Landscape Design and Gardening
Landscape Design and Gardening asks you to apply design principles to a site and to describe garden styles, lawns, hedges and garden features.
Design principles
Balance (symmetrical or asymmetrical), rhythm through repetition, harmony of colour and texture, proportion and scale between plants, buildings and viewer, a clear focal point, and overall unity. Formal gardens use straight lines and symmetry; informal gardens use curved paths and irregular planting. Styles to know: Mughal (char bagh geometry, water channels, cypress), Japanese (asymmetry, stones, water, bonsai), English landscape (informal, shrub borders), plus terrace and bottle gardens for small sites.
Lawns, hedges and features
Select lawn grass by use and light: Bermuda grass (Cynodon) for sunny, wear-tolerant lawns, carpet grass in shade, Korean grass for fine texture. Prepare a level seed bed, remove weeds, sow or turf, roll, and irrigate lightly and often until establishment. Mow at the correct height, never scalping, and fertilize after the mowing season. For hedges, trim sides before the top and keep the base wider than the top so light reaches lower leaves. Features include rock gardens, water gardens, pergolas, arches, topiary and bonsai.
Worked example. A 30 m hedge at 30 cm spacing: 30 / 0.30 = 100 plants; add 10% for replacements = 110 plants. Reasoning: convert spacing to metres, divide length by spacing, then add the replacement margin; for a double row, double the figure.
Traps that cost marks
- Describing the Mughal style as informal.
- Planting a hedge with a narrow base so the bottom thins out.
- Naming a lawn without giving the grass species.
- Selecting plants before assessing the site's light, soil and climate.