form combines with line to create the overall feel of the garden. For example, a straight line in the landscape can add a formal feel, as can a curved path or sidewalk. A rounded, natural look can be created by using plants with looser forms like sheared Boxwoods and sculptural yuccas.
Plants and other features in the landscape come in a variety of shapes – pyramidal, spiky, oval, circular, ovoid, vase, freeform and more. Each has its own unique form that can evoke different emotions. Form can also be combined with texture to create a sense of movement and balance in the space. For instance, using tall, upright plants with fine textures in the back of a garden contrasts with rounded, coarse-textured groundcovers and shrubs in the front.
Landscapes can be functional or aesthetic, but a good designer knows that they need to incorporate both. For instance, planting native plants that are well-suited to the climate helps with water conservation and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, while creating focal points with natural or fabricated materials can create a sense of place and cultural identity. Incorporating rain gardens and permeable paving also serves a practical purpose of managing stormwater and reducing the strain on local drainage systems.
A balanced landscape must carefully consider line, form, color and texture to create harmony and appeal. The right mix of these elements can take a mundane yard or garden and turn it into an inviting place that is enjoyed by the whole family. The key is to remember that function and form are not opposing forces – in fact, they are complementary. A landscape that balances function with aesthetics is a successful space that will endure for years to come.
Texture
Color may get the most attention when it comes to landscaping, but there’s so much more to landscape design than just putting pretty flowers and plants in your yard. Texture adds depth, interest, and even a sensory dimension to your Cortlandt Manor, NY, garden. Whether it’s rough, jagged mountains or a soft mist, the use of texture can turn your landscape into a living canvas that invites the viewer to not just see but feel the scene.
When it comes to plant textures, there are several factors to consider: coarseness, fineness, smoothness or roughness, and weight. Plants that are dense, for example, tend to have a heavier, more imposing texture, while open-branched plants like lilacs and roses have a lighter, more open appearance. The way we perceive texture is also affected by our distance from the plant; if you look at a tree with needle-like leaves up close, they’ll have a fine, delicate texture. But from a distance, they’ll appear coarse and bold.
The way a landscape looks can be manipulated by the use of different textures in the plantings themselves, as well as through hardscape elements such as patios and walkways. By mixing and matching plant textures, you can create eye-catching combinations that will keep the garden visually engaging throughout the season. For example, pairing the fine-leaved Silver Lace dusty miller with coarsely-leafed red salvia provides textural contrast and a vibrant, warm color palette.
In addition to its visual impact, contrasting plant textures can be used to subtly manipulate the perception of a garden’s size. By placing tall, coarse-textured plants toward the back of a planting bed, you can create the illusion that the garden is larger than it actually is. Likewise, placing plants with fine textures in the front of the planting helps the space appear more intimate.
Just like a painter, it’s important to use a mix of different textures to create an appealing and balanced composition. Too many fine textures can appear inharmonious, while too many coarse or bold textures can be overwhelming. Remember to take a step back and examine the landscape as if for the first time so you can determine how all of the different textures are working together to create the desired effect.
Lines
Line is the element of the landscape that defines paths, creates focal points and frames views. Its properties determine how we respond, both emotionally and physically, to the landscape. Straight lines communicate a formal character, are often associated with symmetry and direct the eye to a focal point without distraction or deviation. Curved lines communicate a more natural and relaxed character. They move the eye at a slower pace and can add mystery to the landscape by creating hidden views.
The use of lines can also influence the way in which we perceive color and texture. Contrasting colors help make standout features and elements of the landscape appear vibrant and energetic, while harmony creates cadence and unity. For example, bright summer sun makes garden colors seem more saturated and intense, while filtered winter sunlight softens hues and mutes their saturation.
To understand the role of line in the landscape, consider the ways in which you interact with your yard or other landscapes that appeal to you. Notice how the lines draw you in, through and around a scene, how they frame views and lead you into or out of the garden. You can find inspiration for the type of lines you want to incorporate in your landscape by studying other landscapes, either through photographs or by visiting gardens that have features you like.
Form is the shape that gives the landscape its personality, and it’s created by the combination of line and plant material. Line is the boundary between surface materials such as turf, groundcover, mulch and gravel; the edges of hardscape structures such as walls, patios and driveways; and the vertical forms of trees, arbors, trellis and short garden walls.
Understanding the nuances between different line types is key to devising an effectively planned landscape. Structured elegance brought by unbroken straight lines contrasts distinctly with meandering curved lines’ sense of tranquility and organic edges’ ability to define the space around them. Each plays a vital role in sculpting a unified aesthetic composition within the greater tapestry of the landscape. Grasping the nuances of these different line types is the first step toward designing a landscape that draws in and enchants its viewers.
