When you purchase a new house or decide to improve your old one, you should focus some of your attention on gardening, which can make your entire property usable and enjoyable. Adding soil, grading, fencing, or terracing can make even hilly land attractive and useful. New hardier bulbs and seeds and hybrids in every color, will make gardens even more beautiful. At the modern home improvement store, you can find new gardening tools which can speed the tedious process.
Large picture windows make a garden view even more important. Beautiful gardens, green grass, and flowers can add a lot to your home. The time you spend on your lawn and garden is well worth it. Many of the principles you can use to design the interior of your home, including proportion, texture, color, line, harmony, and function, can also be used to design the landscaping outside your home.
Those with yards both big and small can benefit from carefully planning the landscape. Garden books can be useful for designing your yard, because they include many example plans. However, you should modify these plans to fit how you plan to use the space. Obviously, issues of cost and space can also impact this plan. Drawing out a scale plan can help you decide exactly what you need to buy and do in order to create the perfect yard.
You probably won't be able to do things all at once, but you should start with a plan and add things gradually. You can plan it so it never looks unfinished, but has room for later additions. Because most people cannot do everything in their plan at once, leaving room to add things later is very important.
When planning your yard, it is often useful to imagine it as three spaces. First is the public area, which can be seen from the street. Next is the service area, with the garage, driveway, and parking spaces, as well as storage space. Last is the private area, most often located behind the house. This backyard space can be utilized for many uses including games, relaxation, dining, and a garden.
Each space provides different opportunities for , and should be planned according to its use. For example, the public area should be planned to take the minimum of care. Select plants that will be attractive, but which do not require a lot of attention, so that you can focus on the private space. Design the service spaces, such as your pool and your patio ideas, to be reasonably attractive but designed around their specified purpose. The backyard design will vary based on your family's needs, but it is usually the space which requires the most effort to keep up.
Clearly, landscaping can be never ending, but it is both gratifying and beautifying. Caring for flowers, trees, and shrubs can be very rewarding, and adds interest and a relaxing space to your home. Planning your space carefully can help you enjoy it to its fullest extent.
Landscape Design And Architecture
When a Hurricane like Ike blows through your neighborhood and 100 mile an hour winds destroy your prized trees, maybe you loose several tall pines or have a prized oak that gets uplifted. The loss of large trees, storm debris and the damage they do are horrific but as the sky clears there are possibilities to make the new landscape design better than before.
Trees Damage
The first thing after a storm rips through a property is to assess the yard for tree damage. Trees may need special attention to properly prune the canopy shape that may have been damaged or compromised. Landscape lighting fixtures may need to be repaired or relocated to new limbs. Trees that have been uplifted may have root damage and should be seen by a certified tree professional to assess damage and future care, protection and deep root feeding.
Hardscape Damage
These include decks, patios and walkways. Damage here is usually done by fallen trees, uplifted roots, or drainage and water damage. Here it is important to assess whether or not repair can be done to the existing damaged area, if it can be replaced (assuming a match in material is still available) or if new materials that either contrast or compliment the old should be integrated.
Re-landscaping from shade to sun
With tree canopies opened up, trees completely down or existing trees properly pruned to even out the canopies and prevent future storm damage, you may find your garden has more sun than shade. In terms of the landscape design, it would be important to determine which landscape plantings can tolerate more sun and keep those as an overall part of the existing design and replace those plantings that were made for heavy shade. In this way you can keep the overall landscape design and only change the most intolerant plantings to the new sun conditions.
Consulting with a landscape professional
After the devastation of a large hurricane you may want the advice of someone who understands landscape design and installation so you have a coordinated and priority approach to repairs. An experienced landscaper , landscape architect or garden designer will know what contract services to call first, second and third. Also, someone who is in the landscape design and landscape business has strong relationships with subcontractors which can influence the scheduling priority of your work. In addition if more than one service is required, they will know who is reliable and the scheduling involved. A full service landscape design and construction consultant will know:
• Tree arborist
• Large tree removal services
• Tree stump grinding services
• Irrigation repairs
• Drainage repairs
• Landscape lighting and electrical work
• Concrete, brick, stone and other hardscape repair
• Design services to address repairs
New Landscape Design and Planting
If you have several trees that have fallen down and pathways and walks have lifted up from tree roots, it may make much more sense to start over again. Now is a time to think about:
• Now that I have sun in my backyard, how do I want the new landscape design to utilize this space? Lawn, entertainment, seasonal color.
• Do I want to create a better relationship with the garden design and the home
• What types of plants can I now enjoy with the new sun, are there more opportunities?
Both Kent Higgins & Jeff Halper are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Kent Higgins has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Landscaping and Home Management. Find out more as Kent Higgins shares his experiences on indoor plants, landscaping and gardens at www.plant-care.com. Seeking assistance on
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