Backes Landscaping in Fort Collins Colorado, is serious about Landscape Design. It’s important to plan your landscape design from the very beginning. We want your entire yard to beautify your home and give you an overall sense of connection. It can be very noticeable to even a novice landscaper if the landscape design of a given yard was unplanned or there was not a very good plan in place from the beginning. Consider the last time you were in a luscious garden or tranquil oasis setting. I bet you felt at peace and relaxed, and most likely inspired. This goes to show that your environment affects your mood in a monumental way, a fact that we all inherently understand.
When you first begin thinking about transforming your yard, remember that there are several elements to landscape design, and perhaps one of the most popular and important aspects is color. We can bring color into a landscape design by accenting with flowers, brush and trees. As a landscaper we like to think about which colors will complement one another, as well as how the colors of the vegetation will complement the existing architecture and space.
Next, it is important to consider the changing seasons and how the landscape design will look throughout the year. However, for the most part in Fort Collins and Northern Colorado the landscape will be predictable as our seasons change. We can add evergreen trees and colors incorporated by other elements of landscape design, such as boulders, flagstone, and pergolas, to gain consistency in our landscape design throughout the year. Again, we want all of these colors to work together in a cohesive fashion to complement the overall flow of your landscape design project.
More critical elements of landscape design not to be forgotten are lines and angles. Nature rarely creates straight angles or lines, so if you want your yard to mimic nature remember this and try to avoid too many perfect lines. Of course, a landscape design with straight angles and lines has its place, depending on the impact and feeling that you want to create. For example, think about hanging four equally sized pictures on a wall. Some people would place the four images in a row or a square in an equidistant fashion. This would appeal to one’s sense of order and organization; however, this may be considered a bit too utilitarian for some. A landscape designer may choose to place the four pictures on a wall in more of a collage sense. When I hang pictures in this manner, I make sure no two edges of any of the pictures line up. This results in a more naturally looking free form and creative result. Remember, landscape design is about bringing out your personality through the medium we have at hand. In this case, we have plants, rock, trees, and mulch.
Balance is another aspect of landscape design that should always be considered. We do not want to pack too much of one element in a certain area of your yard. For example, many successful photographs abide by the rule of thirds. A photographer will compose an image by breaking up the photo into thirds both horizontally and vertically with lines. This will provide four points of intersection where these lines cross. Now that an imaginary template is created with the rule of thirds, we can place important aspects of the image along these imaginary lines. Furthermore, we can place the most important elements of the image at the points of intersection, creating balance in the image. The same type of principles apply to your landscape design. We want to place vegetation and rock elements in such a manner where they offset and balance one another. This type of concept helps to push your eye from one object to another within the space, keeping your interest and providing a feeling of completion and tranquility.
There are many more elements of landscape design to consider. In Fort Collins we have the benefit of a tremendous landscape to work with; I love the Northern Colorado area and the changing of the seasons. To see the blank slate of an unfinished yard and think about the landscape design possibilities is inspiring, and flat out fun. Here at Backes Landscaping we have a passion for bringing these dreams into reality, so if you would like to hear more about our landscape design ideas please contact us and let us bring your landscape ideas to life!