Home Landscaping Course

Lesson 4 - The Final Plan

Lessons 1, 2 and 3 look at the general principles of landscape design, surveying your yard, then drawing a draft plan. In this final lesson you learn how to consolidate the three previous three lessons to produce a final plan. A draft plan sets down a broad concept on paper. The final plan fine tunes that broad concept, and adds in the detail.

GARDEN ROOMS

Many designers think of a garden as being similar to a house; that is, it is made up of a series of rooms. The rooms of a garden, like a house, may be laid out as an open plan, with each area largely open to the area beside it. A verandah for instance might be seen as something like an outdoor living room, and an area of lawn beside it, a playroom for children - two separate areas, and yet areas that can be viewed one from the other. In another garden, the outdoor rooms might be separated, perhaps by a hedge or fence with a gate or narrow path providing a doorway from one area to another.

COST, FUNCTION AND AESTHETICS

Throughout this final process, you may need to make compromises in terms of cost, aesthetics and the function you want each area of the garden to achieve. It is rare that a garden can have it all, and everyone has different priorities. What suits one person may not suit another. The overall atmosphere created in a garden will be determined in the detail of the planting, as will the cost and how the garden serves the practical needs of the people who use it.

DEVELOPING FROM THE CONCEPT PLAN

Your concept plan will indicate where different areas are to be in the garden, the likely size and shape of each area, and the major things that are to be included in each area. There are no rigid rules about what can be altered or added to a concept plan. The shape and size of each room or area can be changed, the components of each area may be changed or added to, and the boundaries between each room may be treated differently to create a greater or lesser sense of enclosure, as desired.