Dachas and own houses are increasingly associated with spending quiet or active recreation in nature, rather than with weeding beds and fighting for the harvest. Proper landscape design will help create such an area. And to create it, it is not at all necessary to hire expensive specialists and make the territory most similar to a picture from a fashion magazine. It’s quite possible to create a comfortable and cozy site design yourself.
Brief overview of the article
- Basic Rules
- Landscape Design Styles
- Regular style
- Irregular style
- Country style
- Japanese style
- Chinese style
- Modern
- High tech
- Section division
- Site zones
- Design of the main elements
- Design of secondary elements
- Photo of landscape design of a summer cottage
Basic Rules
The landscape design of the house and the entire territory should be in the same style or complement each other.
Identical elements located in different parts of the site will make the area more harmonious and holistic for perception.
Simplicity of design becomes the basis for creating a pleasant and comfortable place in all respects. Each building or smaller element must find its place in terms of ease of use and harmonious appearance.
The smooth transitions of lines will help create the illusion of more space; a small amount of bright colors will give the opportunity to rest the eyes and nerves, shaken by the stress of the big city.
To create such a light design, avoiding massive buildings and high fences, using natural materials and green hedges will help.
Although modern landscape design styles are still aimed at minimalism in everything, including the number of plants.
Botanical certificate
Experts categorically object to the current situation, when coniferous plants, due to widespread habit, are called “conifers.” According to the botanical classification, they are representatives of different classes that are included in the Gymnosperms department.
So, the conifers include the well-known spruce, pine, fir, larch, juniper, cypress, thuja, yew, etc. , and among the Gnetaceae (Temenaceae) the order Ephedra stands out, the prominent representative of which is ephedra or double-spike conifer, colloquially also called “Kuzmicheva grass” and “Steppe raspberry”.
More than 60 species of ephedra are known, which grow in southern Europe, Western Siberia, Asia, Kazakhstan, China on the slopes of hills, mountains, and among stones. In many regions the plant has conservation status. The fact is that many types of ephedra contain the alkaloid ephedrine, which has an effect similar to adrenaline. The drugs methamphetamine and ephedrone are produced from ephedrine.
Since 2004, the plant has been included in the list of those prohibited by the Government of the Russian Federation for cultivation in large and especially large sizes. In the case of ephedra, a large fine will be issued if more than 10 specimens are found on the site. But this beautiful shrub is an excellent component of the alpine hill; its fruits are edible both fresh and processed (jam, preserves), and contain only residual traces of ephedrine.
The juicy cone berries are similar to multi-drupe raspberries - hence the name “Steppe raspberry”. The plant is not a conifer
The plant has been known since ancient times. Tribes and nationalities inhabiting the areas where conifers grow used them for ritual ceremonies.
In China, Chinese ephedra, called “yellow hemp,” was used for medicinal purposes.
In Russia, at the end of the 19th century, a peasant from the Samara province, Fyodor Kuzmich Mukhovnikov, treated rheumatism, digestive disorders, and bronchopulmonary diseases with ephedra decoctions. In his honor, the plant began to be called “Kuzmicheva grass” among the people.
“Ephedra two-spikelet” is not at all similar to representatives of Conifers. Gray-green shoots extend from the shortened woody stem, reaching a height of 30-50 cm. The leaves are reduced. The fruits are juicy cone berries (false berries), which birds feed on, which contributes to the spread of the species.
Landscape Design Styles
Landscape design ideas are as varied as apartment design styles. Only a larger area provides more space for the implementation of the ideas and wishes of the owners. The style of the site depends solely on the wishes of the owners, their financial capabilities, the availability of free time for maintenance and the size of the territory. Over the more than 200-year history of this art direction, a huge number of styles of private courtyard design have been created, but most owners choose the future design from the main seven types.
Regular style
This design is more suitable for large areas (more than 15 acres) and will require additional time. The main idea will be to demonstrate the superiority of man over nature. To do this, they use the principles of strict geometric shapes and regularity of lines, absolute symmetry.
In this design, even flowers must bloom at a strictly defined time. The centerpiece of the design is usually a large lawn or fountain. Sculptures, topiaries, forged arches and strict pergolas are used as decorations.
The prototype of this design is considered to be the royal palaces of France or the more familiar Peterhof.
Irregular style
This option is the complete opposite of the French style. Most of all, it should resemble small English estates, creating the impression that a person has simply moved into an area suitable for comfortable living.
There is no room for straight lines, everything is smoothed out and slightly asymmetrical; shrubs, flowers and trees give the impression of having grown independently in the most spectacular places. They can give the impression of the slightest carelessness, as if the owner was about to trim them, but was distracted by more important matters.
The only completely well-groomed place will be a perfectly flat lawn.
To embody the style, you don’t need to go beyond the borders. A cozy design can be created on 6 acres.
Country style
Country is still the most popular style. Bright and elegant, it is subject to the principles of simplicity and ease. For the most part, there are no specific rules in country styles; they are invented by the site owners themselves, based on a reasonable combination of all items.
For such a design, household items (buckets and wheelbarrows as flower beds, a haystack, a fence or a “forgotten” rake), homemade crafts, and creations made of wood and stones are ideal.
The style gives the impression of the best features of country life and has several varieties, of which the most popular remains the soft lilac Provence with its herbs and abundance of flowers and hand-made decorations.
The Moorish style will amaze with bright colors of decoration and a riot of plants, the Mediterranean style will transport you to the charming bliss of a hot afternoon on the seashore, the colonial style will combine a small vegetable garden and comfortable relaxation in a house or recreation area near a pond.
garden furniture
Using thick branches of fruit trees to support the swing, you can get a completely useful and aesthetic piece of garden decor. An old car tire or simply a thin planed board suspended on ropes from support posts is also suitable for swings. This will not only be fun for happy children, but will also fit harmoniously into the overall style.
Birdhouses and feeders made with children from old boards should be placed at the top of the thick branches of fruit trees. This will be a good pedagogical technique for raising children and a real manifestation of caring for birds.
Japanese style
The landscape design of the courtyard in the Japanese style stands out from all other ethnic designs. Here, each item is located in a clearly defined place and carries a certain meaning.
It is necessary to have water and stones, a place to contemplate nature and get to know yourself. The style is distinguished by its apparent asymmetry, but at the same time creates an amazing impression of harmony and simplicity.
Creation of an alpine slide
The presence of an alpine hill on a personal plot often causes puppy delight in the average person. In a burst of creative inspiration and the availability of the necessary materials at hand, it will not be difficult to decorate such a corner in the garden.
A slide should be built from several boulders of different sizes covered with moss and fastened with rigid cement mortar M-100 for strength. The space between large cobblestones is partially filled with small stones and a mixture of fertile soil, in which strange flowers are planted to soften evil hearts.
Modern
The main goal of this design will be the combination of natural principles and modern embodiment. The style is characterized by the rigor of natural lines, the naturalness of the colors used, the functionality and thoughtfulness of each element.
High tech
Modern styles are subordinated to the ideas of minimalism in everything.
Clear paths will lead owners exactly where they wanted to go, without any deviations along the way, using no more than three colors will help calm the eyes and nerves, modern technologies are designed to make life convenient with a minimum amount of resources expended.
Flowers and shrubs are small in size and there are relatively few of them.
Paths and platforms
Paths connect the house with functional areas, allow you to move around the site in wet weather without problems, and form the internal geometry of the territory. The coverage of the paths depends on the chosen garden style.
The regular style requires dense, even, uniform paving, the Mediterranean style is more liberal - combinations of different materials are acceptable here - stone, wood, pebbles, mosaic finishing. In rustic, natural, landscape styles, paths sprinkled with pine bark, lined with wooden circles, or simply lawn paths are possible.
Paths and paved areas decorate the landscape and make it easier to care for the garden and move around it. By showing your imagination in decorating the paths with your own hands, you can really get an impressive coating with minimal investment.
Section division
A landscape design project will help you create a suitable area. To distribute the land plot, the following figures are used: no more than 5% will be allocated to the front entrance area, 15-20% will be occupied by the recreation area, about 10% will have to be allocated to buildings, and the garden area will require 70% of the area.
All these figures are approximate and may change depending on the wishes of the owners.
Recommendations from professionals
When buying decorative lamps for outdoor lighting of a personal garden, you should give preference to lamps with a steel or plastic casing. When lighting a large area, you should ensure that the lighting devices are powered from a stationary electrical network.
An alternative to concrete when constructing an artificial reservoir is a special durable polyethylene film or a ready-made multi-level plastic container. Using advanced achievements of technological progress, you can significantly reduce labor costs and time spent on arrangement.
Note!
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Planning a vegetable garden at a summer cottage: ready-made diagrams for practical and effective do-it-yourself planning
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Site zones
To create a comfortable living area you will need a house, a garage, a kitchen, and a toilet.
The recreation area will have a summer kitchen with a dining room, a gazebo or terrace, a swimming pool or sauna, a lawn, a hammock or a sun lounger.
In the children's area you can arrange a small cozy playground with a swing, a sandbox, and a house.
The green area is represented by a garden and a vegetable garden. Flower beds and flower beds will be a beautiful decoration or frame for any area.
Creativity in action
To furnish a country house, it is not at all necessary to use exclusively expensive building materials, although in some cases they will be very appropriate.
The simplest elements, such as a homemade gazebo or a wicker fence, will add charm to the design of your site.
Actually, the latter’s technique is very useful when creating small fences for a flower garden, or other solutions.
Plaster sculptures, fakes made from plastic bottles, creating an artificial pond and other ideas can once again emphasize the uniqueness of the house and reveal the creative nature of the home owners.
Design of the main elements
The house most often sets the style of the entire site. Creating a mood depends on it. For small areas the structure is located in the entrance area; for large areas it can be moved deeper.
Utility buildings are hidden either in the backyard or placed on the far border of the site (except for the garage).
Gazebos will become a pleasant place for owners or guests to relax. Usually there is a barbecue area with a barbecue or tandoor grill or a summer kitchen nearby.
Design of secondary elements
Garden paths are one of the important parts of proper design. They not only provide passage to the right place, but also become zone boundaries or a charming decorative element. The materials used are stone, brick, concrete, plastic, grass, crushed stone.
Fences and internal railings will gracefully highlight the chosen style if they are chosen correctly. Very often they are decorated with border flowers, hanging flower pots, and vines.
In small areas, high solid fences should not be used, and it is better to decorate existing partitions of this type with flowers or trees. In this case, it will be possible to visually increase the space.
Ponds will give the area a feeling of additional coolness and create a cozy place to relax. This could be a small pond with herbs around the edges, a swimming pool, or a charming dry stream making its way through the area.
Flower beds will fill the area with different colors and attract beneficial insects. Depending on the chosen style, mixborders, ridges, parterres, arabesques, and rockeries can be used.
Lawn is used to fill large areas. Depending on its purpose, it can be used as a recreation area or used for purely ceremonial purposes.
Decorative elements will help make the area a more “live” and natural place. Such elements include garden figurines and figurines, homemade crafts made from wood or scrap materials, garden and stationary lanterns.
Photos of landscape design will help you decide on the choice of style and design components or come up with something new based on your favorite elements.
Where to begin
A well-groomed, landscaped summer cottage is the dream of, perhaps, every owner of a house with adjacent land. There is a completely unfounded opinion that only a professional can bring shine.
To argue with or agree with this statement is a personal matter for everyone, but arranging a summer house with your own hands is a completely feasible task. The main thing is to cast aside fear and doubts, understand the material, decide on your desires, and then you can get down to business.
Perhaps in some ways the design of the site will be inferior to that made by professionals, but the fact that it will be original, with its own individuality, outweighs all possible shortcomings.
The design of a garden plot begins with drawing up a plan. You can use graph paper, a ruler and a simple pencil the old fashioned way, drawing in the selected scale all the elements that you plan to place on the site.
You can take advantage of modern technologies and draw up a plan in one of the computer programs specially designed for this. It is designed as a projection, top view, observing proportions in the sizes of parts and elements.
The plan should be as detailed as possible. It is necessary to take into account everything necessary for a dacha and garden: entrance, paths, trees, decor, vegetable garden, buildings and structures, the design of which is determined before the start of landscaping work.
During the process of implementation, the plan will partially change, some ideas that came to mind a little later may find embodiment, but will be discarded into the original ones. The main thing is to have something to start from at the start.
In cases where the design of a summer cottage is adjusted to existing realities, all buildings, paths, flower beds and other important elements must be placed on the plan, as accurately as possible, in order to accurately fit them into the new exterior.
It is important to consider the location of not only large structures, such as a gazebo, covered terrace, bathhouse, barn, but also to consider the location of an artificial pond or inflatable pool.
Plants play an important role. However, you need to take into account that:
- tall bushes and trees will create shade,
- climbing and curly ones require support,
- not all flowers can be adjacent to each other.
Flower beds, flower beds, rock gardens, and alpine slides are arranged taking into account the relief. Special attention is given to decorative elements: benches, garden figures, lanterns, fences.
