by Landscaping is the beautiful arrangement and modification you can make to your lands with lawns, shrubs, fences, flower borders, driveways, walkways, small trees, etc to get a joyful environment around us. With the right balance of furniture, hardscape surfaces, and greenery, you can create both the front yard and backyard. The possibilities are endless. Here are some simple landscape ideas for beginners.
Why are landscapes important?
Landscaping with green plants, lawns, bright flowers, shrubs, etc creates a peaceful atmosphere around you. You love to spend time outdoors. You will start nurturing the plants that benefit your health and feel fresh removing your stress if any. Your kids and pets love playing games in the outdoor area. The outdoor seating and the dining areas make your whole family enjoy coffee times, barbecue nights with friends. The outdoor kitchen with a vegetable garden makes cooking lovely and nice. Landscape lighting enhances night time enjoyments, security, recreation, and sports.
How to do landscaping?
A landscape is really a direct expression of a house owner’s tastes and attitudes. You can give the area to be landscaped either to a landscaping professional or can do it yourself. Here, I will explain to you how to do both hardscaping and softscaping yourself.
1. Hardscape the area
Hardscaping refers to the heavy elements in a landscaping design like driveways, paved areas, walkways, fencing, patios, decks, pergolas, retaining walls, small ponds, or fountains. They are made up of hard materials such as concrete, stone, and wood. This part of hardscaping can compact the soil and damage the plantings, so it is important to complete any heavy task before planting begins. In this hardscaping portion, we should also ensure whether the right water absorption and irrigation system are installed for the correct flow of water away from the area without making it wet and muddy. You can build various beautiful items in your area based on your preferences. Listed below are some of them.
Outdoor sitting
Outdoor furniture in your landscape can be made of different materials. Check this to know about the different choices you have. Also, read further to know about different materials you can use for the furniture.
Aluminium
Aluminium is rust proof, light weight, weather resistant, and needs less maintenance as well. You can simply wash it with mild soap and water.
Steel
Stainless steel is rustproof, heavier than aluminium but lighter than iron. It can become hot in direct sunlight. You can wash it with soap and water.
Wrought iron
Wrought-iron is rust-resistant but not rust-free. So it might require occasional paint touch-ups. It is ideal for windy climates but to minimize rust, store it inside during winter.
Teak
Teak resists warping and is naturally not affected by water, rot, and insect damage. It does not require painting as it is protected by natural oils. Cleaning teak regularly will minimize discoloration.
Cedar
Cedar repels insects, bacteria and fungi making it resistant to decay.
Fire pits
• Choose the right materials for fire pits such as fire bricks, lava pebbles, or fire glass. Because certain concrete or river rocks can explode in high heat.
• Provide drainage. It can be a layer of gravel at the bottom of an inground fire pit or drain holes in a fire bowl.
• The ideal height of a fire pit range from ground level to about 20”.
Outdoor dining areas
It can be set up with wood themed pergolas, tables, chairs of your desired materials, and a wide umbrella for shade. This adds to its beauty and also the party goes on even if it rains.
Lighting
Light is what makes a place special during night times. Use lights or spotlights for trees, floor lights for flower beds, and path lights that illuminate a landscape for night-time enjoyment. Spotlights, Led bulbs, submersible water pool lights, deck or step lights, etc are used in the landscaping area.
Outdoor Kitchen
Cooking and eating your favorite dishes from the outside kitchen that you set up will be nice and lovely. A table with a flat surface for preparations, a tiered bar cart or shelf for storage, a grill, and a cooler is enough to make the kitchen look fabulous.
Grills
The backyard is the correct spot to create a grilling area where everyone will want to hang out. You can make a solid surface with a stone or brick patio for your grill. Along with that, you can add some furniture, plants, and lights to make it an amazing outdoor living space. Make sure to keep a roof for the grill station so that even if it starts to rain, you can continue enjoying.
2. Soft landscaping
Soft landscaping is the living part of your landscape structure. The plants, the flowers, the lawns, the shrubs, and the trees make up the components of soft landscaping. Try to plant a few colours that go together. Layer the heights of plants in flower beds ie; tallest in the back, smallest upfront. Use bushes
or wider plants at the corners. Keep plants in odd numbers. Place large plants a few feet from the foundation to prevent damage from roots. Plants like annuals, biennials, herbaceous perennials, climbers and creepers, and ornamental palms like foxtail, golden cypress, ferns etc are used in landscaping.
How to maintain your landscape?
Follow these landscape ideas consistently for a forever beautiful landscape.
Mow: Mowing keeps the lawn healthy and destroys the pests from the grass. Sharpen the mower at least once a month. Never cut more than one-third of the height of the grass. Also, mowing the grass too short slows down the root growth and increases the water demand of the grass.
Weed control: Keep weeds under control by weeding early in the year and consistently throughout the growing season. Weeds steal nutrients and water from your grass and plants.
Fertilize: Adding organic fertilizer reduces thatch build up on lawns, improves soil texture, and increases root mass and surface area. Spring is a very good time to add fertilizers.
Prune: Pruning stimulates the plant’s growth. But, never prune more than 25 percent of a plant at a time. Remove the dead branches and reshape the plants. Make sure you prune your trees and shrubs in the winter.
Water: Water your plants according to their need. It’s always better to have an automatic irrigation system in your area.
For many people, getting an area landscaped is their dream come true. A beautiful and functional landscape not only makes your home appealing but also increases the home value.
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