• Find a vista: This doesn’t have to be a sweeping view of a mountain. It could be a nice tree or a fountain at the end of your garden; make sure there is a clear sight line to it.
• Create a garden room in your landscape. Think of your landscape as an outdoor living space and divide the landscape into rooms: a sitting room, a place for eating, an activity room, and an entertaining area. By give each area a different character, it makes a small space seem larger. Avoid over-accessorize your garden room with large sculptures or ornaments.
• Incorporate native plants and local elements such as indigenous flowers or stones to your landscape. If a certain type of stone is common to your region, chances are it is appropriate addition to your landscape plan. Use it on walls, walkways, and other structures.
• Plan meandering garden paths. A meandering approach to your garden helps create a sense of solitude and a place to go to. Paths should be 5 or 6 feet wide for two people to walk side by side without tripping over each other.
• Provide a place of destination in your landscaping. Benches in the garden should be 5 or 6 feet wide for two or more persons to sit comfortably. 4 feet is too close for comfort, unless it is for a couple or an individual.
• Install a secret retreat in your landscape. One way to make a garden getaway inviting is to make it feel like a room. An open structure such as a gazebo allows plenty of light and breeze to move through the area while still providing a shelter. 
• Give part of your landscape a sense of enclosure. Screen the garden from view using a formal or informal hedge, a loose screen of plants, or even a tall potted perennial can give you a feeling of protection and a sense of privacy you want.
• Know what you want from your trees or shrubs so you can plan your purchase and their location accordingly. Buy plants with tags stating their maturity size; individual selections vary widely. In its maturity, a Southern magnolia will grow 60 feet tall.
• Plant some edibles. The dwarf fruit tress bear fruit a year or two after planting and can be fitted into the small landscaping in many ways. Apple, pear, cherry, lemon, figs, and berries add their own particular pleasures into your landscape.
• Buy a container-grown tree with a 2-inch-diameter trunk. It usually cost about 25 percent more than tree wrapped in burlaps (called balled and burlapped), but it will survive the transition faster and is less likely to go into shock when transplanted.

Successful landscaping is gained on trial and error. Educate yourself with up to date information and learn from other people’s mistakes. In time, you too will establish your own specialty; it takes a wide range of skills to take a dream and turn it into a dramatic landscape.