Click here to begin. This lesson is designed to provide you with a general background on the major principles of landscape gardening.
Every landscape consists of living and non-living components.
Examples of non-living components are rocks, paths, walls and garden accessories. A landscape is made attractive or otherwise by the way in which these components are selected and arranged together. The basic principles of landscape design are those things that influence the way in which the components are used. For example, the overriding principle in Oriental gardens is unity - between rocks, plants and water. For Le Notre, a famous 17th century French designer, a very important principle was that of symmetry, while Capability Brown, an influential 18th century English landscaper, believed the most important principle was for landscapes to be natural in appearance.