Texas Landscape Design Principles

Landscaping is a home investment and an opportunity to add beauty to one’s personal space. By following a few basic design principles and selecting the right plants, creating an attractive home landscape is something anyone can do.

Landscape Design Principles

Landscape design is both an art and a science. The art involves selecting colors and form. The science relies on basic design principles for guidance. In the end what is right for one’s home landscape is what one likes. The design principles suggested by the University of Florida Extension Service are:

• Unity‚Äîmaking the parts of the landscape and the plant types work together. Unity may be a theme like using native plants or creating a butterfly garden or it can be designing an entire formal garden. The unity principle includes fixed features in the landscape like rocks, pathways, water features, and statuary.
• Balance is achieved by following lines, form, and repetition (another principle). Balance may be created using a mirror image of a plant grouping on either side of a fixed feature. This is called symmetrical balance. Or, balance may be asymmetrical following a line from tall to short or creating very different looks based on color and texture groupings around a feature. Good asymmetrical design may be difficult for the novice to create and is perhaps better left to professionals.
• Simplicity‚Äîspeaks to the variety of colors, textures, plant types, and sizes. In general it is better to err on the side of less by selecting two or three colors and limiting the fixed features to one or two objects.
• Repetition in a design helps achieve other core principles like balance and unity. Shapes, lines, or colors may be repeated in different areas of the landscape.
• Proportion of the landscape area and features should match in scale the buildings and ground being landscaped.
• Lines form the basic structure of the landscape bed. Lines may be angular using squares and rectangles or more natural by using curves.
• Focal point‚Äîa tree, an interesting shrub, or a fixed feature can be used in the landscape as a focal point to draw the eye. Surround the focal point with plants that complement it through color, texture, and line.
• Natural transitions are supported by gradual changes in height, color, and texture along the line of the landscape.

Good Plants for Texas’ Landscapes

Use a Texas gardening reference book to understand growing conditions for the gardening regions of Texas that is being landscaped and select plants that are adapted to that region. There are hundreds to choose from. A word of caution—some home owners associations have rules about which plants can be in a landscape. Before making a significant investment is trees and shrubs, make sure that the ones chosen are on the approved list.

Here is a short list of accent plants that work well in landscapes over most of the State:

• Fountain grass
• Pampas grass
• Crape myrtle
• Redbud trees
• Roses
• Day lilies
• Dwarf hollies
• Nandina
• Flowering quince

For more ideas, Texas A&M offers a great list of Superstar Plants for Texas landscapes.

Before digging the first bed, draw the design for the entire landscape to see how well it fits together and meets the owner’s preferences. Using landscaping software helps capture and represent various landscape alternatives. If the prospect of creating and executing a complete landscape design seems to be too big a project, consider contacting a landscape architect for assistance.