The local conditions and environment help to influence the design of your garden space. The garden must be adapted to the special requirements of the gardener. If designing your own space, you are sure to base your design off these requirements, but if you are having a designer do it, you can never be too clear in your expectations and exact requirements.
The natural conditions of the ground must be studies and accounted for. The first factors to consider include the contour of the plot, the slope, and aspect, as these will all offer suggestions for the design and layout. The shape of the boundaries as well as the placement of the house will be equally important.
A good designer will take all of these factors and create a pleasing and consistent combination. The house and the garden will be in harmony with one another, and not done for just mere effect, but for overall enjoyment and comfort.
The lines of the plan, representing as they do the projection of the design on the horizontal plane only, have little meaning if they are not intimately correlated with some effect in the third dimension.
The garden, in all stages, needs to be considered in terms of height, length, and breadth. The studying of the vertical plane needs to be done, along with the horizontal plane to create a successful and artistic result.
Designing a garden can be likened to a painter’s conception of a painting and the actual execution. It is governed by the principles of composition, which are determined by creating general balance without the use of too much symmetry when determining the features of the design.
The designer of the garden must consider the plants, flowers, trees, shrubs, and any statuary or water features in which he wants to use to fill in his outline as he considers the design.
The designer must also consider any artificial features that can be added to his design to supplement the general picture he creates. These can include pergolas, arches, and other minor structures that have a common place in garden settings.
It is important to eliminate any unneeded symmetry from a design because it elimates the overall picturesque effect of your setting. For the practical reason that it is rarely consistent with a design which gives due weight to the all-important factor, aspect.
Undue formality causes a lot of complaints, and seems to spring from meaningless symmetry. In observing these injunctions against symmetry it must not be understood that they apply with the same force to details.
Symmetry will have its place in your garden setting for certain parts. An example may be the introduction of the group of flower beds created for effect on a lawn, having a one-sided arrangement is not a good practice, especially if the plot has a regular shape.