Luxur Landscaping
Seasonal Tips
- Design Thoughts
- Create privacy in your Garden
- Choosing the right plants
- Life into your garden
- Dealing with drainage problems
- Hardscape as low maintenance landscaping solution
- Curves in your garden
Design Thoughts:
Landscape design is a systematic process of making decisions based on your lifestyle, desires and budget. The goal should be to create a space that suits your needs and makes your environment more attractive but also makes your life easier.
Here are some basic steps to follow:
- Think about how you want to use your space and what your family will enjoy doing outside. Start with a wish list that numbers (in the order of your priorities) activities like relaxing, barbecuing, gardening, eating or having guests (including how many).
- After analyzing your lifestyle and usual activities that take place outside, it is time to analyze the site. Determining your sun exposure, and locating shady or partially shady areas are crucial for placing plants in the right area as well as for placing a patio or bench in the desired type of exposure. Watch for wind drafts (you don´t want to build your deck in a drafty spot). Pay attention to views that you want to enjoy and the ones you want to block to create privacy.
- The next thing to pay attention to is circulation around the house and the location of the driveway and parking. Creating an easy flow and short access from one place to another is important and long-term vision is crucial in this matter.
- This is the information you have to gather before placing chosen elements on paper. The creative part starts now. With this information, you can create a bubble plan in which you locate where approximately you would like to have a hedge, pathway, herb garden, patio, retaining wall or a fruit tree. And always remember to keep it simple.
Create privacy in your Garden:
- We think of your garden as island of serenity. Imagine it as a place where you can entertain guests, read book, or play with your kids after a hard day at work. This serene place should offer privacy, which can include space and views. While, there are many ways to provide privacy, the focus should be as much on aesthetics as on functionality. Fences are the most common way to provide privacy. Its instant results are almost unbeatable but fences can create a sense of being boxed in which will make us feel restricted rather than relaxed. A combination of structures and plants could be a great solution for the privacy issue. Trellises, hedges, tall grasses, shrub borders, perennial borders, raspberry patches, gazebos, pergolas, sheds, playhouses, arches, lattices, rock gardens and rock walls are some of the possibilities. These components cleverly combined can give us maximum privacy without blocking pleasant views. For example, a rock wall surrounding a stone patio with an evergreen hedge as a backdrop will provide a visual barrier as much as it does a sound barrier but will not eliminate a favorite view. Alternatively, an easily accessible shed that separates us from a neighbor´s yard might be a perfect solution.
Choosing the right plants:
- It's always difficult to visualize how large a plant will grow once it becomes part of your landscape. Plants mature at varying rates: Some establish themselves very slowly, others very quickly. You'll need to determine the size you want the plant to reach within a particular time frame. Choose plants according to their position in the landscape. Consider the natural shape, height, and width of plants before you install them. As you plan your design, think about the plant characteristics (shape, size, color and how much maintenance this plant requires). And you have to decide where you are going to plant it. And existing conditions (the surroundings, soil, sun and wind) and you might have to do few changes around (like adding fresh topsoil)
Life into your garden:
- People are attracted to movement in the garden. Sun and shade (The position of sunlight and shade at different times of the day and different times of the year.) Flowers give colors and attract Butterflies and hummingbirds. Waterfalls create movement and sound or ponds with fish. But the activity in the garden is a wonderful thing.
Dealing with drainage problems:
- Some of you flooded with excess water runoff may be envious of folks with dry areas and their consequent "problem," considered above. For you, wetness is the problem. If water puddles in an area of your yard, making it unusable (or worse yet, if runoff threatens your house foundation), installing a French drain may be the answer for you. Or perhaps you're simply looking to grow plants in such an area, and everything you try there balks at the bogginess of the soil? In that case, I have descriptions of some wetland plants that may be the right landscape solution for you.
Hardscape as low maintenance landscaping solution:
- By using hardscape elements (stone or wood), they´re long-lasting, which cuts down on maintenance time. Hardscape needs neither water nor sun, nor do you have to prune it or clean up after it. Unlike most plants, hardscape projects stand the test of time -- if built properly. It cost money in materials and labor but once completed, they can provide visual interest on your landscape for the rest of your life, with little maintenance. An example of hardscape providing a landscaping solution is the use of a stone wall to separate the road from your front lawn. Many plants do not tolerate road salt well. To form a border along the edge of your lawn, a stone wall can be a much more sensible alternative than shrubs or other plants
Curves in your garden:
- Add a sense of motion and flows, making the garden gradually unfold. (Mystery calling to get uncovered) And a small garden that gradually unfolds naturally seems larger because curves add a sense of extended space. Curves can be created in stone walkway or a flowerbed. And it´s a great idea for small gardens.
Creativity has no limits. Think about a back yard as if it is an outdoor second living room. That second living room can be another place where you can relax in privacy.