Designing your own landscape, can be both exciting and challenging. If you
are considering such a project, here are some practical ideas and suggestions.
Planning the Project
Planning your landscape design is the first and most important step. Take the time to gather the information you will need to make your decisions on the elements you wish to include in your landscape design. Will you want a deck, patio, foot paths, walkways, a pond? What type of plants, trees, flowers, and ground cover will you want to use? You should research books, articles, and landscape design magazines to help you make these decisions. This will pay off in the end by saving you money, time, and frustration, enabeling you end up with a beautifully finished project to be proud of.
The Design
The landscape design is your next step. You will need to make a layout of the area to be landscaped, as close to scale as possible, and with accurate measurements. Many landscape design planning guides that will give you step-by-step instructions are available on the internet for free, and books or eBooks are abundant. Once your landscape design layout is done you can began to place your elements on the layout pad.
This should be your first or preliminary plan and as you progess, changes can be transfered to your secondary or updated plans. Changing your mind often is just fine. After all this is just on paper at this point and you have not spent any money or performed any labor yet. Experimenting with a few plans is necessary before you come up the final landscape design. A well planned landscape will never look the same in different seasons. Plan your landscape design to change with the seasons. You should attempt to design your landscape as maintenance free as possible.
Landscape Design Software
If it is hard for you to visualize your finished landscape design by just looking at your layout, there is some very good landscape design software available. Much of the landscape design software was originally developed for professional landscapers, but since has been modified for the beginner who wants to do-it-themselves. There are many do-it-yourslef landscape design software programs available today. Landscape design software lets you see a virtual picture of the landscape design and enables you to move items around and see the changes you make come to life.
Gardens
Many people like to incorparate a garden in their landscape design. Gardens can be tucked away in the corner of an area, or be the focal point of the entire landscape design. Gardens can even be stragecly placed among the plants, flowers and trees so they blend in with the entire landscape design. If you like to garden, dont overlook all the garden design possiblities when planning your landscape design.
Great Homeowner Landscaping Ideas for All Beginners
Do-it-yourself landscaping doesn’t have to be costly or complex – anyone who has an eye for beauty can do it at home. We have personally seen passionate DIY weekend warriors who are able to transform formerly empty and boring front /back yards into beautiful and functional landscapes that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
The really interesting part here is that you don’t have to study landscaping formally in order to get good results. If you think you have to hire someone to do things for you every time you want to make changes to your back or front yard, you are simply mistaken. You can do many things on your own with the right tools and ideas.
Here are some basic ideas to get you started:
1. A small meditative garden somewhere in your backyard. This space should have a natural or artificial canopy, so you will be able to meditate in peace without the sun in your eyes. Abundant green carpeting should be able to create a peaceful environment for relaxation and meditation.
2. Loose stone pathways that wind around your back yard. These pathways can lead to a separate barbecue area, an herb garden, or a meditative garden. You don’t need to use a lot of smooth or mossy stones, because it’s a loose path. The looseness of the stones will enhance the beauty of the landscape.
3. Erect an artificial or natural privacy screen for your pool. No one likes to be stared at when one is swimming, so a privacy screen makes a lot of sense no matter how you look at it.
The most basic privacy screen that you can install is a set of wooden fences. Others like the idea of thick hedges with flowers, because of the instant splash of colors near the pool.
4. Perennial flowers can easily be added to the front yard with a rock garden. As the name implies, a rock garden is an outdoor space that is bound and accented by rocks. Many homeowners want an aged look for their rock gardens, because aged rocks make the landscape friendlier and homier. A rock generally looks aged if there’s some moss growing on it. It is entirely up to you if you want to use aged rocks.
5. Mini gazebos are a hit, especially for properties that have sufficient space for it. Gazebos always add that touch of class to a landscape. If you are a true-blue DIY weekend warrior, a gazebo project just might keep you occupied for weeks.
Now, we know for a fact that landscaping may seem a little confusing to some people in the beginning, because it appears that there is just so much work involved. But, if you think about it for a minute, you will realize that landscaping is a lot like rearranging stuff inside the house.
You have different rooms inside your home, and each room has a particular function. Your outdoor space is an extension of your home, and also operates with the same principles of form and function. Got it? Now start planning!
Landscaping DIY Stores For Needed Materials
For some beginners and homeowners, landscaping involves nothing more than green grass and blossoming flowers in the summer. Others however, may want raised flower beds and dividers built into the driveway and yard to accentuate certain areas of their outdoor living space. Installing trees, shrubs, flowers and retaining walls can be expensive, but with many landscaping DIY stores, the cost of labor can be reduced by doing the work yourself.
Full-Service Landscaping DIY Outlets
Most of the full-service landscaping DIY outlets will have all the materials a do-it-yourselfer needs to make their lawn look as good as they can afford to make it look. They should also have pictures and suggestions on ways to landscape lawns of nearly every size and shape and many offer free services by using landscape computer programs to help customers plan the best appearance possible. Arming yourself with a little knowledge about what you are looking for can keep you within your landscaping budget.
Knowing which flowers to plant and when can help you maintain a full color assortment in all areas of the yard and a landscaping DIY professional should possess the knowledge of how to best accomplish this. Suggestions should always be welcomed by the landscaping DIY homeowner, even those with preconceived notions of how their yard should look.
If You Ask For Advice, Take It
One of the most difficult aspects of a landscaping DIY project is knowing how to achieve the best results. Unless you are a professional landscaper, you might need to ask for advice about installing certain parts of your project. While the advice may have been free when you bought everything, it becomes worthless if you ignore the advice. Many folks that own or work for a landscaping DIY store are knowledgeable about the trade and can offer hints to get the most out of your expense.
No matter how good you think you are, there are those working in a landscaping DIY store that can help you get the most out of your flower patch or how to make sure the tree you planted stays in the ground. Many of the landscaping DIY homeowners, for some reason, are reluctant to ask for advice. Sometimes they get lucky and everything grows according to plan, but in other cases the yard does not appear as planned. Remember, that with any landscaping DIY project, it is going to be a lot of hard work, paid for by the savings of doing it youself.
Best Home Garden Is The Natural Landscape Design
The key reason why homeowners love landscaping? Why is landscaping extremely popular wherever you go? This is because human beings love to stay close to the outdoors and by landscaping they are the nearest to achieving this goal? Landscaping your home has numerous additional advantages besides the fact that it brings you inside of the lap of nature, i.e. it increases your property’s value, the esthetics as well as enhances the surrounding environment.
The Most Natural Landscape Design For Your Flower Garden?
If you have ever attended a flower arrangement class, you would understand the value of achieving a natural look when you want to emulate nature. It is not as easy as you would think to make your garden look completely natural; yet that is exactly what you need to do, if you want to achieve one hundred percent success with the landscaping of your garden.
In order to get the best possible arrangement for your garden, you would need to have a natural landscape design in the first place. When you make that design, you need to take into consideration not only the dimensions of your garden or property that needs to be landscaped, but also the placement and size of the house (or building on the premises), the surroundings and the pervading climate.
A good natural landscape design would take into consideration not only the present size and location of the house or building, but also possible extensions and change in looks once the trees planted are fully grown. There is a lot of difference in the initial stages, say first 6-18 months of the natural landscape design, and what it entails after say four years. The tress should not end up blocking the view from any point in the building, unless specifically planned in that way’
In order to achieve the so much desired natural look, you would need to have the natural landscape design focusing on one certain point so the landscaping can be done around it. Once you have a focal point – whether this is the house/ building, a tree, a rock or any such thing achieving the natural look would be easier to achieve than otherwise.
Have A Good Natural Landscape Design Plan
Unless you use an experienced landscape designer, you would find that the natural landscape design might not have paid sufficient attention to the possibility of expansion of the needs of the family who uses the property. The garden would definitely be used differently by 5-6 years olds and say after ten years by teenagers. A good plan would take into account the evolving needs of each member of the family and ensure that the garden would always be the most favorite place for everyone.
DIY Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas
Your backyard landscaping is going to have to be about many different design ideas but the most important one of these is your well being. Most people get into backyard landscaping because they want to change the look and feel of their home, they want to make it a wonderful place where their family can feel safe and comfortable at all times.
Backyard landscaping is a great way to add some more peace to your life whether you are alone or you have a large family and tons of kids. You will be able to create a sanctuary with your backyard landscaping design ideas that you have never had before in your life.
DIY Backyard Landscaping Keep It Easy
DIY backyard landscaping does not have to be drastic or hard. You can do your own backyard landscaping or you can hire a contractor to do it all for you. The choice is yours but doing it yourself can be a lot of work, especially if you do not have any experience in this type of thing. There are all kinds of things that you will need to learn about before you start doing your own backyard landscaping.
You will have to take a crash course in landscaping and this course will be jammed packed with all kinds of info that you never even knew was out there. You may be able to save some money on the work if you do your won backyard landscaping but if you screw things up too badly you may end up paying even more to get everything fixed.
If you want to get some backyard landscaping done you should only do it yourself if it is going to be a simple and straight forward job. If you need irrigation things dealt with and planes and elevations leave it to the professionals that do it for a living. These things may be over your head entirely. You need to watch out how you go about your backyard landscaping or you could end up with quite a mess on your hands.
There are a couple of great places for you to learn some more about backyard landscaping such as the local public library and the internet. You can get many backyard landscaping books out of the library and these will help you to make the best decisions as to your landscaping needs. You can also get many do it yourself tips online.
Homeowner Landscaping Ideas Simple To Find
Most homeowners look at their old, tired yard, full of weeds, and wish that they could have a yard like they see on television. Beautiful collections of homes landscaped with gravel pathways, colorful flower beds, decorative rocks, a pond, and maybe even a gazebo or other sitting area. Even in the event they might never be willing to put the time in they can quite easily create a simple patio or flower bed to increase the aesthetic value of their property, and to more completely understand what homeowner landscaping ideas you can use.
Easy DIY Landscaping Ideas
Virtually any website may have hundreds of landscape ideas and while some of them may be better than others, you’ll likely find something that you think is absolutely perfect for your yard. It may be the positioning of trees. It may be the style of brick used in a patio, or the cut of wood in a railing for a balcony.
The point is that there are likely thousands of backyard landscape ideas that you discover to be very attractive and within your allowance, regardless of how big or small it could be. If you want to skip to the best of the best, you’ll want to take a look at a magazine, television show, or the showcase section of a website. These will give you what many people consider to the very best home landscaping ideas that they have come across.
Best Landscape Ideas For Any Budget
No matter if your allowance is only one hundred dollars you’ll still be able to find landscape ideas for homeowner that will work in your yard and make it more beautiful. Granted, a larger budget will be able to do a lot more, but even a smaller one can go a long way towards making your yard much more beautiful. Of course, you shouldn’t head into looking at landscape ideas hoping that you can get a patio made out of imported marble from ancient European castles, but you might be able to afford a several hundred square foot patio with a thousand dollars, for example. Other projects like flower beds, paths, and lighting will most likely be cheaper while projects like land contouring can be more expensive.
If you’re thinking of upgrading your yard with some beautifying projects, first take the time to look at many different landscape ideas. They’re not hard to find, and you may find something that you like more than what you had had in mind. Some of the most beautiful projects can be found in magazines and on television, but you can just as easily find those projects online with a bit of searching. Landscape ideas can help your yard become as beautiful as you want it to be.
