If you are thinking about landscaping your backyard, make sure you know the five design basics so that you get good results. It’s very depressing to spend time and money and still not have a garden you love. Making your backyard interesting is easier than you think. By making simple changes in the shape of your plant borders can make an enormous difference. Good design is all about getting the right shape of your borders so, use these garden design basics and achieve wonderful results.

1. Movement.

-The garden design shapes you create should move the eye from side to side down the garden. By steering the eye from left to right as you look down your garden, it will make the garden seem wider and longer.

2. Creating interest.

-Not seeing the whole area in one go also creates interest and gives your garden a dash of mystery. This can be achieved by the shape of your plant borders, even in a really small backyard.

3. Focal points.

– Having a visual full stop somewhere, so your eyes can rest as they view your garden, can make a garden dramatically more interesting. The careful use of focal points can really transform a garden. You don’t need many though, and it helps if they line up with key views from your house, at the ends of paths and other places that you look naturally as you view your garden.

4. Simplicity.

-A mistake a lot of people make when they first design a garden is to over-complicate things. Good design is all about simplicity, if you’ve drawn five circles on your paper, it’s too many cut it down to two or three. The main shape really shouldn’t be too complicated and fussy. You can always embellish your design later with the use of features and planting.

5. Repetition.

-A trick that professional garden designers use is to repeat key elements throughout their design. This makes the eye move from one similar element to another which creates movement and interest. Carefully repeating things in your garden will bring clarity and prevent your scheme from looking overly chaotic.

As an added bonus here’s a secret key to success, always plan your garden on paper first. It is much less expensive to erase something you don’t like on paper than it is when it’s built. The time you put in at the beginning will certainly reward you in the end.

If you’d like to see these design principles in action, there’s a free garden design video tutorial on the best way to design different size and shape gardens please visit https://www.successfulgardendesign.com/freevideo.html