Landscaping

A home garden is a place, which can give identity to your home building in a neighborhood. You can use very little creativity to enhance to look and feel of your garden so that it stands out from the rest …

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Whatever the project may be, if it is a big time one or a simple residential landscaping, design is the most important factor that one must consider to be able to lay out a plan and eventually act upon.

Residential Landscaping
In whatever we decide to do in life, there are things to ponder about before coming up with a plan. The same thing is true if you’d like a lawn makeover, there are factors to go through and ideas to think about before actually starting the process.

Why Do You Want to Do It?
If the idea is to give your yard some kind of a renovation through landscaping, then the possibilities as to what you’d like the outcome to be are endless. You call the shots according to what you like at the moment that you want it to be done.

But on the other hand, you have to give the landscaping design a more posh look if you decide to sell the property. This is also a way to be safe, not every potential buyer would want an unfamiliar style, but with being simple and classy, one could never go wrong. It would also be to your advantage because it will add more value to what you’re selling and more people will be enticed to look at it and consider a deal.

What Do You Want to Be Done?
For people who’d like to do their own landscaping, the American Nursery and Landscape Association or ANLA says that it is important for the property’s salability if you choose to maintain large, old trees in it. Those mature trees are said to be of great impact to those who are looking into the land.

In designing for your own landscape, remember the basic elements which are color, form, line, scale and texture.

Look at the project through an artist’s eye. Choose plants that look good when placed together or side by side in terms of their colors. Imagine what other people, especially the would-be buyer of the property would feel upon seeing the colors that you chose for the project.

Form is looking at the plants to be placed in the project in terms of the shape and branching patterns. Such factors should blend in with what one has planned for the whole landscape.

Line is the according to the arrangement of the materials to be used in the design, how you plot them accordingly as well as looking into their borders.

Scale or the size of the plants that you want to use in the landscape design also determines the texture. The placing of each plant depending on its sizes would give one an idea about the texture because this factor is a visual matter.

Who Do You Like to Do It?
You could seek out professional help if you think that you cannot do it yourself. But with vast resources on landscape design, you might want to try browsing through first and challenge yourself if you can do it before shelling out your penny for someone else’s services.

First, you need to observe other people’s backyards. You might also want to ask how they have done it. Or if you see someone else doing such, all you have to do is watch the process and get inspiration from it.

You can also find a wealth of information from landscaping books and magazines, television and, of course, the Web.

Are You Up with the Plan?
Upon having the plan ready for your residential landscaping, you just have to ask yourself if you’re up for it. Consider everything, the budget, the materials, your purpose on doing such and the property itself, before plunging in and starting out the process.

It is possible to have an appealing, unique look to your yard without investing thousands of dollars every year in order to do so. Practicing some basic conservation rules can help you to save money and still make your yard look great.

One great new innovation that is all the rage is the art of xeriscaping. As water becomes ever more valuable a commodity, many homeowners are seeking to conserve their water costs by choosing plants that do not need very much water in order to survive. These plants are available in many different varieties, and they will add a splash of color to your yard while still saving you money. Know which plants tend to use a lot of water- cedar hedges, for example, are the landscaping equivalent of the sports utility vehicle. Don’t plant any if you are concerned about your water costs!

Another way to save money on water is to include a material in your planting that has good water retention qualities. Peat moss, for example, is very cheap. When you mix it in with the dirt and bone meal while planting your new flowers or hedges, any water that goes near the area will be soaked up and retained for later use as the plant’s needs dictate.

As with many other areas of budget concern, the best way to stay within your means when it comes to landscaping is to do the job yourself. This means everything, from picking your plants to weeding and pruning. With the information age in full swing, though, it is not hard to educate yourself well on all the different tasks specific to your yard.

When it comes to weeds, you are probably going to have to expect a few. If you wage a campaign against your weeds, and this is especially true of your lawn, you are going to end up spending a lot of money and time on various chemicals and treatments, processes which, in the end, may end up doing more harm than good. Be content with some weeds on your lawn, particularly if they have some aesthetic appeal, such as clover.

Don’t be afraid to skip the nursery and buy your plants at a box store. A lot of the time, the plants you buy at a big store that carries many varieties of items will cost much less than those at the local nursery. These plants will not have been tended as carefully as the nursery plants, but with some care taken in the planting and tending, they will probably grow to the same levels in terms of appeal as will the plants which cost more but took less time initially in tending. Most do-it-yourself gardeners like to maximize their time outside anyway, so the extra attention these plants may need will help to increase the time spent on your hobby.

One of the best ways to keep a low budget in your landscaping is to limit your green space. Smaller lawns, and less flowers mean less materials needed for the upkeep. Watch what you use as your replacement, though- some types of landscaping rocks (such as lava rock) can be incredibly overpriced. Bark mulch is a fairly inexpensive option, but again, you have to be willing to invest a little extra time into its containment and maintenance.

Most homes have a few trees in the yard. Since they provide shade when it is too hot outside, it is only right that you landscape around the trees to make part of the beautiful scenery.

So how do you do that? The first thing you have to do is get in touch with arborist, a horticulturist or a forester. This is because planting around trees the wrong way can damaged the roots and kill the tree. Once they have established a protected root zone, you will be able to plant flowers and shrubs without any problems.

Instead of planting these on the ground, you can use planted boxes which does a great job of reducing mower damage. If you do decide to use these, be sure to maintain the soil at the original level and that the installation edging materials do not cut the tree roots.

The water requirement for plants and trees are also different. For instance, grass and plants have to be watered daily or three times a week. While the tree on the other hand only needs one application.

To prevent this from happening, you should also construct an irrigation system that is able to cater to the needs of both. You can make this happen by putting the water lines in one corridor outside the protected root zone.

But if it has to go through, make sure bore a hole only two feet below grade. Again, the improper way of doing this will compromise the tree’s stability and health.

But what if you suspect that something is wrong with tree? For that, you will have to inspect the base of the tree.

All trees have a natural root flare located at the base. If there is no flare and there is an excess fill, this has to be removed in order to save the life of the tree. Some of the work can be done by hand while the rest is done with a machine.

So if you want to landscape around trees, it is best to lay a 2 to 4 inch later of organic mulch at the base of the tree and then extend this outward to the protected root zone. Examples of these include wood chips and shredded bark. They must not be piled up against the tree trunk because this keeps the bark wet that leads to the growth of bacteria and fungi.

You must not also use landscaping fabrics or sheet plastic underneath mulch because they prevent oxygen and water going to the roots of the trees.

It is advised to prone out dead, low and rubbing branches. You must never pull on the healthy ones because this will reduce the tree’s ability to withstand heavy winds.

Irrigation must be done in the absence of precipitation. This should be done regularly during the fall until the ground freezes with periods that allows the soil to dry.

If you follow the tips mentioned, you will soon have a nice yard that surrounds a tree. Of course landscaping around trees is just one way to make your yard look good. But as this case has shown, planting flowers or shrubs into the ground and watering them is not as easy as it looks because you also have to pay attention the needs of the tree so both will be able to live.