What Is Landscape Design?
It’s good to take time out of your day to appreciate outdoor spaces. Take a walk through Assiniboine Park, and stop to enjoy all the garden beds. Stroll through the grounds of the Legislative Building, and appreciate how all of the stairs, paths, fountains, and statues come together to create something majestic.
All of this is landscaping, and it’s made possible through the art and science of landscape design.
What’s the purpose of landscaping?
When most of us think of landscaping, we think about aesthetics—beautiful outdoor environments make us feel good. That’s an important part of what landscape design is all about—beautifying the outdoors.
Landscape design serves functional and practical purposes, too. Well-designed landscapes can:
Improve drainage
Reduce erosion
Improve soil health
Create barriers between properties
Help reduce energy costs by providing shade to cool areas
Create paths to direct foot and vehicle traffic through properties
In short, landscape design helps to create spaces that are more inviting for people, all while providing a number of social and environmental benefits.
That means increasing property value through landscape design is simple—landscapes provide a host of incredible benefits.
What role does landscape design play in creating landscapes?
Landscape design is an all-encompassing discipline that covers every aspect of creating a landscape. This ranges from drawing out plans for the landscape, selecting plants (softscape) and building materials (hardscape) for the landscape, and rendering the landscape in digital programs.
Though many individuals can play a role in landscape design, landscape architects are among the most common landscape designers. A landscape architect is someone who has been certified in landscape architecture. Landscape architects draw plans, work with engineers, and use their experience in landscape architecture to help design the overall shape and form of a landscape.
Landscape architects are not always landscape designers, however—they may not be involved in choosing softscape and hardscape elements. While landscape architects can be an important part of a landscape design team, they aren’t essential, and many landscaping companies do incredible work without landscape architects.
This work involves conceptual thinking, problem-solving skills, and planning, design, and management skills. The payoff? A beautiful and functional fusion of natural and built environments.
Who can benefit from landscape design?
Any built environment—that is, an environment designed and built by humans—can benefit from landscape design. Private backyards benefit from landscape design. Public parks do, too.
Even cities benefit from landscape design. Well-designed landscapes add beauty, improve amenities, and can drastically increase social health. In recent years, urban planning has focused on how landscape design can help bring communities together.
A great example of how landscape design can be used to benefit cities can be found right here in Winnipeg. The new Rapid Transit lines have been bolstered by beautiful landscapes—as you walk or bike along the Blue Line, you’ll see visual arts, plants native to Winnipeg, smooth paths, and signage helping guide you through the city.
That’s all thanks to landscape design—and we can expect to see it play an important role in our transit solutions from here on out.
Call Bulger Brothers today
As you can tell, we’re landscape designers who care about Winnipeg and design. Call Bulger Brothers Landscapes for landscape design today!
