When considerations or words like balance, form, texture, color, repetition, scale, rhythm, accent, dominance or contrast start to appear in your garden thinking, you have climbed to another level. There are other landscape words of equal importance, but this is what I got with a brief head scratch.

Balance implies that as you look at your landscape a large tree on one side should not look like it is about ready to tip your lot on it side. Balance can be symmetric or formal which comes from putting the same plant scheme on each side or informal by putting equal masses of plants on each side.

One way to think about it is to think about a seesaw. How many grandkids does it take on one side to balance grandpa on the other side? I still have a long ways to go.

Think of form as shape. Texture is usually leaf shape and direction. Add in color and this permits you to sequence plants in the garden. Avoiding abrupt changes is often the glue that makes a garden look like a unit.

Color is not my best cup of tea. Sure, you can go to the color wheel and group opposites or neighboring colors. I can do that but still an artist friend's combinations always look better than mine. Fortunately most flowers are pastels and it is tough to get too far off course with them.

Repetition comes in two forms. The experts demand groupings of odd numbers of plants up to seven. In other words, a single plant is a specimen but when grouping you need three, five or seven plants in a group. Repetition also encourages that elements or groups of plants be repeated throughout the garden. This creates rhythm that leads the eye through the garden.

Almost always when considering landscaping you must start with the existing buildings. If you are renovating an existing landscape, you need to carefully think about what existing plants you wish to keep.

Scale suggests that larger trees match taller buildings while a low rancher might look dwarfed by giant trees. This raises the conflict between getting an instant landscape and waiting for the plants to grow. This is a budget issue and a cultural issue since larger plants take more maintenance for their first years in the landscape. That essay is in my mind for a future date.

Accent is my favorite. Plantings should frame a good view or hide a bad one. Accents can be created with specimen plants or man-made objects like statues.

Dominance describes the main elements in the plant landscape while contrast is used to connect the dominant elements. Contrast is created by varying plant heights, shapes, or, textures.

That is a short list. I'll end with a few additional thoughts. Evergreens are often over-used. Don't lose sight of simplicity. Often less is more.