My Garden – What are the 5 Basic Elements of Landscape? Of course, these five elements will further add to the aesthetics of the landscape.
Designing a landscape will be complicated if you don’t understand the 5 basic elements of a landscape. So, what are the 5 basic elements of the landscape?
The explanation below will make you understand them. Then, you can try to apply the elements to your landscape design. See the result before and after applying the basic elements below.
What are the 5 Basic Elements of Landscape?
Line
You should give lines in the landscape design. A line in a landscape means a movement area. It can be a walkway, path, or flower bed.
This element is also useful to highlight specific features in the landscape, such as a pond, pool, or fire pit if there are any.
Lines help to keep your landscape spacious and not too crowded with a variety of elements. Be creative and flexible while applying a line element.
You can’t only use a straight line. Try to play with curved, horizontal, diagonal, and other lines in the landscape.
Straight lines are more formal whereas other lines are more casual and flexible. The materials you can use to create a line in a landscape are also various, such as pavers, natural stone, gravel, vegetation, and many more.
The most important thing is that the lines give a clear path or sign between the garden and other areas. At the same time, you can also use the lines to achieve the main area.
Form
A form is another basic element you should consider when designing a landscape. It means the shape of the plants or ornaments you want to use in the landscape. The forms of the plants can be upright, groundcover, and round.
The ornaments include stone paths, walls, and pergolas. Each item has different heights and shapes. You should decide the best one to create an aesthetic form in the landscape.
The form you use in the garden decides the balance. You can start by determining whether it is a formal or casual garden. A formal garden often uses a more strict structure. A casual garden is more flawless.
Indeed, it makes the garden look more aesthetic to see and even more functional. This element helps you to put a specific item in the right area.
The goal is to ensure that visitors or owners can enjoy the garden as they want. Say you can put higher trees to cover a more private area or a path for guiding them walking around the garden comfortably.
Color
Color is also a part of the basic element when asking about what are the 5 basic elements of the landscape.
Playing with color while designing a landscape will make it more beautiful and eye-catching.
You can refer to the four seasons to apply this element. For instance, use colorful flowers and plants to design a fantastic summer garden.
On the other hand, you can also use vegetation, plants, and trees to represent other seasons.
This element has a significant role in a landscape. It determines the sensation once you enter the area. It feels different when entering a garden that applies the color principle compared to entering a garden without using it.
Indeed, you will be more amazed by a garden that applies color elements in its design. It seems that you can enjoy every moment you pass through the area.
Best of all, you get a memorable sensation once you leave the garden. So, ensure that you can mix and match the color in the landscape well.
Texture
You can also play with texture while designing a landscape. The texture is coming from the leaf structure, flowers, barks, stone surface, and many more.
The texture is also varied. It can be hard, soft, fine, coarse, heavy, light, rough, smooth, and others.
For example, you can use items with smooth surfaces for a pathway. Then, add some flowers with different textures along the pathway.
The garden will be more interesting if using different textures. For instance, you can plant higher trees and add a small pond around the area.
In this case, you will see some different textures that are satisfying to your eyes. The use of this basic element adds a layer of dimension to the landscape design.
Indeed, the garden will be more interesting to explore. Viewers or owners will be more satisfied after exploring it. They are even amazed by the design once they see it for the first time.
Scale
Scale is the last basic element in the landscape. It determines the result of the landscape. Using the wrong scale may make your garden crowded.
The worse part is that it makes the garden looks more terrible than before.
So, consider the heights and widths while scaling a landscape. The scale between the home, yard, and other features should be proportional enough.
As a result, you know things that can be used in the garden and things you shouldn’t use in it.
What are the 5 basic elements of the landscape? It is something that beginner designers always ask. They should understand the elements before accepting their first project.
