If you’re preparing to upgrade your home’s landscaping, it’s best to begin with a theme in mind. With a plan, your landscaping will have a cohesive appearance. Planning your landscape project using a set of guidelines will result in a yard you can be proud of.
Principles of Landscape Design
According to Meadowbrook Land Design, there are three basic principles of landscaping design, beginning with simplicity. To produce a simple but pleasing design, you should favor gently curved shapes that flow toward a central focal point. You’ll need elements of complementary colors to allow the shapes to become part of your design theme. Use your yard’s plants, flowers, and pathways to combine those shapes and colors.
It Improves Curb Appeal
Your landscaping project will catch the eye of those passing by your home. Its beauty will increase your home’s curb appeal. If you’re considering selling your house, your improved landscape will provide an excellent first impression for your prospective client. Your inspired landscaping will also make an impression on any guests at your home.
The homes in your neighborhood make an overall impression on outsiders driving through. An improvement to your yard will improve the profile of your area. In addition, your adjacent neighbors might give you inspiration for your design. For example, if your neighbor to the left ends their landscaping near your yard with an unadorned lawn, this would be an easy start to your landscape.
If your neighbor to the right has erected landscape installations, such as a fence, your landscaping can begin with a path parallel to the fence. Most of all, your completed landscaping project will increase your pride in your home. Each time you and your family enjoy time in your landscaped yard, you can be glad you undertook the landscaping project.
It Benefits the Environment
If part of your landscaping is a well-tended lawn, you may be glad to learn that lawns help purify the air. A broad-leafed grass, like fescue, is especially beneficial for the environment. Grass undergoes the same photosynthesis process as the leaves of trees. Therefore, grass can produce oxygen, just as leaves do.
According to Yellowstone Landscape, a 5,000-square-foot lawn can produce enough oxygen for 18 – 34 people each day. Plants in your landscaping plan help capture microscopic pollutants and particulates circulating through the air. When plants capture these particles, they clean the atmosphere and make everyone’s breathing easier.
Including a lawn as part of your inspired landscaping will act as a temperature regulator. Property filled with grass tends to be approximately 20 degrees cooler than paths or driveways near the lawn. Growing trees is also helpful since trees provide shade. To keep your trees healthy, you should use a local tree trimming service.
It Enhances Outdoor Living Space
The result of your landscaping project will improve the look of your outdoor space. You can capitalize on this opportunity by adding creatively to your basic landscaping principles. The first thing you should choose is your yard’s focal point. If you already have a pagoda, koi pond, or rock wall in your yard, you can use these as the yard’s focal point.
A focal point will help direct your landscaping and the curves you use in your lawn and garden. Use the style of that focal point to help you decide which plants and flowers to choose. Having a gradation of greens using different plant types will result in an inspired landscaping design. You may not have to add more structures to the backyard if there are enough places for your guests to gather.
One element to review in your landscaping plan is whether all your trees are still vital and healthy. When surveying your yard before the project begins, you should look at each tree to be sure it appears healthy. If you are already working with a tree service, they can tell you if any trees need removal. If the trees are dead, a local tree removal service can remove them in an eco-friendly way.
It Increases Property Value
To understand why an upgraded landscape design will increase your property value, reviewing the determinants of property value may be helpful. The first is to evaluate it compared to homes of the same size, value, and location. So, if other nearby houses of the same height don’t have a cohesive landscape design, your home would be worth more. The property value will also be calculated according to how many similar homes are available in your area.
When evaluating property value, houses are typically compared to the other homes in their area. If your home is the only home with a well-designed landscape, it will be valued more highly. Therefore, an inspired landscaping plan will bring a higher asking price if you decide to sell your home.
Influencing property value is another instance in which the condition of your trees is an essential element. If you tend your lawn and carefully arrange plants and flowers but don’t care for your trees properly, this will decrease the property value. Arrange for a contract with a local tree company to trim and inspect your trees regularly. A contract will help ensure your trees match the rest of the landscape in their quality.
It Keeps Your Family Safe
Consider adding a fence to provide safety for your family or pet. Before doing so, think about the extent to which you want the wall to blend into your backyard’s theme. Another thing to consider is visibility. Do you want your yard and home to be visible through the fence, or would it be preferable to have a stone or wooden fence that obscures the view?
Before deciding to install a fence, consider whether a hedge would serve the same purpose. If all you want to do is to define your property line, a well-trimmed hedge can do so just as effectively. The advantage of using hedges is an environmental one. The hedge can also provide another element to your overall inspired landscaping.
Discuss your plans with a fence contractor if you decide to install a fence. These professionals can help you choose the right style for your landscaping design. They will also help you determine what materials to use for the wall. Having a professional fence installation company will allow you to feel confident in the durability and safety of the wall.
It Increases Privacy
In addition to safety, choosing a fence that obscures the view of the home and yard will increase your privacy. The height of the wall will be part of the degree of privacy provided by the hedge. Remember that if you have a two-story home, your fence won’t obscure the views of those windows. You should, therefore, consider some tall trees to block the view of those windows.
You may be surprised that erecting a fence doesn’t necessarily eliminate traffic noise. According to the Garden Continuum, airflow science shows that air flows upward and over the fence. Therefore, sound isn’t muffled by a fence; the fence enhances it. Line the fence with some evergreen and deciduous trees to decrease sound from the nearby traffic.
Share your family’s needs with your fence installation company. Your fencing choices can greatly improve the attractiveness of your inspired landscaping. The fencing materials they provide will depend on the purposes of the fence.
It Lowers Energy Bills
When planning your inspired landscaping design, you may be glad to consider how it lowers your energy bills. One way to decrease the effort your air conditioner needs during the summer is to plant shade trees near your home. Plant deciduous trees on the west and east sides of your house. The trees on both sides will provide shade for most of the day.
Deciduous trees – like apple, oak, and maple trees – are your best choices because they shed their leaves in the fall. This choice will give you shade in the summer, allowing the winter sun to shine through the branches and decreasing your heating costs in the winter. These trees will also enhance the attractiveness of your house.
You can protect your home by creating a natural windbreak to prevent heat loss during the winter. This feature will plant trees on your home’s north and northwest sides. This location will assist the windbreaks to redirect winter winds from the house, saving you money on your heating bills. Contacting one of the tree service companies in your area will assist you in planning an effective tree barrier.
It Reduces Pollution
When we think of the basics of plant respiration (they breathe in carbon dioxide and oxygen), we’ll see how plants and a well-tended lawn can reduce pollution. With an additional source of breathable oxygen outdoors, your family can benefit from the increase in cleaner air. Healthy grass and plants in your yard increase the purity of the air. In addition to reducing carbon levels, the plants and lawn in your yard will capture pollutants and reduce the particulate matter flowing through the atmosphere.
As much as possible, you should choose plants native to the area. Plants not typically grown in the region require more energy than native plants. Your inspired landscaping should, therefore, include as many native plants as possible. A contract with a landscaping contractor can help you choose the suitable types of plants.
When considering reducing pollution, one thing to keep in mind is the type of fence materials you use. If you use one of the local chainlink fence companies to install your fence, be sure you have a sustainable plan when the wall needs to be replaced. If a chain link fence isn’t discarded sustainably, it can rust and ooze harmful chemicals into the ground.
It Preserves Natural Resources
If you already have a healthy lawn and plants in your yard, use them in your inspired landscaping plan to preserve natural resources. Using native plants is the best choice for the soil in your yard. Selecting plants meant for a different type of soil will require additional energy and may damage your soil.
Limit the chemicals you use on your landscaping to natural choices whenever possible. Keep your lawn watered and your plants and flowers healthy, too. One of the best gifts you can give your plants is pure rainwater. By placing rain barrels in your yard and using the collected rainwater to water your plants, you can help sustain your landscaping by natural means.
Contact an arborist if you want to be sure that any new trees will be the right choices for your landscaping plan. Although tree trimming services can keep your trees neat, an arborist has the additional training. Arborists can help you select only native trees for your landscaping plan. Arborists can also detect the health of the trees in your yard.
It Adds Resale Value
As previously discussed, an inspired landscaping plan will help to increase your property value and bring a higher price when you resell your home. Before you begin your project, ensure your yard is ready for new trees or plants. Contacting a land clearing contractor is a wise way to be sure the land is cleared efficiently and sustainably. Land clearing professionals are the best ones to do this because they have the proper vehicles to do this safely and efficiently.
Before clearing any land, you’ll need to go to the zoning board in your area to get zoning clearance for your project. Before the land removal contractor can use plows and other machinery, they must remove rocks and existing plants and bushes. If there are any tree stumps in the yard, they must also be removed. According to Mr. Tree Services, this is called “grubbing.”
The last action the land removal company will do will be to fill in any holes in your yard. They may use concrete to be sure your surface is smooth. However, they can also reuse the earth from your yard to conserve natural materials.
Planning your inspired landscaping design begins with your ideas of what you’d like your yard to look like. You can have a sustainable upgrade for your backyard by including as many natural elements as possible. Your property value will increase. Most of all, you’ll have a great new landscaping design that can give you a beautiful backyard.
