However, simplicity doesn't imply that your landscaping should be totally void of composition or be without any real form. It basically means to hold to the other dominant principles. Factors such as unity, balance, form, and repetition are expressions that are pretty self explainitory. And if you stay focused on them it will make designing...well...simple.
A frequent mistake that most folks commit is in placing far too many contrasting elements in their initial design idea. This can lead to confusion, distortion, and a cluttered mismatched look. Keeping your design simple for starters will make designing your landscape much easier. You can always add more later.
The best illustration is in choosing plants and color schemes. Selecting plants is so often a major obstacle for most home landscapers. It's understandable that most folks don't have a vast vocabulary of plant varieties. And still, the majority of people will go to their local nursery and take home several varieties of mismatched plants to place in their design. And just this all by itself can cause the entire landscape design to be out of balance.
While the majority of folks don't have a big understanding about plants, most people are acquainted with a variety or two. So start there or take a look around and see what's working in other appealing landscapes. You should observe that you can get much more impact from a simple selection of a couple of choice varieties and then repeating them through the design than you will from a variety of unrelated plants.
In simpler terms, pick a few good types of plants and repeat them throughout the landscape or garden. This design principle can be applied to all of the many different elements, shapes, and factors of your designing. Not just the plantings in the design.
Here's a cool little design "trick" to try:
To add some visual impact to your design, build a few flower beds using multiple shades of the same color. Do this using several different species and you'll also create a delightful and unique contrast of texture. And the same as other elements, contrast and variables in texture are also principles of design and art.
Keep your designing simple at first. It will make it easier to design and you can always add more stuff later. Every good landscape or garden design project should reveal the principle of simplicity.
Written by Steve Boulden. Steve is the creator of The Landscape Design Site.com which offers free professional landscaping advice and ideas to do it yourselfers and homeowners. For more landscaping ideas and tips, visit his site at: www.the-landscape-design-site.com