Photo: Half Dome Meadow, Yosemite National Park - Susannah Gill www.susannahgill.com

On a recent family trip to Yosemite National Park, I was astounded by the natural beauty of the park and extremely inspired.

Although landscape architecture design is a manipulation of the environment, my intent is to mimic nature as much as possible in my designs. That is why drawing inspiration from nature is so important to me and being immersed in a natural setting can be such a key component to my design process.

When you look at our natural landscape, you can see many of the seven design principals at work: balance, rhythm, pattern, emphasis, contrast, unity and movement. Using a combination of these principals with landscape elements helps create a garden that is aesthetically pleasing and will subliminally put you at ease. It’s similar to the saying, “I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like and what I don’t like.”

Designed landscapes that are pleasing to the eye use various elements seen in nature such as variety in plant height and texture, smooth landforms, and complimentary colors. Even English gardens and Japanese gardens have many parallels to nature while looking more like ‘created’ spaces than natural spaces.

Follow nature and you can’t go wrong when it comes to landscape design. Strive to recreate nature in your own garden and you’ll feel the positive effects.

If you have a landscape project that you would like to hire us for in order to turn your garden into a more natural setting, please schedule an appointment with us here: https://www.gill-gardens.com/schedule-appointment

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Greg Gill is a Professional Landscape Architect with over 25 years of designing, installing and maintaining residential gardens and landscapes. He is passionate about helping his clients achieve a garden space they will love and enjoy for years.

Registered Landscape Architect
State of California #6489

Gill Gardens serves the greater El Dorado Hills, California area, including Folsom, Granite Bay, Roseville, Sacramento and everywhere in between.