Home Landscape Design III
By:  S. V. Scott, Master Gardener

Unity in design occurs when all the disparate elements in a landscape add up to one cohesive whole. Thanks to relentless imaging in books and magazines, in movies and on television, we all have a subconscious recognition of when things look "right." More importantly, we also have a sharp instinct for when things look "wrong," but it's not always easy to say just how we know when things fall into place. Unity is one of the keys to unlocking this mystery.

Of course, there is not "right" and "wrong" in garden design. Everyone's property is their own, to do with as they wish. However, landscapes that are truly satisfying generally conform to common standards of good taste. That doesn't mean a design can't be original, or unusual. Indeed, applying unity to a design is the first and most effective tool we have to narrow our focus from the general, (a home landscape), to the specific, (your home's landscape).

Because the house is the focus of the landscape, the kind of house is key to the design. Is yours a brick ranch? A ranch conjures up a particular image of spreading lawns, wide patios, Mexican-style pottery, cacti and yuccas, wagon wheels, etc. Choose only those components that most appeal to you and that express your own individual taste.

The chunky patio furniture so suitable to the ranch style will look woefully out of place in a Colonial setting, which is all pastel clapboard siding, shutters, picket fences, and formal clipped hedges. Ornate cast iron and wicker furniture look thoroughly at home on a broad Victorian front porch, but no collection of antiques will make a contemporary home look old. Once you learn your home's design "language," you'll be surprised at how easily your garden ideas will fall into place.

You may own things that don't fit a theme, but that you can't bear to part with, and that's fine. Gardens, like personalities, evolve over time, and it's the whimsical things that we don't see in the advertisements that give our landscapes individuality and charm. The goal is to avoid really jarring elements that send a discordant note throughout the garden; distracting the viewer and drawing undo attention to themselves.

A home landscape must serve two purposes; it signals to the world who we are, at the same time as it provides a buffer zone that shelters us from the world. Unity is a technique that allows us to control the message we sent out, as well as providing us with a satisfying environment where we can truly feel at home.