Landscaping Planning Tips

How to Develop a Beautiful and Functional Backyard Landscape Design

By Mark J. Donovan




Before ordering a truckload of loam and pulling out the wheelbarrow and shovel to landscape your yard it’s important to first come up with a landscaping plan. Pull out a pencil and pad of paper and begin to write down what you want to achieve in your backyard landscaping.

Write down your landscaping goals, such as to provide privacy, clean boundaries, recreation and entertainment area and/or to attract wildlife. Also, write down some of the specific features you want to create in your backyard. For example, do you want a large smooth backyard or do you anticipate having to tier it due to a natural steep grade.

Also, write down any desired vegetable and plant/shrubbery gardens as well as any significant trees you want to plant. If you know specifically what type of shrubberies and trees you want to include in your landscaping write them down.

Once you’ve compiled a list of your landscaping goals and key features you can then begin to sketch out a landscaping plan. Make sure to use graph paper when sketching out your landscaping plan so that you can draw the backyard and the particular features you want to see in it to scale.

Also, make sure to include the estimated full diameter of grown trees that you anticipate planting. In addition, carefully plan the location of your larger trees to take advantage of shading your home from the hot afternoon sun and blocking cold northwesterly winds in the winter. When landscaping planning is done properly it should be both functional and aesthetically appealing.

When coming up with a landscape design there are often a couple of featured center points, for example a coy pond or gazebo, however a properly landscape backyard should have features that blend in well with one another and no one feature dominates all the others.

When designing your backyard landscape plan, think layers when it comes to plant and shrubbery gardens. Also, think textures and varied colors. In addition, make sure to use plants that blossom at different times of the spring and summer seasons. Also, don’t be afraid from some repetition. However make sure the garden is scaled in size relative to the rest of the backyard. For example, a garden that dominates the backyard leaves no space for recreation or other large landscaping features.

Once you’ve fully fleshed out your landscaping plans you can then begin to call the landscaping contractors or pull out the yard tools and do the work yourself.

Landscape planning tips

By having a solid landscaping plan you should be able to get accurate landscaping cost estimates for both materials and labor.


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Additional Landscaping Resources from Amazon.com


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