Learning how to landscape your property will add both beauty as well as a higher financial value to your home. While many people seek out a professional for this type of work, a beginner with the right motivation can learn basic homeowner landscaping ideas by understanding a few basic principles.
The Homeowner Landscaping Basics
By definition, landscaping is making improvements to the area outside your home. These changes can be for practical or for artistic reasons. For instance, installing landscape lighting can provide much needed illumination on a sidewalk or pathway, while planting certain flowers and shrubs can offer a touch of color and fragrance.
Everything that surrounds your home, whether plants or junk or tools, affects the atmosphere of your property in either a positive or negative way. Learning how to landscape begins with this simple concept and then builds on the premise that by adding or subtracting items from your property, you can improve the overall look and value of your home.
Another basic homeowner landscaping idea is that everything must be in harmony, either through colors, textures or placement of certain plants. This is known as landscape designing and even a beginner can accomplish these do it yourself landscaping ideas.
Time To Begin Homeowner Landscaping Basics
The first step in a good homeowner landscape design is to access the current state of your property. Are the trees healthy or do they need to be trimmed or even removed? Do you have dead shrubs or cracked sidewalks? Perhaps you have a vine that has taken over a fence? Basically, you will need to clean up, remove or prune any existing plants or deteriorating conditions in your yard.
You may have to call in a tree trimmer for a larger job, but for small trees and shrubs, check your local stores for the right tools to complete this task. After this step is finished, it will be time to design your new landscape.
One of the best ways to learn how to design a landscape is by looking at photos and designs. Your library, bookstore or nursery will have resources that will show you completed projects. The general idea in landscaping is to group certain flowers and plants together for color or for practical reasons.
Landscaping Color Scheme
Select a color scheme that is in harmony with the color of your home. Many people like to add a vivid touch to their gardens and may even match the flowers to the color of their shutters or trim work on the house.
Another important consideration is placing plants where they will grow the best. Plants that need a lot of sun or extra shade should be allowed to grow in areas where those conditions are present. If your new plants need a lot of water, consider installing an automatic sprinkler system.
It’s helpful to draw a picture of your yard and even color in the plants to get a more visual idea of how your homeowner landscaping project will look. Learning how to landscape your property will give you a sense of fulfillment as well as an increased financial value to your home.
Landscape Fountains Add Focal Point To Your Home
In every home landscaping theme, there should be at least one focal point that draws attention to the remainder of the yard. One of the ways to create such a focus is by using landscape fountains that attract attention as well as fits into the rest of the theme. The size of the yard as well as the layout will determine the size of the landscape fountains being used, as well as the availability of electricity to operate the fountain’s pump and any installed lighting.
Landscaping Fountains Create a Classic Theme
Many homeowners use their landscaping to create a theme in their outdoor living space and the choice of landscape fountains can either enhance the appearance or make it appear like the fountain was an after thought. Too many times landscape fountains are chosen due to their individual appearance and not by how they fit into the theme, making them appear as though they were dropped in the middle of the yard. Having the fountain shoot water into the sky may look neat for a short time, but it will get old after awhile.
Unless you plan to use solar power to operate the landscape fountains, it will require running an electric line from the house to the fountain. The same power can also be used for any lighting installed in or around the fountain. Since most fountain pumps operate on 110-volt alternating current, it may require the services of a licensed electrician.
Planning For Placement Of The Fountain
When deciding to use landscape fountains to enhance the appearance of the yard, it might pay to hire a landscaper to install the fountain as well as to make plans for its placement. Remember that deciduous trees will lose their leaves in the fall and pine trees will shed their needles frequently, creating a need for additional clean up to protect the inner workings of the fountain.
To reduce the cost of installing electricity for landscape fountains, they should be as close to available power as reasonably possible. Additionally, many homeowners will want to see or hear their landscape fountains while in the home and placing them in a remote area of the yard will not be acceptable. Having them close to an outdoor living space, such as a patio or pool deck, can also provide relaxing sounds while spending time outdoors.
There are landscape fountains available in nearly every size and shape and being able to find one that fits the theme as well as the size of the yard should be no problem. Just remember not to choose the first one you come across as history shows that after landscape fountains are purchased, the homeowner usually finds one that fits their lawn better.
What Is Your Landscaping Plan Missing
Here are a few different things that any good landscaping plan will need to be successful. First you should know what a successful landscaping plan is. To be successful a landscaping plan needs to be well thought out and all issues must be dealt with and accounted for. This means taking into consideration the amount of sun the yard will get as well as how much water it will receive and where the water will drain.
Drainage is imperative to any well thought out landscaping plan. You need to have the right kind of irrigation if you want anything to grow and flourish in your landscaping plan.You should take close stock of what is already around before you start any kind of landscaping plan. All of the best ones will use the natural beauties that are already a part of any yard. Most yards will have something going for them so find this and use it to make your landscaping plan stunning.
For example there may be some gorgeous flowers or trees, or some great rock formations. Why rip these out only to plant another thing, that is just a waste of living things in some cases and totally unacceptable. Use what is there and your landscaping plan will look that much more natural and gorgeous every single time.Examine all aspects of the yard to be landscaped. Will you need to level or hill up any areas? Are the angles good as they are or do they need a little help? These kinds of things matter and will have some part of the drainage aspect mentioned above when it comes to your landscaping plan.
Most people do not have a million or so dollars to spend so you will have to take this into consideration when you are coming up with your landscaping plan. You need to know how much you will be able to afford before you go all out designing this amazing, yet expensive landscaping plan.
You will probably not be able to afford to change the whole slope of your yard even if you wanted to so try to stay within the scope of your money and your ideas.
Make sure that your landscaping plan has taken everything into consideration and the and only then should you start putting this plan into motion.
Ideas For Landscaping Around Trees
Many people love to landscape their property with the help of massive and beautiful trees. As these grow up and become majestic entities with personalities of their own, you would start wondering how to go about landscaping around trees to achieve a more harmonious look and at the same time protect these trees from parasites and other plants that could interfere with their ability to draw water and nutrients from the earth.
Landscaping Around Trees Can Be Done In Many Ways
Though there are two schools of thought on this aspect, most people would prefer to use landscaping around trees mainly because it achieve a two-in-one objective, i.e. it gives the property a distinguished look and it definitely serves the purpose of taking care of the trees. There are many ways in which landscaping around trees can be done with great success.
Here Are Some Landscaping Ideas:
1. Use perennial flowering plants – this is a hot favorite in the choice for landscaping around trees because it provides excellent protection for the trees (the roots of these flowers are too shallow to create any real threat to the water supply of the larger trees) and at the same time, it creates an exceptional esthetic impact.
2. Put little fences around your trees – you could enclose your trees with miniature fences creating tiny gardens at the base of every tree. There the landscaping around trees would involve adding small statuettes, stones, decorations, etc creating a little masterpiece within each enclosure. The outside fencing could allow sitting arrangements so anyone could come and enjoy the shade of the tree as well as the beauty of the garden from this particular location.
3. Have your own miniature zoos – you could house a couple of bunnies or set up an intricate aviary at the base of the tree on your property. The choices are endless if you look at it – you could have something different for every tree on your property or you could have mirror arrangement for each one of these. Whatever it would be, the impact on the overall look of your garden would be fascinating.
Lastly, if you do not have the inclination of using any of these ideas, you could always plant a lawn around the trees. Have the enclosure drawn up as this would give the boundary of the lawn, and then plant the best available grass that thrives in the shade. This would solve all your problems – both esthetic and about the protection of the trees.
Landscaping for Aromatherapy Gardens
Aromatherapy has been used for centuries for medicinal purposes, from relieving stress to boosting a person’s natural immunity. Now, it’s used in a complementary fashion with conventional medicine, allowing for people to sometimes take a more natural route to good health. Aromatherapy should not be your only healthcare solution, but most health care professionals admit that it can have many healthy properties that people could benefit from.
In order o get aromatherapy every single day without having to worry about refilling candles or diffusers, look to landscape designs for aroma gardens, and you’ll be much healthier for it.
Your Aromatherapy Needs
Landscape designs for aroma gardens can set you on the right path for your aromatherapy needs. To the newcomer in the aromatherapy field, any aromatherapy or gardening idea can seem incredibly daunting. These designs will give them a basic overview of what any newcomers need, as well as giving veterans with green thumbs some new ideas.
The average person isn’t likely to know which plants have natural antiseptic properties that help clean the air naturally, but landscape designs for aroma gardens will give them that knowledge. This means that if you want, you’ll even be able to grow plants specifically tailored to your wants and needs.
Aromatherapy Plants
With these plants, you can do one of several things. Some of them naturally emit particles into the air which do what they’re proven to do, while others need to be ground up and sprinkled into oils which are poured into candles and later burned.
Aromatherapy can be fairly expensive. Name brand products (and more importantly trust) will cost a pretty penny, but you can ensure the quality of your aromatherapy experience much more cheaply by using landscape designs for aroma gardens. Just by making aromatherapy products yourself using your own grown plants, you can save thousands of dollars each year! Even more importantly than that, you will ensure that what you grow will be completely guaranteed.
However, landscape designs for aroma gardens aren’t limited to exterior gardens. You can take those plants inside as beautiful floral decorations inside to give you the benefits of aromatherapy even in the winter and on rainy days. Aroma gardens will take a little more love and care than just buying aromatherapy kits, but thousands of enthusiasts agree that it’s best to grow your own. You’ll save money and ensure your future health while you’re at it.
For Successful Homeowner Landscaping Ideas Use Good Landscaping Plans
Before you build a house, you go through so many tasks, formalities and plans. In fact, no home today can be built without a set of Government approved plans. You have achieved a foothold in your favorite company and you need to make your mark quickly – you make a plan that would help you with your promotion, and so on.
What is common to all the above tasks? The answer is the word ‘plan’. This word can always make a world of difference in anything you do because when you plan you anticipate each and every step of the way, thereby ensuring your success. For successful homeowner landscaping ideas use good landscaping plans.
How Can Landscaping Plans Help?
First of all landscaping plans would ensure that the end result is what you wanted to have in the first place. In order to work out a great garden, however small, you would need to have two things steady in your mind’s eye – (1) how the end result should look and (2) what are the obstacles that you need to overcome to get this done.
Without a plan you would not know what, when or how to do anything because there would be no organization of thought or action. You would also have no visualization in your mind regarding how the place should ultimately look. Without these criteria, it would be impossible to coordinate the work or accomplish anything of real importance.
The landscaping plans would give you the required vision which would drive you to achieve your goal; it would also provide you with some indicators that would signify whether you are moving in the right direction or not. The landscaping plans would have to include everything to the minutest detail so you would know how much time, money and effort would be required for obtaining the picture-perfect garden.
The landscaping plans would also help to phase out the creation of your garden as you would definitely not be able to finish it in one go. You would know with the help of the plan what to do when in order to achieve the ultimate look you wanted to give your garden.
Without a plan you may not end up with as good results as expected, however well the landscaping would be done, it would not have had the capability to anticipate future requirements of land, plants and people for the landscaping project in question.
