Landscaping To Improve The Looks Of Your Home
Eventually, proud homeowners will want to do some serious “exterior decorating” to add property value and personal enjoyment to their homes.
The front yard is your property’s face and usually requires curb appeal. Your back yard is usually for fun and games, privacy and relaxation.
Landscaping requires time and budgeting. While keeping your final design in mind, you will want to break down your multiple projects into manageable, sequential stages.
Prioritize
Start with hardscaping, which includes the structural elements built from stone, bricks and lumber. If you intend to make any home additions – an enclosed porch, a patio, room extension, etc. – do that first. If you want to add separate structures like a garage, garden shed, gazebo, or in-ground pool, do that before you start planting.
If you cannot afford to build your structure now, make allowances. Don’t plant an oak where the future pool is going to be.
Design Layout
Organize your outdoor state as conscientiously as you do your indoor space. Sketch out a basic design, positioning your house and any other structures with a full outline of your property. (If a paper design seems a bit customary, and you know how to expend a software program, go for it.)
Compass directions are considerable for plantings. The south and west win the most sun; you might want to plant a shade tree there. Maybe you want to block northern winds with tall arborvitae. Consider walkways, hedges, fencing, an above-ground pool, an eating status, a garden area, a pet area, and the children’s play area.
Lay out a design for pathways to specific areas and decide on major plantings: large and small trees, specific shrubs, and general layouts for flowerbeds.
An ill-planned landscape doesn’t add proper depth and dimension to the home; don’t overlook the value of adding height, color and texture in plantings. Decide how much maintenance you expect to put into your yard and who is going to do it. It will make a big difference in your decisions.
Most homeowners allow an area for outdoor barbecuing. This can be as simple as setting up a grill and picnic table with benches to an elegant outdoor eating status suitable for twenty guests.
Grass – or not.
No landscaped home looks complete without a lawn. Except for those who love landscape rocks or ground covers, grass is your basic green canvas on which you will compose your final creation. A lawn prevents soil erosion and extends your usable yard region. Most people like the look and feel of grass, and its presence will automatically create place boundaries.
Curb Appeal
If you want a formalized, elegant front yard – your home’s welcoming face – create a good appearance with tidy evergreens or sculptured bushes. Utilize pairs of bushes, trees, or plantings along the drive and walkways. Set landscape lighting into straight lines or right angles. Geometric shapes – circles, ovals, squares, straight lines and angles – give a clean, formal look to your home.
Highlight your formal design with a single feature such as an ornamental tree, a fountain or a lamppost surrounded by a bench or small circle of flowers. A straight path, flanked by small, unobtrusive plantings, leading to an attractive front door creates a warm welcome for guests. A porch or covered awning keeps guests dry. Sidelights or an overhead light and a side rail provide safety.
The back yard
Your back yard invites complete freedom of expression. Do you entertain grand? Do you have children or pets? Are you away much of the time? How will the yard be used? How long do you plan to live there?
Boundaries and Partitions
Grass creates one kind of visual boundary; fences, walls, and hedges create another. Tall partitions like arborvitae, dense hedges, and 8-foot-high solid fencing can also screen a view, mask noise and block wind or snow.
Aesthetic fencing can enhance the looks of your home (and its value), offer great security, and contain toys, kids and dogs. You can offset a play state for children or dogs with low chain link fence, screen off another area with lattice fencing, or use solid vinyl or wood for almost-complete privacy. For a more natural look, use thick hedges or tall, closely planted arborvitae to separate areas.
Paths and Lighting
You must create walkways to the areas you want to exercise, and they should be well lighted. Lamplights, recessed lights, spotlights, strings of lights, and landscape lighting can make your region much safer and more useful long into the night.
Improved solar lights offer longer-lasting, brighter lighting than older versions, and they can be moved as needed. Solar lights still require several hours of daylight to give ample light in the evening. They don’t work well on overcast days or short winter days; consider using low wattage ground lights or another choice if you must.
Walkway pavers can be re-arranged to re-direct traffic later or to make room for growing plantings. Soft paths, like mulch, create a garden path witness and feel. Non-slip, non-messy walkways are more practical as paths to poolsides.
Decorative and Functional Landscaping
Think of long-term use before planting. How big will the mature plants be? Do you want to provide shade or simply decorate an area? Will the plants be messy, lure insects or provide (un)pleasant scents? Contemplate the scale of the home and plant accordingly.
To complete your landscaping, you must add the appropriate trees, bushes, flowers, and evergreens. Know your planting zone and be aware of what grows well in your area. Look around at local landscaping. What do you like? Do they obtain fruit, flowers, scents, shade or cover for birds? Don’t plant a huge tree too finish to the house; don’t plant a messy tree near a pool, etc.
Some trees are extremely fast growing, up to 10 feet and more per year. If you don’t have the time or patience to wait for a shade tree to grow, some landscapers haul feeble trees and plant them. It may be worth the cost.
High vs. Low Maintenance
Plan ahead for low maintenance landscaping. Install built-in ground irrigation systems. Plant drought-resistant grass or hardy ground covers. Use mulch around tree bases for less mowing and weed whacking. Or produce a care-free, attractive rock garden. Mosses, ferns and variegated hostas are capable in shady areas. Hardy, sun-loving yuccas, hens and chicken plants, and cacti require minimal care.
Natural growing bushes require little maintenance: lilacs, hardy hibiscus, hydrangea, fire bushes, viburnum, butterfly bushes, crape myrtle and forsythia require no trimming, look great, and provide protection for birds and other wildlife.
Explore at professionally-landscaped homes and gain some valuable ideas. Common, native plantings are popular for a reason: they are usually the hardiest, easiest to grow, and most affordable.
Let your imagination flow. Mix tall and short plantings; plant red-leafed trees next to evergreen bushes; invent depth by putting smaller plants in front of taller ones. Mix annuals and perennials for overlapping bloom times; plant something that offers interest for every season. Red-branching bushes, trees with peeling bark, evergreens and hollies provide eye appeal during wintertime.
Add a water or fire feature
Nothing is more natural and soothing than the relaxing sounds of flowing water. If you have room for a fountain, waterfall, or fishpond, you can add a focal point to your back yard that will draw people together.
Fire is another crowd pleaser. An outdoor fireplace, chiminea or open fire pit creates a good conversation spot.
It’s your yard to do with what you will. You can create your own Garden of Eden or create a hub for constant activity.
Extend your living space beyond your four walls and create your landscaping dream.
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Filed under Interior Design Software by on Jan 23rd, 2012. 