Design Elements and Principles of Miniature Gardens

Any design process is assorted with a variety of elements and principles; creating a garden is no peculiar in intricacy than designing the interior of a room or a dress. You need to know what to look for and how the elements come together into one design. For a gardener, it will reduce the staggering range of options to a manageable number, allowing to get started right away.

Design elements

Anchor points: Anchor point is any planting that is already there and cannot be moved easily. It is usually the largest element in a full sized garden. It could be a fountain or a tall tree in the corner of the yard. Anchor points are also called as jumping-off points by designers of full-sized gardens because the anchors must be the part of the design; there is no choice but to work with them. However, in the miniature world, an anchor point could be anything because you are creating your own scene from the gash. To capture genuineness, use a miniature version of any full sized anchor point. This can be simply the tallest tree.

Layers: Layering is a design technique you might think not to consider for a small garden, but it is actually demanding to a beautiful scene. Just as in a full sized garden, layering creates visual interest and dimensionality. Once the anchor points are established, you can start layering with different plant heights, creating walls or boundaries for your garden and helping the plants' conversions between each other.

Form: It is an important element while designing the miniature garden because no one wants all plants in the miniature garden to be of the same shape. Dwarf and miniature plants come in as many forms as the full-sized plants.

Texture: In garden design, texture refers to variety in foliage. Integrate contrasting textures to create an interesting design and represent the plants in the garden bed.

Color: It is one of the exciting components of the miniature design that is often left unnoticed by the beginning gardener. To create a throbbing design, keep one of the foliage colors persistent through the garden. Too many variations of the same color in a miniature garden can look unplanned and aimless.

Focal point: It is the design element the eye is most drawn to. A difference exists between the focal point and anchor point i.e., the latter generally refers to the largest natural element while the former is the decor or functional component. One of the keys to miniature gardening is that, the focal point sets the scale with other design elements relating to that feature.

Simplicity: Simplicity is the essence of any garden design. How a designer creatively integrates plant materials and other design elements into a unified and simple scheme is always an exciting challenge.

Lines: In curvilinear design, lines should be impressive, done with a sense of showiness and be expressive in their shape. Curvilinear, rambling lines suggest a realistic look that invites the user to casually look through and experience the design.

Mass: To create a congenial effect in any group, a designer should try to fit together textures, plant forms and colors into a harmonious mass or whole.

Principles of design

Balance: Miniature garden is much more compressed than any full sized garden planning because the miniscule scene is usually viewed all at once, in one eyeful. While considering balance in the miniature garden, you will be judging the complete view of everything all at a once. Let your ideas guide you, and as you start to pull the pieces together, be sure to look the garden as a whole for getting a glance of the finished product.

From container gardens to backyard landscapes, balance is one of the principles to look at when planning a miniature garden. Visual balance allows appreciating the details of the garden. The attention to form, placement of plants, organization of space and use of color are key balancing elements to an enchanting garden.

Rhythm: It is expressed through the placement of furniture, plants etc., either individually or as group. Repetitious use of carvings in the garden design reduces invariability and results in the establishment of rhythm.

Scale and proportion: Good scale and proportion have no fast and hard rules. Generally, scale usually bears reference to the size of the object or thing to have a charming relationship to other things or to the design as a whole.

Using the basic garden principles and design elements of anchor points, texture, balance, layers, focal point and color, you can plan your miniature garden with morale. Understanding all these design elements will help to design like a skilled person and create an enduring, delightful miniature garden.