Mimeo HO-80-2
Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service
LANDSCAPE IMPROVEMENT INTRODUCTION TO LANDSCAPE PLANNING
H. W. Gilbert and N. W. Marty
The objective of landscape planning is to develop the land involved for maximum use, health, and enjoyment.
The objectives remain the same for a small home grounds, a farmstead or a public area. In order to reach those objectives each problem must be evaluated, analyzed, and finally planned according to the situation. For example, a good farmstead landscape plan will be made with full consideration of its relationship to the problems of the people farming the land. Although the procedure of planning be the same from farmstead to farmstead, the farmstead plans cannot be identical.
Each plan is, figuratively speaking, a "custom built plan". The same is true of small home grounds, small rural acreages, parks, school grounds or church grounds.
In the procedure of planning there are principles that remain constant. There is opportunity for creative thinking and planning that will prevent monotony or "sameness" from place to place. This ability to create lies within the realm of fine art and should be encouraged among all who will discover the facts, apply the underlying principles of art, and use the best available information relative to the problem.
Before learning the basic art principles in landscape planning, a few facts must have become established which are the foundation of reasonable good analysis of the problem, and without which a design for living in the most functional, attractive, and sanitary surrounding will not be realized.
1.	Evaluate and analyze the present conditions. Find the bad points about your place as readily as when appraising others, and without sentiment, at least in this initial examination.
The exploring mind will cast off any pre-determined ideas in this initial stage of planning. The mind must be open for later rationalization so that component parts are purely incidental to the whole design.
2.	A good plan must be based upon a thorough analysis of the situation. That is to say that before the selection of plants to use, a wide range of coordination is necessary. Methods and information relative to various kinds of engineering, work practices (as in the case of farm management), architecture, soils, social life of the family and community, soil conservation, health and sanitation, ability to pay and labor relationship, and home management. A good plan will coordinate all of these and possibly other factors with the basic art principles to determine plant masses. At this stage of planning, kinds of plants are not yet of any concern.
3.	Acknowledge that making allowances for future developments is wise when it does not prevent the reasonable progress that you anticipate.
4.	Every good landscape is a study in space composition. Even with a segment of the home grounds this is true, because the segment is to be a portion of the whole composition. Since this is true, a perception of the whole design, except for detail, is necessary.