Renovating your yard can make it a much more welcoming place for outdoor relaxation and entertaining. There are a few things that will influence the final landscape design, so it's important to keep these in mind from the beginning of the process.
1. Purpose
Before making the first plan, it's important to determine the main purpose of the landscaping project. Are you simply going for the best curb appeal possible, or do you want to begin growing vegetables or prize roses? Will there be a need for a large entertaining area for backyard bashes, or is only a small patio necessary for relaxing family evenings in the yard? Often, there is more than one purpose for a landscaping project, and these need to be kept in the forefront during all parts of the design process.
2. Budget
Your design plan should not take up the entire budget, or you may run out of money before the design is implemented. It's not uncommon for a landscaping project to run a bit over budget. Adding in a buffer to the budget, which means not making plans for the full budgeted amount, will help cover any unexpected expenses. Plan to spend no more than 80% of the initial landscaping budget so you have a 20% buffer for anything else that comes up.
3. Maintenance
All too often the main focus of a homeowner when in the designing phase of the project is to go on appearances and ignore the maintenance needs. For example, paver patios are beautiful and cost-effective, but they aren't a good choice if you don't want to refill the sand joints each year. The same goes for choosing plants—if you aren't much of a gardener, then it's a wiser choice to opt for low-maintenance plants rather than those that require careful pruning, watering, and tending.
4. Conditions
The climatic and soil conditions in your yard will also impact your landscape design. Your designer will likely produce a few different maps. The most basic one will show the basic layout of the yard in relation to immovable objects, like the house and driveway. Factors like sun and moisture exposure will be marked on the map so that plants can be placed correctly. They may also create a water flow map, showing where moisture tends to flow or pool on the property so that the design can incorporate drainage features such as rain gardens or dry creek beds.
Contact a landscape design service if you need help renovating your home's yard.
Share16 May 2023
Hello, I’m Donna. Welcome. I am excited to share my passion for landscaping with you all. I regularly change the layout of my garden, depending on the plants I want to grow each year. I keep my garden beds full of flowers and edible plants to have a variety of vegetation to enjoy. I would like to use this site to cover all of those varieties and talk about the growing techniques and supplies that work best for each option. I invite you to visit daily to learn the information you need to help your garden grow. Thanks for visiting my site.