Monday, May 28, 2012

Focal Points in your Landscaping


Inside your home, you spend time and money decorating to make it look inviting. You think about your flooring, paint, furniture, and accessories. Your yard is simply an extension of your home. You should carry the same types of ideas that you’re using inside the walls of your house to the exterior, because the outside of your home is the first thing that visitors see.

One of the keys to an interesting and appealing yard is creating focal points within the landscaping. Here are some examples of elements inside your home and ways that you can achieve them outdoors.

  • Carpet – use groundcover and grass to create a beautiful carpet outside.
  • Lighting – shine a spotlight on whatever you want to display in your landscaping. Maybe it’s a fountain, maybe it’s a pretty tree. It’s your choice!
  • Pictures – create a pretty picture through a display of flowers.
  • Walls – shrubs can be used to form walls or entire rooms if you desire.
  • Ceiling – include a pergola and use vines to drape across the top to create a lush ceiling.
  • Kitchen – bring your kitchen outdoors with an area for grilling and entertainment.
  • Art – add some garden statues to bring allure and uniqueness to your landscaping.
  • Fireplace – for many homes, the fireplace is the focal point inside. The same thing can happen when you add a fireplace outside, or a fire pit table. You can use colors and textures that set the tone for your whole outdoor living space.
  • Running water – encompass the soothing sounds of a fountain or waterfall into your landscaping.
  • Living room – entertain your guests or relax on your own at the end of a long day in a outdoor living space with seating, tables, container plants, and lights.
  • Food – sometimes there’s nothing like homegrown tomato vines, pepper plants, or fruit trees to add that touch of coziness to your yard.
  • Fragrance – like the scented candles and potpourri you use indoors, take advantage of nature’s fragrance array with sweet-smelling flower choices.

Common Landscaping Mistakes to Avoid


If you drive through neighborhoods, you’ll notice that the landscaping for some houses really stands out above the rest. Even if all of the houses have nicely cut, green lawns and no weeds, some of them just grab your eye. So what makes some look ordinary and others look fantastic? Here are some common landscaping errors that may be making the difference.

Not having a plan
Make sure you don’t start planting until you have a big-picture plan in place. Before you even purchase a single plant, draw out some guidelines about how you want your yard to look. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford to do it all right away, it’s better to have an overall design so that it doesn’t look like it’s pieced together. Also, a plan enables you to budget for more expensive portions like trees or water elements.

Poor irrigation
Consider your yard’s irrigation needs. In addition to watering the plants and lawn, this includes making sure drainage is in place. Think about how your yard slopes and if there are low-lying areas that may gather too much water.

Not knowing your plants
All plants have requirements for optimum growth and beauty. Consider how much water and root space each plant will need, and whether they should be placed in sunny or shady locations. Also, some plants don’t flourish well next to one another (for example, some can choke out other plants). Keep in mind plant’s growing seasons too, so that you prune or harvest fruits at the right times.

Color mistakes
Using color really adds beauty to your landscaping, but don’t fall victim to grouping the colors in just one area. Spread the colors out in a variety of portions of your landscaping so that the benefits are visible everywhere.

Focusing on only one season
Think about how you want your yard to look year-round. This impacts your decisions like evergreen or deciduous trees, annual and perennial plants, and flowering shrubs and trees. For each plant that goes dormant during the winter months, you should have a plant that stays green. Also, plants that have berries in the winter are a good way to maintain some color in your landscaping.

Neglect
When formulating your overall landscaping design, predict how much time and money you’re willing to commit to maintain it. Landscaping requires upkeep such as fertilizing, pruning, weeding, and more. It is a mistake to create a yard that you won’t be able to maintain.