analysis: How to Choose the Right Landscaping Design for Your Property

Brainstorming Ideas:

What should you brainstorm to help flush out and prioritize ideas? Let’s begin with this simple download of garden planning specs. It lists the items to consider that will help formulate the landscaping plan.

• Decks and Patio Ideas (from google images)
  	Deck Style	deck w/ railing	tiered deck	floating deck
  	Deck Material	wood deck	composite deck	vinyl deck
  	Patio Style	conversation	eating	with fire pit
  	Patio Material	interlocking block	brick	stone
  	Patio Material	stamped concrete	pebble rock	paver
  	Cooking	grill station	outdoor kitchen	pizza oven
  	Fire	fire pit	fireplace	sit-around fire
  	Entertainment	dining	outdoor bar	outdoor media
  	Comfort	sofas	lounge	hammocks

• Water and Sport Ideas (from google images)
  	Swimming Pool	in-ground	above ground	swimming hole
  	Swimming Deck	concrete	stone	wood deck
  	Other Water	spa	hot tub	sauna
  	Pond	retaining wall	rock pond	natural pond
  	Fountains	pond fountain	pool fountain	garden fountain
  	Sport Centers	tennis court	basketball court	batting cage
  	Lawn Plan	croquet area	volleyball area	play area
  	Children Center	playhouse	swing set	climbing bars

• Garden Design Ideas (from google images)
  	Front Yard	landscaping	flower beds	trees/shrubs
  	Foundation	landscaping	flower beds	trees/shrubs
  	Side House	landscaping	flower beds	trees/shrubs
  	Back Yard	landscaping	flower beds	trees/shrubs
  	Pathways	walkways	garden paths	stone paths
  	Lighting	front yard	foundation	backyard

• Other Garden Elements (from google images)
  	Fencing	decorative	privacy	boundary
  	Irrigation	in-ground	drip	hose
  	Structures	sheds	greenhouses	guest house
  	Decorative	arbors	pergolas	gazebos
  	Other Elements	mailbox	flag pole	window boxes
  	Decor	statues	sundials	gazing balls
  	Ornaments	animals	gnomes	gargoyles

Planning For the Future:

One other consideration as you survey your landscape is making your landscape smart. It will add value to the landscape and make your home easier to sell to the younger generation:

• Making It Smart:

  You’ve heard of smart homes; and how a smart home can help save money, make life easier, and add security to your home. But what about smart gardens?

• What could you do to make your landscaping smart for easier maintenance and beauty. Let’s explore some ideas that can convert your garden landscape into something smart.
• view post: Creating Smart Landscaping For The Future

What Kind of Maintenance:

Maintaining your landscape requires more work than just mowing. You need to keep the trees and shrubs trimmed, plants watered and fertilized, leaves raked, and much more. And if you have a vegetable garden, you need to keep critters and insects out. So let’s review some key gardening maintenance tools that you might need:

• Mowing:

  Mowing is by far the largest outdoor maintenance task that will be required – it has to be done weekly through the growing season. You can outsource the mowing to contractors or neighborhood kid. Or you can mow it yourself using the latest mowing equipment.

• If you plan to have a large, grassy area, you might consider a riding mower. If not so large, a self-propelled mower can do. Look into the electric self-propelled mowers. They are just as powerful as gas-powered, but are much quieter and cleaner.

• Trimming and Edging:

  If you take pride in your landscaping, then trimming and edging will be required to keep the lawn looking nice around trees, garden beds, and concrete boundaries.

• The purpose of edging is to give your lawn a nice, edged boundary between the lawn and other landscape structures. You will trimming to cut grass and vegetation growth in hard-to-reach mowing areas.

• Scrub and Tree Trimmers:

  These tools include clippers, snippers, hedgers, pruners and saws – the tools you will need to keep shrubs and trees trimmed, pruned, and looking nice. They are also used to cut back trees and shrubs that have overgrown their intended area.

• Tree and shrub pruning are generally done 1-2 times a year to keep them in shape.

• Planters and Hoes:

  Planters include spools, bulb inserter, hoes and other tools for planting flowers and other vegetation. If you plan to have a vegetable garden, tillers and hoes may needed to plow and furrow your planting area.

• Rakes and Shovels:

  If your landscape has trees, you will need rakes to gather up the leaves that drop each fall. If you plan to plant trees and other large vegetation, you will need shovels (and perhaps picks) to dig the hole for planting.

• Other gardening equipment to maintain your landscape include leaf blowers, spreaders, fertilizer dispensers, chain saws, and more. A complete list can be found here:
• view post: 53 Different Types of Gardening Tools (Mega List)

And What About Watering:

Depending on how you arrange your landscape, it might require watering in order for the trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables grow and prosper. So another important landscape tool is water delivery systems:

• Irrigation Systems:

  It’s hot outside! And no forecast for rain soon. So to keep you garden growing – and more importantly your trees and shrubs – out comes the yard irrigation system.

• view post: When the Rains Don’t Come – It’s Time For Yard Irrigation

Putting Your Plan In Action:

You can find landscape software for both computer and mobile devices that will let you design your landscaping with all of the elements found in professional designs. Use that plan to collect contractor bids on what actually needs to be done:

• CAD Designs:

  Is your garden landscape worn out and tired? Perhaps you have the same look after 20+ years. Maybe it’s time for a new landscape design. Something that would energize your outdoor enjoyment.

• Let’s first start with a little planning by using landscape CAD concepts and designs.
• view post: Coming Up With A New Garden Landscape Plan

• Don’t Forget to Add Trees:

  While it is common to plant flowers and shrubs in your garden, have you ever thought about planting a tree? Many people think of a tree as something that stretches into the sky and takes over a garden, but that is not the case.

• There are many types of trees available, and some can grow to humongous sizes, but there are some that can transform the look of your garden while still remaining small and compact. So, how can tree planting help your garden to thrive?
• view post: How Tree Planting Can Help Your Garden Thrive