The urge to be outside is strong, and these shut-in days of the covid pandemic only make that desire more urgent. But getting outside right now isn’t just about alleviating boredom. We all need a little vitamin D after these long days stuck inside; we need some exercise and a project or two to occupy our minds.
That’s why now may be a good time to do a little landscaping. It’ll give you time in the sun, an interesting project to keep your mind off the clock ticking away your day, a little of that exercise you keep telling yourself you need, and a final result that will not only make you feel house proud, but that will also add value to your home, possibly reduce energy costs, and provide a little environmental sustainability.
Thinking Like a Landscaper
Landscaping isn’t just about putting in a few plants. It’s about changing the appearance of your property by altering land features, plants, architecture, and the integrated design of your property.
Professional landscapers have a thought process in approaching their projects, and you can get into that mindset by keeping a few basic concepts in mind as you plan.
- Design for your taste: What suits your tastes? A Japanese rock garden? How about an English cottage garden? Understanding the aesthetic that appeals to you will help you choose structural elements, border designs, types of plants, and landscape features.
- Think about form: Like designers, landscapers plan around a theme that incorporates shapes into a three-dimensional concept. You can, for example, use circles and curves to suggest a more fluid and intimate space. On the other hand, straight lines, squares, and rectangles feel more traditional and formal.
- Use lines to emphasize focus: Creating visual lines by placing items in a row or by literally designing pathways will draw attention to the main features of your landscape plan.
- Make color speak: The color elements of your landscape plan say something about the mood you want to create. Warm reds and yellows create energy while cooler blues and greens suggest tranquility. Using colors effectively can also draw focus to elements of design, create a sense of flow from one element to the next, and also offer an overall thematic unity .
- Consider Textures: Altering the textures of your design plan is a lovely way to create visual interest and add a sense of variety to your yard. Use plants, water features, paving materials, stones, structures, and even furniture to your advantage to invoke a sense of varied textures.
A Design Plan from Top to Bottom
A good landscape design starts with the base of your yard; that is the grass. Before you begin to work on a healthy lawn, it’s a good idea to spend some time preparing your soil. A soil test will tell you if there are amendments, such as adding potassium, phosphorus, or nitrogen to your base. The best soil for lawn growth is sandy loam, which is mostly sand with some clay and silt. If you have more clay, you’ll want to amend it with peat or other organic matter.
There are a number of varieties of grass to choose from so you’ll want to consult local experts to see which grasses work best in your area, but the two basic forms of grass are sod and seed. Sod is the more expensive option and is best installed by professionals. It has the advantage of being instant, but may introduce weeds to your yard and doesn’t root as well as seed. Seed is definitely cheaper, but it requires patience and care.
Once you’ve established your base, you may want to map out the major design elements of your plan. In what areas will you either plant trees or work around existing ones? Are there features such as pergolas, water features, or rock gardens that will require some time and installation? These decisions will act as anchor points and can be disruptive to the immediate environment when they require construction, so it’s best to get them completed first.
So your design anchors are in place. Now you can start mapping your beds and choosing plants. If you’re a low maintenance gardener, you will want to look for perennials that are hearty, such as sedums, spirea, hostas, and coral bells. The climate you live in will, of course, dictate your choices. It also adds a nice layer of sensory texture to include fragrant plants. Lilac, gardenia, lavender, and jasmine, for example, pop with color and perfume the surrounding area.
The more ambitious gardener can work with annuals. Sweet alyssum, snapdragons, marigolds, and dianthus are all lovely choices, but your decisions will be influenced by your color palette, your desired textures, the climate and soil in your area, and other factors such as exposure to sun.
For those who like to cook, set aside some space for a vegetable garden. And when it comes to a little fragrance, there’s nothing like fresh herbs. An area convenient to your kitchen teeming with rosemary, basil, mint, borage, thyme, and other savory flavorings will create a conversation piece and add a layer of wonderful aroma to your yard.
Regardless of the type of plants you choose you will want to think about irrigation and whether you have the right landscaping equipment and gardening tools to complete the garden renovation.
Finally, it’s time to think about those lines. In what ways will you connect your design elements? Will you create paths? If so, of what type? Stone? Gravel? Pavers? How can you create other sorts of focal lines? You could try walls, fencing, rows of plants, symmetric lines of trees, or even strands of lights.
The last step in your landscaping plan is to tidy things up. Debris and disorder can make the most thoughtful plan seem random or haphazard. Pick debris up off the ground, give the lawn a mow, and trim those hedges.
Get out the loppers or chain saw, set up your scaffold and prune back tree limbs. This will keep your trees healthy and avoid excess debris on your lawn in future. You can even take a power washer to mildewed pavers or fences to make them look like new. And while you’re at it, why not hit wood surfaces with a coat of weather sealant to keep them looking fresh?
Get Out There and Do It
Fresh air, exercise, and a break from the tedium of being inside await you. So get out there and start planning your summer landscaping project. Get the family involved in the planning and construction process. You’ll be glad you did as you can all take pride in the final product, and you can talk about it for years to come in the beautiful garden you designed!
