Garden design
Some are also landscape architects, a more formal level of training that usually requires an advanced degree and often a state license.
Elements of garden design include the layout of hardscape such as paths, walls, water features, sitting areas and decking, and the softscape, that is, the plants themselves, with consideration for their horticultural requirements, their season-to-season appearance, lifespan, growth habit, size, speed of growth, and combinations with other plants and landscape features.
Topographical landscape features such as steep slopes, vistas, hills, and outcrops may suggest or determine aspects of design such as layout and can be used and augmented to create a particular impression.
Traditionally, garden soil is improved by amendment, the process of adding beneficial materials to the native subsoil and particularly the topsoil.
The added materials, which may consist of compost, peat, sand, mineral dust, or manure, among others, are mixed with the soil to the preferred depth.
A hedge may be evergreen or deciduous, formal or informal, short or tall, depending on the style of the garden and purpose of the boundary.
A wall has a strong foundation beneath it at all points,[6] and is usually – but not always – built from brick, stone or concrete blocks.
A fence differs from a wall in that it is anchored only at intervals, and is usually constructed using wood or metal (such as iron or wire mesh).
However, garden designers may use other surfaces, for example those "made up of loose gravel, small pebbles, or wood chips" to create a different appearance and feel.
[8] Planting in ancient and Medieval European gardens was often a mix of herbs for medicinal use, vegetables for consumption, and flowers for decoration.
Purely aesthetic planting layouts developed after the Medieval period in Renaissance gardens, as are shown in late-Renaissance paintings and plans.
Garden furniture may range from a patio set consisting of a table, four or six chairs and a parasol, through benches, swings, various lighting, to stunning artifacts in brutal concrete or weathered oak.
[9] Patio heaters, that run on bottled butane or propane, are often used to enable people to sit outside at night or in cold weather.
The materials used to manufacture modern patio furniture include stones, metals, vinyl, plastics, resins, glass, and treated woods.
Nearby buildings, plants on other properties, or simply the climate of the local area, may limit the available sunlight.
It evolved over the centuries, and in the different cultures Islamic dynasties came to rule in Asia, the Near East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula.
A French formal garden or jardin à la française, is a specific kind of formal garden, laid out in the manner of André Le Nôtre; it is centered on the façade of a building, with radiating avenues and paths of gravel, lawns, parterres and pools (bassins) of reflective water enclosed in geometric shapes by stone coping, with fountains and sculpture.
Some of the earliest formal parterres of clipped evergreens were those laid out at Anet by Claude Mollet, the founder of a dynasty of nurserymen-designers that lasted deep into the 18th century.
The internationally renowned Alhambra and Generalife in Granada, built in the Moorish Al-Andalus era, have influenced design for centuries.
Jekyll's series of thematic gardening books emphasized the importance and value of natural plantings were an influence in Europe and the United States.
Also influential half a century later was Margery Fish, whose surviving garden at East Lambrook Manor emphasizes, among other things, native plant life and the natural patterns produced by self-spreading and self-seeding.
The earliest cottage gardens were far more practical than modern versions—with an emphasis on vegetables and herbs, along with fruit trees, beehives, and even livestock if land allowed.
It is a source of herbs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers, but it is also a structured garden space, a design based on repetitive geometric patterns.
A Shakespeare garden usually includes several dozen species, either in herbaceous profusion or in a geometric layout with boxwood dividers.
This type of rock garden was popular in Victorian times, often designed and built by professional landscape architects.
Native plants suit today's interest in low-maintenance gardening and landscaping, with many species vigorous and hardy and able to survive winter cold and summer heat.
This is partly due to the increase of modern housing with small gardens as well as the cultural shift towards contemporary design.
This style of garden can be defined by the use "clean" design lines, with focus on hard landscaping materials like stone, hardwood, rendered walls.
The increasing use of LEDs, solar power, low voltage fixtures, energy efficient lamps, and energy-saving lighting design are examples of innovation in the field.
While typically found in the yard of the residence, a garden may also be established on a roof, in an atrium or courtyard, on a balcony, in windowboxes, or on a patio.
