For some experienced designers, it’s a matter of years of repetition. For other seasoned planners and designers, it is simply vision. And sometimes it’s a simple matter of trying different things until something works. Most home owners are part of this last group. With little landscaping know how, most folks look to pictures of yards and landscapes to try to find some good ideas.

With the endless selection of books and specialty magazines filled with landscaping pictures, you would think there should be little difficulty to find a plan that could be duplicated. If every yard was square, round, or the exact same shape, it would seem so.Realistically though, most yards and lots are not the same size and shape. So even with all the landscaping ideas and examples available, it’s doubtful that you will find a design that is a perfect match to the shape of your own yard.

Since this is how it usually is for most do it yourselfers, designing a landscape design is best done in a different way. Don’t try to find a perfect design plan that will magically fit into your yard. When looking through books, ideas, and pictures of landscaping, pay attention to the details, ideas, and principles that are universal to most designs. Look for the things that are common and repeated a lot by different contractors. And because they are almost always based on basic principles of landscaping and art, these are the design elements that are most often appealing. Elements like these will most probably incorporate well into most designs and landscaping plans regardless of shape.

Look at different shapes and the way they’re repeated, the way plants are set, and the ways different colors are used. Take note of little details like plant groups and even decorative rocks being grouped together in odd or even numbers. Pay attention to the details of landscaping and not just the shape. You’ll get a better understanding of the techniques of landscape design which will help you create some of your own designs and ideas.

Sometimes your best resource, there are endless ideas in other designs, books, landscaping pictures, or even landscaping videos. Instead of trying to find your exact property layout, borrow and piece together several ideas from several different design plans. You’ll save a lot of time and have a better chance of designing something unique.