Landscape Design Ideas

As much time as you put into your house, one of the biggest factors in the overall appeal of your home is not the building at all, but your outdoor landscaping. Good landscape design is imperative to creating the curb appeal your home deserves. Starting off from scratch usually increases your options and allows you to truly create the landscaping design of your dreams. On the other hand, if you already have basic landscaping in place in your existing home, you can often dramatically spruce up your home's exterior for a fraction of the cost of an entirely new landscaping design.

Creating Plans for Your Landscape Design
Great landscaping has a lot to do with intuition. Some homes simply have yards and landscaping that feels like it fits the home, almost like you can't imagine the landscaping being different that its current design. Other homes have passable landscaping in spite of how well-manicured the lawn and gardening is. Still, as intuitive as the end result becomes, the process of landscape design is hardly mystical. Understanding the contours of your property, how the natural light will fall on it throughout the day, the influential presence of permanent structures such as porches, driveways, and walkways, and how trees, shrubs, and plants will affect these landscaping features will all come into play.

With the help of computer software, more and more homeowners are taking on the project of landscape design themselves. It allows you to see the look of multiple landscape design ideas without spending months (or a thousand dollars) just to try the idea out. You can set the basic parameters of your house and yard and then interchange different landscaping schemes and features at your will. When you've settled on a plan you want to put into action, you can then call a landscaping contractor and show them the ready-made plans.

Front and Backyard Landscape Design
Nearly every home has both a front and backyard that needs landscape design. Usually these two yards have wildly different functions. The front yard is primarily about creating a stunning faç:ade for your home, while the backyard is much more about designing a relaxing oasis for your own practical enjoyment. This doesn't mean your backyard landscaping can't have purely decorative landscaping features, but if you're trying to figure out where to put the majority of your landscaping budget, a good start is to think about your priorities. If your primary goal is to increase your livable space, you probably want to focus on your backyard. If you want to spruce up your home and increase curb appeal, start your landscaping in the front yard.

Landscape Design Ideas

• Landscape Lighting. You should be able to enjoy your landscaping at night as much as during the day. In fact, landscape lighting should enhance your outdoor landscaping so that your yard looks even more breathtaking with its unique effects.

• Keep it simple and use space. As great as shrubs, trees, gardens, furniture, and walkways are, don't feel pressured into cramming a bunch of landscape features into your yard. Open space is just as important to landscape design as your actual landscape structures.

• Stretch your money. Just as it is with home remodeling, don't place all your money into just one area of your yard. A high end swimming pool, garden, or patio shouldn't be surrounded by a barren or unkempt general landscape. What's the good of sitting on a patio, after all, if there's nothing to enjoy around it?

• Don't force it. Whenever possible use indigenous trees, plants, and grass species. Not only will you have less landscaping maintenance, but generally you'll be doing a favor to your local ecosystem. Looking around at your neighbor's landscaping is often a good start.
  Marcus Pickett is a professional freelance writer for the home remodeling industry. He has published more than 600 articles on both regional and national topics within the home improvement industry.