Landscaping is a process of developing and maintaining the surroundings of your home. It involves tasks like gardening, mowing, pruning, and watering, however, it starts a lot earlier. First, you must come up with the right landscape pattern, select all the right shrubs and flower beds, pick the right plant combinations (companion planting), and much more.
Proper landscaping can completely change the way your property looks, change the way you’re using it, as well as increase its value. In other words, it’s worth taking into consideration. Still, doing this the right way around takes quite a bit of skill and careful planning. With that in mind and without further ado, here are a couple of things you need to bear in mind when planning your landscape design.
What Are Some Basic Landscape Design Principles?
There are a couple of things you need to tend to ensure that your landscape design is properly utilized.
First, you need to have the right balance in your backyard. Having the garden baren looks low-maintenance and cheap while having it overgrown looks like you’re not putting too much effort into the maintenance. Ideally, you would find the balance between the two. In smaller gardens, minimalism usually works best.
To make your backyard as aesthetic as possible, you want to set a focal point and then ensure that every other element of the backyard is oriented towards it. If you want symmetry in your backyard, you need to focus on this one point. If you want asymmetry, you need to start favoring certain corners more than others. either way, you should establish a focal point.
When it comes to landscaping, keeping it simple is usually the best solution. As they say, less is more. Remember that this is not an indoor layout and that everything you add to it might require extra effort in the maintenance stage, later on.
Proportion is one of the things that you need to adjust to your backyard. Depending on how big it is, you might have more or less ambitious plans. The size of the deck, for instance, will vary based on the available space. The last thing you want is for it to take 80% of your property and that you to remain with barely any shrubbery at all.
Most important of all is unity. At the end of the day, while people may like a flower or a bush that you’ve planted, they’re more likely to focus on the bigger picture. So, focus on how it’s all coming together instead.
Choosing the Right Plants
The choice of plants is incredibly important and there are a couple of ways in which you can improve upon this decision-making. Ideally, you would take into consideration the conditions on your property. This way, you can ensure that the amount of effort you need to invest for these to thrive is up to the task.
You want to start by ensuring that you have enough light for the shrubbery that you intend to plant. Keep in mind that, in this regard, picking endemic plants will make your job so much easier.
Not all plants can withstand extreme temperatures and exposure to wind. For instance, you wouldn’t expect a plant tree to be able to withstand a harsh winter. While this example may be a bit extreme, you get the gist of it.
Soil drainage and soil composition can all be examined. It might be a good idea to go to a lab to check your soil for toxicity and nutrients. Sure, you can always use fertilizers to fix the situation a bit but there’s only so much you can do to improve here. It’s just easier to have a decent starting point. This way, you don’t have to go too far.
What Will You Use the Backyard For?
One of the best questions you can ask to set yourself on the right path is – what will I use this yard for? The question is so simple, yet, helps you set your course straight. You see, if you plan to spend your summers barbecuing in your backyard with a close group of friends, you need a deck, a seating arrangement, and enough space for all of this to take place.
If you plan to make gardening your main hobby, you need to take a different approach, potentially even raising your garden beds so that they’re more easily accessible.
Others may choose to turn their garden into an alternative relaxation spot. A reading nook is great. However, having your own spot in the garden might be a superior solution.
Some people plan to start a vegetable garden so that they can put organic vegetables and herbs on their tables. Self-sustainability in this regard is incredibly important and it’s grown increasingly popular over these last couple of years.
Some just want to boost the resale value of the place. However, landscaping might not be your go-to. Why? Well, because some plants take years to fully mature. A tree, for instance, might take 10 to 15 years. On the other hand, some vines might grow fully in a matter of weeks and cover any flaws in your façade or just enrichen the space a bit.
Why Is Starting on the Right Foot So Important?
At the end of the day, while some people have managed to make the most outlandish of gardens in their backyards, you need to understand that you’re in it for the long run. As we’ve already mentioned, it’s not like an interior design that you’ll have to dust now and then. It is a part of your property that will require maintenance week in and week out. It’s for that exact reason that you have to rethink how all of this works.
Wrap Up
In the end, it’s important that you make up your mind on just how much you’re willing to commit to the landscaping. Sure, you don’t have to do it all on your own. You can just have someone else do this in your stead. Either way, you’re going to pay for it. It all comes down to whether you’ll pay in time and effort or find an agency to outsource this task to. Seeing as how the payment is required, you need to settle just how much your landscaping is worth to you.
