Successful Garden Design plans takes into consideration two basic things
- Making most of the garden space
- Creating harmony between the plants, the structures and the open spaces.

Before embarking on creating your master piece, you need to draw up a plan that highlights your garden's best features and blends it visually with your lovely home. Measure the boundaries and proceed by sketching an outline on paper. Various computer design software make this task a lot less difficult than before. The idea is not to get confused by the coordinated but to make sure that everything is in proportion and nothing is left to chance.

If there are fixed features like large trees, patios, fountains, etc - that you plan on keeping, already present in your garden, mark them. Everything should synchronise and accentuate each other. Good Garden Design plans should be able to hide any unsightly features that cannot be removed. Mark those too and experiment the different possibilities, sketching an outline on paper or your computer. Your garden plan should be viewed as an empty picture frame that can be filled with any image of choice. The areas of interest will stand out and areas that require major or minor landscaping is easily appreciated.

The lines and shapes in your Garden Design plans helps to decide on the feel you want your garden to have, flowing lines and curved shapes work for an informal feel; straight lines, rectangle and squares makes for formal looks and circles incorporates both. This provides a simple framework for all types of gardens.

A diagonal layout of the lines and shapes creates a more relaxed feel and can also be used to conceal the garden's flaws. Good application of perspective tricks also opens up or shrinks the size of the garden depending on the need. For instance, a long thin garden could be broken into smaller walk-through areas and trees with varying height could be used to create a unique environment. Use eye-out to trace the views from indoors if possible and revise the design on paper or computer until perfection is reached on sketch.

Proceed with a more precisely scaled plan and work on a budget around your sketch and the rest is so much easier.