What comes to mind when you hear "landscape design"? We have compiled the most accurate and comprehensive information on the subject for you and will present it in our article.

An architect designs and plans the interior of a building. There are also the outside parts of the building such as gardens, paths, walls, pools, sets, facilities, etc. These are the outdoor spaces. For their design, the designer needs to have gathered disciplined knowledge such as building science, aesthetics, statics, hydrology, drawing techniques, dendrology, and similar fields. Outdoor projects created by personnel equipped with these and similar knowledge are called landscape projects.

Definition and Content of Landscape

When garden design is approached scientifically and artistically, it has expanded and developed like other disciplines.
We know spatial arrangement is divided into:

1. Interior spatial arrangement (Architectural)
2. Exterior spatial arrangement (Environmental)

An architect designs and plans the interior of a building. There are also the outside parts of the building such as gardens, paths, walls, pools, sets, facilities, etc. These are outdoor spaces. For their design, the designer needs to have gathered disciplined knowledge such as building science, aesthetics, statics, hydrology, drawing techniques, dendrology, and similar fields. Outdoor projects created by personnel equipped with these and similar knowledge are called LANDSCAPE projects. (Actually, the word landscape originally means a rural view or rural painting, a term from French related to painting and photography arts.) Over time, its application area has expanded beyond a single garden to include many gardens, residential areas, groves, rural areas, and even urban planning disciplines.
In summary, exterior spatial arrangement broadly and comprehensively constitutes the landscape field. Professionals working in this field are called “landscapers” or “landscape technicians,” while academic personnel who design and plan landscape works are called “landscape architects.”

For a landscape architect to create such a project, in addition to architectural knowledge, they must also be equipped with knowledge such as soil science, ecology, botany, systematics, identification, irrigation, hydrology, dendrology (tree science), as mentioned above. Therefore, not every architect can become a landscaper, nor can any forestry engineer, agricultural engineer, or botanist be a landscaper. We emphasize this due to discomfort about many people today presenting themselves as landscape architects without proper qualification.

Our universities now train enough landscape architects to meet national needs. Whether it is garden design or environmental design, these tasks must be done by experts. Consider that projects initiated today and implemented take into account conditions 5, 10, or 20 years into the future. Some unaware stakeholders want the garden’s future shape and composition immediately, which is impossible. A pine tree in the project will only cover the designated space after 10-15 years. Currently, it may be 4-5 years old and less than 1 meter tall. Another tree nearby might reach the desired size in about 5 years.

The landscape architect anticipates how much these trees will grow in future years, how much space their canopy will cover, what form they will take; how these trees, shrubs, etc. will harmonize with each other and plans accordingly. We must trust and be patient with landscape architects. Otherwise, even if the artificially forced immediate result satisfies us now, it will certainly develop into an incompatible outcome we will regret later.

So, faced with the necessity that all these works and processes must be done by experts, does it mean we cannot do anything with our own means? For example, can we not plant trees or flowers in a small part of our school garden? Or can we not make any arrangements ourselves in a 300-500 square meter garden area of our home?

This article’s purpose is precisely that. What can we do by ourselves in such a small space, and how can we do it? We will try to answer these questions. In larger spaces, too (like first aid before the doctor arrives), we might be able to perform some tasks. But we must remember to be very careful because what we do may disappear later due to improper application.
For example, if we think about how to cover an unsightly area, and unexpectedly seedlings or small trees arrive that must be planted immediately, we can plant them in appropriate places right away without delay using the information and techniques we will explain. The project author will then either adjust the project accordingly (by making a site survey) or relocate the plants if there are major mistakes.