Swimming Pools

Home

Choosing

Ground Rules for Landscaping

Landscaping Basic Design Techniques

Landscaping Design Elements

Swimming Pool, Selection of plants

Basic Design Techniques

Landscape architects and designers use some basic design techniques that you can borrow in thinking about your own design. These can make the difference between a visually pleasing landscape or an awkward, jarring one.

If the relationship between elements in your landscape is either too equal or extremely unequal, the result can be visually disturbing.
When organizing space, remember that most people find a sense of order in well-known, simple shapes, such as squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles.
Arrange plantings and structures to satisfy the need for privacy, but don't carry the design so far that it will produce a cooped-up feeling.
You can create pleasing variations in the landscape design and yet maintain unity by carrying a recognizable shape though a main theme. A theme with variations – in pavement, overhead, fence, lawn, and raised flower bed – creates a unified landscape.
In grouping shapes or masses, make them seem unified by joining or interlocking the units, rather than separating them.
The safe way to create a visually unified landscape is to compose a rhythmic pattern of the landscape elements.

Challenging Landscaping Sites

Like everything else in nature, lots are not all perfect. One of the secrets of landscaping – whether you're starting from scratch or restoring a well-worn yard – is knowing how to turn liabilities into assets.

Small Sites

Function needs to be your foremost consideration in landscaping a small area. Besides swimming, will it be used for entertaining, sunning, or play; it can also just be admired for its aesthetic qualities.

Even in a small site, careful planning can create the illusion of space. Brick paving, with its small-scale, repetitive pattern, gives an expansive feeling. To save space, display plants in small beds, containers, or hanging baskets.

Built-in storage and seating are practically a must where space is limited. Choose furnishings that don't overpower their surroundings, and avoid clutter at all costs.

Sloping Sites

Whether your lot is gently sloping, extremely steep, or somewhere in between, you will have to meet special design requirements.

A Shallow Slope can be converted with a minimum of grading into two or more level areas. Steps and a raised planting ed serve as retaining walls. Steps, ramps, or both can provide the transition from one level to another. Grass or ground cover can be used on slightly sloping sites to prevent erosion in large unpaved areas.
A Medium Slope is improved when it's graded to form a series of gradual levels, each marked by a retaining wall and planted with ground cover.
A Steep Slope is conquerable, in many cases, by a deck built beside the swimming pool. Steep, difficult slopes often require the attention of professional landscape architects.

Besides their purely functional use in providing a connection between different levels, steps and ramps play a major role in both grading the side and integrating buildings into the landscape. They also separate areas, direct foot traffic, display plantings, and on occasion, even provide extra seating.

Odd-Shaped Sites

The four basic types of odd-shaped lots are square, wedge-shaped, wide and shallow, and long and narrow.

A square lot's symmetry is softened by an elliptical swimming pool and a separate landscaped area behind the house.

A wide and shallow lot appears deeper when the area behind the house is broken up into a series of outdoor living areas: a long, narrow pool, a large patio for entertaining, and a circular sitting area shaded by trees.

A wedge-shaped lot's primary drawbacks are its sharply angled corners and unequally divided spaces. Plants can camouflage the sharp corners. Locating the swimming pool in the large open area contributes to the secluded nature of the adjoining smaller garden.

A deep, narrow lot can be divided into two distinct areas – a large patio and a very private, naturalistic swimming pool site beyond. A modest grade adds visual interest.