Tips To Improve The Design Landscaping Around Your House

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Tips To Improve The Design Landscaping Around Your House

Monday, March 9th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

The design landscaping that surrounds your home is one of the first things that people will notice when they arrive at your property. The landscape design that you select will create the atmosphere that envelopes your home and garden and can embrace people with welcoming warmth. Landscaping around your home and yard will also have a significant impact on the overall value of your property.

There are many ways that you can improve the landscaping around your home. Some people worry that to improve their landscape design properly, they need to hire landscape architects or landscape contractors. This can be wonderful if you can afford it, but many people very successfully undertake the landscaping design for their homes on their own.

If you would rather do your design landscaping yourself rather than hiring a professional, then the first step is to learn the basics of landscape design. Good design is actually quite simple if you know and follow the four following principles. Combine these landscaping principles with your own tastes and preferences and you will quickly be able to create a plan for your home and garden exteriors that will be a reflection of you.

The first element of landscaping is the concept of balance. If you concentrate most of your new plants in one area, then the rest of your garden landscaping area will look rather neglected. Distribute the plants around the yard or the garden at least somewhat evenly and with a sense of flow. This will help draw the eye though the entire landscape design and engage your visitors.

The second aspect of great landscaping is proportion. The idea here is to make sure that any landscape design feature you choose fits in appropriately, in terms of size, to the surrounding areas, fixtures and structures. Trying to wedge an huge gazebo into a tiny back yard will end up looking almost comical, and will not provide a great effect. At the same time, if you have an enormous front lawn, then you will need to add larger elements in plantings or features that will be noticed and not overwhelmed.

Transition is the third principle you need to know for your landscaping project and is closely related to proportion. Even though your landscape design can include flowers, plants, large shrubs, bushes and even trees, the way to make them really work together in a beautiful way is with the use of transition. It is the smooth flow from one type and size of plant to another. You want to lead the eye from delicate plants to larger ones with some in-between sizes. Color transitions can also be a very effective aspect of your overall landscaping design plan.

The last of the four concepts of landscaping is unity and it is the ultimate sense that you are trying to express with your design. All of the choices that you make in how you balance, proportion, and transition the various colors, sizes and textures of your landscape elements should be governed by a unifying theme. This is what brings the landscape design together to work in harmony and create a spectacular home and garden.

It is best to choose a theme for your design landscaping and make sure you stick to it throughout. If you want the look of an English garden, then choose only elements that will fit with that theme. If you prefer the ambiance of a Japanese garden, then only choose features, plants and accents that reflect that theme.

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