10 Rules Every Homeowner Should Follow When Landscaping
Working to make our home beautiful is one of our top goals, not only the inside but the outside as well. Over the last several weeks, we have shared our problem area near the street where the grass was dead and the weeds had taken over. We installed a stone walkway and planted shade loving plants in landscape beds around the trees. Today we are wrapping it all up by installing the new sod and sharing landscaping tips with our 10 Rules Every Homeowner Should Follow When Landscaping.
Click here for your FREE garden and landscape journal- the first step to gardening success!
Growing up, my Dad prided himself on how well groomed his yard was. So it has been a goal of ours to have a beautiful yard. Of course, I’m not sure we will ever come close to my Dad’s yard, but we are certainly trying. One of the things I remember doing as a young girl is laying on a blanket and picking out shapes in the clouds. That is difficult to do if your grass is not nice and soft. We are thrilled to share our new landscaping (& 10 Rules Every Homeowner Should Follow When Landscaping), complete with sod with you!
In case you didn’t know, I’m very blessed to have a hubby who knows his way around soil, a shovel and landscaping. Doug has a degree in Agronomy, so today, he is sharing his landscaping tips with 10 Rules every Homeowner should follow when Landscaping!
Landscaping Tips
1. Choose your style – The outside of your house should reflect your personal style as much as the interior of your home. Do you have formal parties with business associates? Is your style more casual and just go with the flow? Use your landscape to set the tone for visitors and friends alike.
2. Design the landscape to work for you – There are some elements in every landscape design that should be thought through that most people don’t consider when designing their landscape that make maintaining it so much easier. Unless you are designing a formal garden, avoid designing beds with sharp curves and angles. These make mowing more difficult and necessitate the use of a trimmer when with some planning you could avoid. Additionally design so that the distance between the different elements of your landscape are far enough apart that your mowers and other equipment have room to maneuver through.
3. Sketch out your ideas before doing anything else – Draw, redraw and redraw again if necessary. Getting your ideas down on paper will let you weed out all the unnecessary components and keep the elements that are really important to you.
4. Plan for the future – Most of us quickly realize that doing your own landscaping is a labor of love, and we are fine with that. But there are few things more disheartening than spending time and money on one area of the yard and then realizing that when you want to make some changes you need to tear out plants and hardscaping that could have been avoided with a little future planning.
5. Budget, Plus 15-20% – Be realistic when designing your project and keep in mind that there will be setbacks and unexpected expenses that will need to be addressed to finish the project. So be objective when setting the budget for your project. But try as you may to list every item you will need, you should add 15-20% to your budget to cover these expenses.
6. Take care of problems before they finish you – This can include everything from amending the soil in the landscape beds with compost to improving the drainage of tight soils to prevent diseases. And let’s not forget about weeds, taking care of problem weeds with Weed & Grass Killer before you go through all the hard work of planting or sodding your yard.
7. Plant in odd multiples – Years ago in college I took several courses that included basic landscaping rules and the single rule that I’ve never strayed away from is planting in odd multiples. It works well for interior design; doesn’t a group of three candles look better grouped together than just two? The same goes for plants so aim for 1’s, 3’s, 5’s, 7’s, 9’s. Now once you get into double digits you can relax the rule slightly but I’ve always strived for odds unless planting species like ivy, vinca and other ground cover.
8. Plant in mass but don’t overcrowd – There’s no better way I know of making a statement in your landscape than by planting plant varieties in mass. This rule goes hand in hand with planting in odd multiples. Think of it this way, say you have two Hosta varieties that when mature have a 12 inch spread and the other has a 30 inch spread. To get a spectacular show you would need to plant a greater number of the 12 inch spread variety than the 30 inch variety. But don’t just plant for the sake of planting.
9. Keep plant records with a drawing – After you have the last plant in the ground and before you clean up your tools, take the time to do a drawing with the placement of what you have just planted. Include plant names including the variety along with the planting date and where you purchased the plants from. All reputable greenhouses and stores have at least a one year guarantee on perennials, shrubs and trees and the information you record at this time will help when you have a plant that perishes due to natural means. This record is especially handy when you decide to plant Spring flowering bulbs and need to keep track of where you plant them.
10. Have a maintenance plan in place – After spending all that time and effort to make your yard look great you don’t want to drop the ball now. And with everyone’s busy schedules you can’t and don’t need to spend hours laboring in the midday sun to keep it looking how you intended. Understand that perennials will occasionally need to be divided and replanted to keep them healthy. And spot applications of weed and grass killer on the difficult to control weeds will take the worry out of maintaining your beds.
Wow, what a difference! Do you love it as much as I do?
Thanks for writing a great post. I am a complete beginner and I do not even know where to start. Most of the material that I have found online has been recycled in photo galleries with very little information, but this publication of yours was what I really needed: good information on how to approach my patio and how to re-imagine it, not just pretty photo but unrealistic and a list of 10 generic plants that may not be appropriate for my climate!
I love that you said to design for the tools that you have. That can make gardening so much easier in the long run! I will have to remember that after we move and I get started on our new garden.
My wife and I are wanting to start a garden this spring, so thanks for the helpful tips. I like your point about not overcrowding your plants and giving them lots of space to grow. We’ll see if we can manage to keep a 30-inch spread like you mentioned.
Derek,
I would look at the individual plants and how much spacing is recommended. Using a 30″ spacing overall could leave your garden looking very sparse and empty. Personally, I like things to look naturalized quicker and tend to plant my plants with less spacing than recommended. I also do not like mulch so I keep the plantings tighter and then use a groundcover to fill in where the mulch would be, after all, “plants cover ground” (I’m quoting Claudia West here. She is a huge inspiration of mine, her book “Planting in a Post-Wild World,” is a great read if you can find it).
Indeed Article was Great, in-depth Explanation. Worth Sharing.
Great article. I also want to work on landscape in my house. Thanks for sharing your tips. It is really helpful for me.
Thank you! Hope the tips help!
I thought it was really interesting how you mentioned that the outside of your home should reflect your personal style the same as the inside of your home. My wife and I just recently moved into a new home and have been having a hard time trying to decide how we want our yard styled. Would it be beneficial if we were to sit down with a landscape design company for some suggestions on how we can get our yard to reflect our personal style?
A landscape design company would definitely be helpful. You could also look at Pinterest images that you resonate with and take the pictures to a nursery who can identify the plants.
Great makeover, indeed! he tips and advices you’ve given will be of big help to everyone who needs to do some work on their “curb appeal”. I myself recently made few changes in my front yard. I had a completely new idea for the landscaping, but the new walkway, some turf changed and few new hedges changed the picture faster and easier. Greets!
Thanks, Kate!
I truly appreciate this article.Much thanks again.
Thanks a lot. Loved the rules
Are there any suggestions on how to make a basic lot layout as it is when you first moved in ?
There are several suggestions, you could buy some graph paper and sketch out the lot and make notes or take photos and attach them to the drawing.