Landscaping Design can be both exciting and challenging. If you are considering such a project, here are some practical Home landscape design ideas and suggestions.
Planning the Project
If you will soon be landscaping your property, the first and most important step is planning your landscaping design. You must collect the needed information to help make the correct decisions on the elements you will include in your landscape design. Taking the time to determine exactly what you want to incorporate into this project will ensure a successful design.
The type of plants, trees, shrubs, ground cover, flowers, and accessories should be decided well in advance of sitting down to actually design the landscape. Will you want a deck or patio? What about foot paths, walkways, a pond or garden? These are all things you should research through books, articles, and landscape magazines before your begin. This will save you a lot of time and frustration that usually pays off in the end by saving money.
To start the landscape design you will need to make a layout of the area to be landscaped. The measurements need to be very accurate, and as close to scale as possible. You can find many landscape planning guides that can help you with this step. Step by step instructions are available online, at your favorite bookstore, or the local library. Take advantage of all the research you can find.
Now is the time to place the elements you chose for your landscape onto the layout pad. This first layout will only be your preliminary plan and will change as you advance. You can make your changes to a secondary or updated plan as you progress. At this point everything is just on paper so changing your mind as you go is just fine. It is a good idea to experiment with a few different plans at this point before coming up with your final plan.
You need to make a plan that changes with the seasons. Your landscape will look different in each season, and your plan should include changes that will enhance the landscape for each season. A well planned landscape will never look the same in different seasons. This is also the time to plan for growth and age of your trees and other elements. What will your landscape look like 5 years or 10 years from now? Are you leaving enough room for the trees and shrubs to grow? Now is the time to ask yourself these questions. I is also a good idea to make your landscape as maintenance free as possible, and during this planning stage it a good time to keep that in mind.
Landscape Design Software
It can be difficult to visualize what your finished design will look like when all you have is a plan on paper. Fortunately there are many good and inexpensive landscape design programs available today. You can find them at software and computer stores, or online, and they can be very useful for a beginner. Landscape design software has come a long way, and is very easy for a do-it-yourselfer to use. It can show you exactly what your finished project will look like today, during the different seasons, and into the future as far as you would care to look. Most of the landscape design software will offer advice to the novice that will assist you in placing all the different elements into your landscape design. Some of the programs allow you to import a picture of your yard and it will design the landscape around the photo for you.
Gardens are a very popular item that people like to incorporate into their landscaping design. You can make the garden the focal point of the area, or just tuck it away in a corner of the yard. Either way, if you like to garden they can be a fun and attractive addition to your landscape, so don’t overlook this possibility. You can even blend your garden into the landscape by strategically placing it among the plants, flowers and trees. There are many items you can hide and tuck away in your landscape by planting shrubs and trees around them. Some examples would be small garden and tool sheds, wood piles, and recently many people are using an outdoor wood furnace which can be hidden away behind well placed shrubs or trees.
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