Landscaping Design
How to go about landscaping your yard or garden
If you are considering landscaping your yard, it will pay to take a walk around the neighborhood.
The landscaping going on will no doubt generate some ideas for your own project. The ones you like best were probably done by professional landscapers. And these are the ones to learn from. They will show which plants will thrive best in your area. Which make the best ground cover and the prettiest trees.
Make notes, take pictures for future reference. Pictures can help in identifying unknown plants.
When you bought your house you probably got a plat. This is a good place to start by enlarging it to a usable size and making a couple of copies. The next step is to pencil in all the essential dimensions, including house and paved areas.
Planning take a look inward. Knowing what style is best for the site will determine the direction to take. A forward look is also in order. Try to visualize how you might like to use the space in the future. Some things to consider may be play or entertainment areas.
Whether you like doing gardening or prefer a low maintenance approach could be important. Also house additions, etc.
If you haven’t yet decided on a style or look for your landscaping project that should be addressed. Whether you see it as orderly or casual can make a difference as to how the space is laid out and type of plantings to choose. It can also influence decisions with self maintenance or lawn service.
Next the structure, as in paving and retaining walls, needs to be addressed.
Anything that requires heavy lifting, often called hardscaping, is the big gorilla. Decks, walkways and retaining walls require the usual: stone, mortar and grading. These are landscape upgrades that add lasting usefulness and value.
Other considerations at this point are trees for shade or special features like large boulders, garden sculptures and water features.
But before you get too far ahead it's good to get it all on paper. Even landscape pros find it essential to visualize with the aid of pencil and paper where everything will be.
Positioned makes good sense. A good tip is to get a large pad of tracing paper. That way you can use layers for improving ideas. Use more layers for detail instructions. For at some point you will need to identify specific plantings, shade areas and drainage issues.
Landscape software can be very useful for visualizing the layout but overlays are still needed for irrigation, buried utilities, shade areas, focal points, lighting and so forth. It may seem like a lot of work before a landscape idea becomes a reality. And it is. But that is what will leisure success.
