Residential Landscaping Pictures

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Landscape gardeners appreciate those pictures that present realistic inspiration and easy-to-do ideas. Good landscape design photographs can get across great amounts of visual information very quickly.

Mood and Atmosphere

Mood and atmosphere are probably foremost among this visual information. An individual planning landscape designs browses on the Internet or looks through garden design books for ideas and inspiration. Finally, he comes across pleasing pictures. Aha! he thinks. This is how I want my finished landscape garden to look. Unfortunately, without recognizing the difference, what the surfer usually means is "This is the atmosphere and ambiance I'd like to have in my garden." The reality is that plantings must be fitting to his specific site.

Design Ideas

Skillful pictures can also convey design ideas. If the photos are truthful and not staged, they can suggest ways of manipulating a setting to obtain desired results. One example would be finding inexpensive and colorful ways to mix plants and hardscape around a swimming pool. Returning to and studying the same picture(s) can become a springboard for all sorts of original ideas suitable for the limitations of the designer's property.

Photos Should Encourage, Not Frustrate

Unfortunately, first-class landscape photos may also lead to the predicament of unquestioningly trying to duplicate the photo without considering regional environments or microclimates. This approach, in turn, leads to frustration and often results in a landscape that is:

• Overly complex,
• Poorly organized,
• Inflexible,
• Too cute or thematically unsightly, and
• Excessively costly and labor intensive.

Photos are Tools for Inspiration

• Appreciate photos and use them as tools, not as dogma.
• Keep photos with appropriate ideas in plastic sleeves in a loose-leaf binder to study.
• Maintain lists of your ideas on notebook paper opposite the study photos.
• Describe how the photos' original ideas are suitable for the limitations of your property.
• Do not worry about discarding photos of ideas that simply will not work for current projects.
• Keep a section in the loose-leaf binder for select discarded photos. Perhaps title the section "Inspiration" or "Future Dreams."

More Information

• Landscaping Photographs Online discusses variation among Internet sites that offer garden landscape pictures. This article also lists a selection of Internet sites that offer no cost as well as fee-based landscape photos.
• The Encyclopedia of Garden Design and Structure ,2005, by Derek Fell, garden photographer and writer, contains garden inspiration and ideas from A to Z.
• Landscape Design, Tips and Terms shows howThe core of Derek Fell's book "Encyclopedia of Garden Design and Structure" is an information bank of garden landscape photos, but the introduction is its foundation.

©Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, March 2007. Reproduction without permission prohibited.

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