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You might have a blank slate of a yard to
transform into a garden or you might have a
basic builder-landscape that you would like to
augment. If you love to garden, a visit to your
local plant nursery will open up a world of
possibility. When you begin to design your
landscape, consider some of the following
suggestions.
First, determine the scope of the project.
You have to consider how much yard you would
like to care for and how much time you could
allot to maintaining it. For some people
gardening is like therapy. For others, they
would like to have a beautiful yard or garden,
but do not have the time. The good news is that
either is attainable. You may love gardening and
want to do it yourself or you can hire a lawn
service to help reduce the work load. There are
many services out there that will work with you
on price if they are just doing just a portion
of the yard. When you are making a realistic
decision about how much time you will spend
gardening, know that large expanses of grass
require less to maintain and can be handled by
you or a lawn service rather inexpensively. The
more intricate your landscape plan, with
multiple layers of shrubbery to be pruned and
seasonal beds of color to be cared, the more
time you will spend gardening. The decision of
how much time you would like to invest into your
yard is important and needs to be made first,
but before we put the cart before the horse and
have that landscape crew hired, let us get back
to basics.
Once you have decided on a time commitment
and have a general idea of the amount of
landscaping that you would like to do, then you
need to study your home. What types of plants
would compliment the architecture? Do you need a
privacy hedge? Where would seasonal beds of
color highlight the home the most? Another very
important study is the sun’s movement across the
property. If you are landscaping a front, side
and back yard, then take note of when the sun
hits each of the areas. Which areas are mostly
shady? Which areas are mostly sunny? Which areas
are a combination of both? The sun’s
relationship to your home is very important in
making a landscape plan for your yard. The
success or failure of any particular plant can
depend upon its amount of exposure to the sun.
When you visit a local plant nursery,
choosing all the various plants you would like
to use in your yard can be daunting. As you
begin, visualize or sketch your whole concept,
but then break it up into zones and work on
small sections of the total plan. This will make
each trip to the nursery have a clear purpose.
Also, the associates who work at the nursery are
extremely knowledgeable, so do not hesitate to
ask them questions. Carrying a snapshot of the
whole house and then the specific area you are
working on with you to the garden center is a
great idea. If you are pondering what a plant
will do at maturity and where to place it, a
snapshot can give the nursery employee a more
educated way to help you. Also, if you do a set
of photographs, it is very rewarding to have
before and after pictures of your projects.
As you discover what types of plants you
like, know that mixing textures of leaves and
shades of green from pale to dark add richness
and interest to your yard. Once you have
selected plants that interest you, pick up the
tag or card that describes the type of care the
plants require. It cannot be stressed enough how
important this is to the process. Remember
earlier when we discussed taking notes about how
the sun moves across your home? This is when
those notes will come in handy. Each tag will
tell you how much sun and water the plant
requires to thrive as well as what temperatures
it tolerates. Your local plant nursery will
stock the plants that do well in your area.
There are sections of the United States that are
divided up into zones that change as you head
from the southern most point of the country to
the northern most point. Essentially, the zone
map divides the country from warmer climates to
cooler. But that can be left to that expert
gardener. For our purposes, know that the plant
nursery will stock the things that can exist in
your climate.
Now, does the plant that you are interested
in work in the section of yard that you are
trying to landscape? After reading the tag, if
you are still unclear, ask for help.
Additionally, pay attention to the side of the
tag that tells you the space requirements of a
particular plant and what the ultimate size will
be. This is important and needs to be calculated
into your design. Shrubbery, when planted
correctly, will grow together and form nice
hedges over time, but the most important advice
that this article can impart to you is that when
you plant seasonal plants, like begonias and
pansies, plant like you mean it! They will only
be there for one season, and if you do not plant
them close enough, they will not have to time to
grow together and create a stunning bed of
color. Plant like you mean it!
After you
plant selection is complete, it is time to
implement your design. Make sure that you have
layers. A good rule of thumb while landscaping a
wall of your home is that the tallest things
need to be placed toward the back and then layer
as you come forward with plants decreasing in
height. This same rule applies to a free form
bed away from the house. The center of the bed
should have the height and work your way out.
This is just another rule of thumb, and do not
be afraid to get creative. You will know by
looking if the result is pleasing to the eye.
Remember to dig a hole much larger than the root
ball, add rich organic soil additives, mulch and
fertilize as recommended.
You need to know
something. Once you have your landscaping done,
it is perfectly alright to make corrections and
adjust parts of what you have created. That is
the refining process, and there is neither a
landscaper nor an interior designer who have not
made slight alterations to their design as they
implemented it. Follow these basic tips, and you
should have a healthy start of a beautiful yard
that will become your passion and the envy of
the neighborhood. |
