Tuesday 1 July 2014
Garden design
is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting
of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner
themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise.
Most professional garden designers have some training in horticulture and the
principles of design, and some are also landscape architects, a more formal
level of training that usually requires an advanced degree and often a state
license. Elements of garden design include the layout of hard landscape, such
as paths, walls, water features, sitting areas and decking; as well as the
plants themselves, with consideration for their horticultural requirements,
their season-to-season appearance, lifespan, growth habit, size, speed of
growth, and combinations with other plants and landscape features.
Consideration is also given to the maintenance needs of the garden, including
the time or funds available for regular maintenance, which can affect the
choice of plants in terms of speed of growth, spreading or self-seeding of the
plants, whether annual or perennial, and bloom-time, and many other
characteristics. Source
