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Sketchup is free for personal use although professional landscape designers must upgrade to the pro version for $299 per year if you’re designing for clients. Sketchup has an extensive warehouse of images and particularly useful for landscape designers is the extensive library of native plants.
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Flowers and Herbsįlowers specific to the Italianate design and Victorian era would include marigolds, coreopsis, peony, pansy, daisy, verbena, petunia, geranium, snowdrop, roses, aster, phlox or clematis. Shrub options include columnar Irish yew for privacy or to give height at the front of house, junipers as foundation shrubs, or laurels for the landscape or for large pots to pair on opposite sides of walkway. Fruit trees and nut trees like cherry, plum, peach, apple or walnut might appear at the rear of house. Shade trees recommended for an Italianate-style house include Lombardy poplar, elm, oak, horse chestnut and maple.
The flower or herb garden, which was closer to the Italianate-style house than the vegetable garden, was designed in concentric circles or quads with a fountain or other focal point at the hub.
Italianate architecture was popular during the Victorian era-a time when a "kitchen garden" at the rear of the house would grow vegetables destined for the table, flowers for cutting, or herbs for medicinal or fragrant benefits. Walkways were made of gravel or, for the more affluent, brick or stone. Pilasters (square pillar or pedestal) would support stone vases to grow flowers. In addition, off the drawing room (living room as the modern-day equivalent), a large area of grass or a brick or stone patio would be surrounded with a low wall of brick, stone or heavy balustrade to create an outdoor space for family and guests. The house, which would be a "cheerful, mellow hue" and never white according to Downing, may have one or more porches, usually covered for use during hot weather. The Settingĭowning's perception of a landscape for Italianate-style houses was of a large lawn surrounded by trees, shrubs, neatly cut grass or flower gardens. You can create period-specific landscape designs for your Italianate-style home using many of the same varieties of plants, shrubs and trees available when Italianate architecture was popular in the 1800's. Landscaping Plants for Italianate Design Homes