Since ancient times, gardens have been a traditional form of organizing the surrounding space with the help of green spaces at the courts of the rulers and nobles of the countries of the East. But neither fruit trees nor flowers are so widespread in modern landscape design, especially in its modern urban form. Landscape design is the concept of the 20th century itself. The term originated in Western Europe, primarily in densely populated and industrialized countries: Great Britain, Germany, where massive industrialization and the growth of suburbs quickly led to pressure on the environment.
The main provisions are simplicity, convenience and practicality, as well as aesthetic value (beauty). Preparation of the area for landscape work begins with artistic design, that is, the creation of a sketched plan, the basic rules of which are:
When planting plants and carrying out other artistic and decorative activities, straight lines should be avoided, although some styles in landscape design imply strict symmetry. Therefore, before proceeding with the creation of a draft design, it should be clearly defined which style will be used in this project, however, a certain balance and balanced composition of design elements must certainly be present.
Components of landscape design. Elements of landscape design are diverse. Their main groups are:
Buildings that form the center of a landscape project, the main purpose of which is to smooth out the unnaturalness of geometrically correct structures, soften their pressure on the surrounding nature, remove construction debris, and mask defects and flaws. Buildings can be single or multi-storey, single or complex, private or commercial, typical or stylized, designed for a wide variety of purposes.
Green spaces in the form of individual trees, shrubs (in this case called tapeworms), as well as their combinations and entire ensembles (garden, flowerbed, rabatka, etc.) Lawn cover formed by various kinds of herbs.
Various large decorative elements (lake, pond, stream, fountain, stones, sculpture).
Smaller artistic details (musical pendant, lamp, candles, etc.)English turf - composed of sedge and related grasses; has a regular, trimmed, but somewhat unnatural look, quickly "annoys" the eye, more suitable for industrial-business and professional-sports sectors.
Mauritanian lawn - in addition to herbs, it also includes wild flowers, has an asymmetric and rather bright, elegant look, is mowed only a couple of times a year, more suitable for private sector buildings with an individual layout for recreational and entertainment purposes.
Reservoirs. When creating a reservoir, the materials from which it is made are of particular importance. It is possible to distinguish flexible insulating coatings and rigid forms that differ from each other in service life, installation (laying) technology and further operation. The following materials are used as the main materials for creating reservoirs: polyethylene; fiberglass; PVC film; butyl rubber.
Polyethylene ponds are great for creating a decorative reservoir of small size and volume (130-4200 l). Rigid plastic molds are easy to install and resistant to harmful UV rays and low temperatures. The service life of such ponds is more than 10 years. The disadvantage is the uneven wall thickness (the unevenness depends on the technology used in the manufacture and the manufacturer's compliance with the quality control of the finished product).Fiberglass ponds are ideal for creating small ponds (from 350 to 1200 liters). They are just as easy to install as plastic molds, but they are more resistant to environmental hazards. The service life of such molds is up to 30 years. The advantages of a fiberglass pond include the possibility of its repair and the choice of different colors in the manufacture. There are fiberglass and larger ponds (up to 4000 liters), but their installation requires a high level of professionalism.
PVC film is different in that with the help of this material you can create a reservoir of any shape and any size. For ponds less than 15 sq.m. and a depth of not more than 0.7 m, a film with a thickness of 0.5 mm is used. For reservoirs with a larger area and a depth of up to 1.5 m, a film 1 mm thick is used. The service life is at least 10 years, the film is subject to repair.Butyl rubber (EPDM membrane) - the material is similar to PVC film, but has higher strength and reliability. Particularly well suited for creating large ponds. Service life 10-30 years, repair is carried out with the help of special tapes and adhesives. Now it has become fashionable to arrange artificial reservoirs in the garden. Any, even a small body of water attracts attention and makes the garden unique. As a rule, the reservoir is decorated with natural stone. Perennial plants are also planted around the reservoir, which create a smooth transition from the lawn to the water. In summer, the reservoir is a source of freshness and cooling air humidity. Therefore, it attracts a person to itself. To make the pond look good, you need to carefully select plants that will create shade for the pond, preventing it from overheating.Streams and cascades - a small watercourse, usually from a few tens of centimeters to several meters wide. Usually the length of the stream does not exceed a few kilometers, and the depth rarely exceeds 1.5 meters. The speed of streams is usually quite high (several meters per second).
Fountains - a structure that serves as a base or frame for jets of water beating up or flowing down. Initially, fountains were built mainly only as a source of drinking water. Then the combination of moving water with architecture, sculpture and green spaces became one of the means of creating various solutions in architecture and landscape art.
Garden aquariums are a modern solution for landscape design. A garden aquarium is a small artificial reservoir of regular geometric shape, designed for growing ornamental and commercial fish and admiring them. The area of the water mirror is from 5 to 15 m2, the depth is from 150 to 250 cm. The bottom is arranged with a conical slope of about 5 ° to the location of the bottom drain. A garden aquarium may have glass edges for watching the fish and a place for feeding the fish. Higher demands are placed on water quality. It is necessary to use UV lamps for water disinfection, pond filters or full-fledged water filtration systems appropriate to the size of the reservoir.Small architectural forms. The concept of small architectural forms arose a long time ago, and it is understood as structures, equipment and artistic and decorative elements of external improvement that complement the main building of populated areas. LFAs include outdoor lighting fixtures (or as it is fashionable to call them now – landscape lamps), landscape gardening structures, fountains, obelisks, memorial plaques, city street furniture, trash cans, etc.
Organization of lighting. The creation of landscape lighting begins with a site plan where all dimensions are indicated and applied: frequently visited places (activity zones), points of attraction (intensely lit areas), places that should be highlighted (paths, steps, bridges, benches), power points. There are several basic landscape lighting techniques:
illumination from top to bottom or from bottom to top;
illumination of ways (pedestrian paths, access roads);
back or backlight (used to create silhouettes, shadows);
spot lighting (used to attract attention);
underwater lighting.
Other lighting techniques (e.g. waving "flames", animated projections) are usually decorative, landscape-based, and of limited use.
