Posts tagged front yard landscaping
Convenient Outdoor Landscaping Ideas For The Garden And Yard
Sep 2nd
For those of us who are lucky enough to have an outdoor area of thier very own, properly landscaping this area can create a living environment that can be enjoyed and rewarding for years to come. Whether you have a large yard or even just a small piece of yard off a backyard patio, the options for landscaping are endless. But before you head out to the local home and garden market for shrubbery and lawn enhancements, you should examine exactly what type of outdoor landscaping you wish to implement and the maintenance factor that will come with your new yard.
Take your time and plan out your yard. Look online for outdoor landscaping ideas and visit your local home improvement center. Maybe you have been to a friend’s home and liked what they had done. Something as easy as painting the fence and adding a few flowers can do wonders and just take a day.
Measure the space you want to redesign. Put the dimensions on paper. Include the part of your house facing the yard with doors and windows noted. Layout where you would like to have a garden or play area or possibly a water feature.
Make sure that you are aware of the amount of work your landscaping entails. For those who do not enjoy mowing a lawn or if there is a lack of natural rain having a lawn can be a tedious and sometimes difficult task to maintain. Items such as rock gardens or flowerbeds are just as visually enticing as having a lush, dark green space in your back yard. There are some families that enjoy having decorative artifacts such as a birdbath, fountain or even statues while others prefer to stick with an arrangement of complementary flowers or stone designs.
Your local climate will have a tremendous impact on the type of landscaping that you should have in place. Flowering plants that require a great deal of humidity will not thrive in a dry climate. While there are some plants that will need direct sunlight, there are others that prefer a shaded area in order to grow. If you are not proficient in the different types of flowers and plants that are best for your area, be sure to utilize local resources in order to check out the best selections for your planning purposes.
Easy care, low maintenance plants and construction materials is what you should look for if you do not want to be chained to your backyard. Most of us want a place to barbecue and entertain but don’t like the raking, weeding, trimming etc.
Unless you have to have a lawn for your children to frolic on try to lose it. It is such a time and water waster. Play areas can be created with sand or bark. Look into “rubber bark” that is made out of recycled tire and lasts long and looks great.
Landscaping ideas for the yard and garden you can do yourself are very rewarding. Anybody can write a check to a landscape architect but only a few can accomplish a back or front yard landscaping project themselves. It will be your own creation designed by your imagination.
Restoring Lost Curb Appeal
Jul 30th
Adding curb appeal to an existing front yard that has none is often a very inexpensive and easy landscaping project. If you have plans to refurbish your own front yard landscape, it follows the same rules as designing and landscaping a new front yard. Parking areas, walkways, and paths should be placed where they will go and then the rest of the plan can be designed around them. But still, even a basic plan like this requires some thought to make the landscape look professional and appealing. Here are a few tips and ideas that will help set your landscaping apart.
The first thing you need to do is to assess what the problems are. Take a few pictures of the landscaping and entryway from different angles. This will give you a whole different perspective. Looking at the pictures will sometimes give you a better idea of what your property really looks like. Make note of any changes you want to make. Sometimes the smallest things can make a difference so write everything down. Is the walkway chipped and cracked? Have weeds overgrown the front of your yard? Has the entry lost its sense of invitation?
Remove any dead or unwanted shrubs from the view. If you wish, you can replace them with new shrubs. However, to create an entirely different look in both new and old front yard landscaping ideas, try using ornamental grasses instead of shrubs. Prune and shape healthy trees and shrubs to keep them looking good. When they’re allowed to grow unchecked, they can make your yard look out of sorts and uncared for.
To add a little color and interest, place some large planting containers on either side of your front steps or your walkway. Fill these with a combination of vining plants, spiky grasses and colorful flowers. This will make your front entry welcoming and inviting. And planters are also great for rotating different seasonal plants throughout different times of the year.
When choosing your plants for your front yard landscape design, remember that using less can oftentimes be more. Don’t try to add too many plants and colors to your front yard landscaping ideas, but focus on a simple color scheme. Pick two or three plant colors and repeat them all through the landscaping. This will give the design some balance and unity.
To make the entire yard look clean and manicured, edge all walkways, driveways, and sidewalks. Make sure that your front steps, driveways, and walkways are clean and in good repair. Repair anything that needs it. Totally cracked concrete, block, or rock walkways should either be repaired to good condition or completely replaced.
If the landscaping design styles need a little softening because of being too restricted and uninteresting, try adding a few curved planting beds. Island plant beds placed in lawn areas will accent a front yard landscape as well as make it more interesting.
Consider investing in some nice solar walkway and foundation lighting. Installation is generally easy enough to do yourself or if you prefer, you can have a professional do it. Not only do they provide a safety factor, but also create a sense of elegance on the home at night.
One final consideration. What shape is the outside of the home in? A fresh coat of paint if needed and repair broken boards, hanging gutters, and anything else in need of repair will do wonders for the home as well as the curb appeal of the front yard landscaping. No matter how wonderful the landscaping and curb appeal is, a home in bad repair will take away from its beauty.
A Few Front Yard Landscaping Basics
Jul 12th
Front yard landscape designs will generally be based on an entirely different set of purposes and needs than designs created for backyards. Front yards typically follow the primary need for access and entry to the home. Additionally, front yards are usually the first part of the home that folks see and usually gives them their first impression of the home as well as the yard. Front yards are where both the residents and guests enter and leave homes though most often spend very little time there. In many instances, front yard landscaping can get a big part of its design by simply designing the necessary walkways, driveways, and other access areas and then designing the rest of the landscape around them.
The way you plant in the front yard most often depends on placement, shape, and other aspects of your home. It is important that all the plants as well as other elements like fences, side walks, and driveways complement the home. Trees, shrubs, and some plant groups can often create unity between the house and the landscaping by making the home seem a natural addition to the landscape.
There are two major areas around the house that need special attention when you’re developing your home landscaping plans: the corners of the home and the doorway. Basically, the door is the focal point of the house and it often good practice to place short plantings on either side of it. For the corners however, the taller plants are excellent since they can funnel the viewer’s eye toward the doorway plants and the front door.
Trees can also serve to frame the view of the home which is another good reason to use them in front yard landscaping ideas. They can be used to place the main focus on the home as the most dominant element in the landscape. As a basic rule, it’s good practice to plant trees with a mature size that is in proportion with the scale of the home. Shade trees should have a mature height that will help keep the home cool but not so tall that they will end up dwarfing and overpowering the house. More so, planting shorter trees can make the house look taller than it actually is and possibly create the wrong atmosphere as well.
Consider the different tree shapes and then select the ones with a shape that will accent the style of the home. Pyramid shaped trees like Spruce and Birch will most always work best with steep angle roof homes and dormer windows. For ranch style homes, the horizontal or round maples and dogwoods are great choices.
Along with the plants and trees, lawn areas are also important in a lot of landscaping styles since they can create an excellent setting for the house. A front yard design with a lawn area surrounded by planting beds, shrubs, and other plants can often make an area seem larger that it really is. Take note that shrubs can appear floating and lost unless planted in cultivated beds or groups.
The first step in creating beautiful front yard landscaping is to have a complete and finished design. Even if you do the project in steps over a long period of time, a finished step by step design plan is important to make sure the project ends up where it’s suppose to. Without directions, you’ll most likely end up with a patch work landscape. Take the time to think about all we’ve learned in this tutorial and draw your plan first.
For the most part, landscaping the front yard can be about designing an inviting entryway while also framing and accenting the view of the home. And coming up with a great design can really be as simple as designating the necessary walkways and entries and then designing around them.
