Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Landscaping Designs For Your Backyard


To the majority of Americans, Backyard landscape Designs are sort of a new thing. Most of them have a boring and a non-descript Backyard that, in more than one way, resembles their neighbors.

Granted, Backyard Landscaping tends to be a little more complicated than front yard Landscaping but this is no reason to leave Backyards unkempt.

Front yards generally follow a purpose of invitation and accessibility. The notion behind this is that the front lawn will initially be seen by people before they enter the house and thus it should be inviting and direct the guests easily through the front door. The same however, cannot be said for the back yard. Backyard landscape Designs tend to centre on appearance and appeal for entertaining and relaxing with friends. This is the simplest reason why Backyard landscape Designs are gaining so much popularity these days.
Before you decide to take on Landscaping, you must remember that everything in this project needs careful planning and decision making. While most consider Landscaping as a way of leveling the ground, it is also another way of revamping your garden and giving it a brand new look.

Before you can commence on Backyard Landscaping or any other Landscaping for that matter, you need to do a thorough assessment. Be honest about what you see. When it comes to Backyard Landscaping, look at your home garden objectively and judge it as if it belonged to your neighbor. This exercise is encouraged above all else because it portrays Landscaping, not only as an art that requires imagination but also as a science that requires observation and data collection.

After the assessment, you are now free to choose the style that best suits your garden. The style you adopt should be based on the prior assessment that you carried out.

Many people prefer hiring landscapers to do this for them. However, if you're the kind of person who takes pride in designing his own home then here are some tips that might be of interest to you.
It is almost impossible to talk about Backyard landscape Designs without mentioning plants. In this text I will mention Designs that are friendly for all types of Backyards.

To begin with there is the Holly, Coral Bell and Yew design.This simple design easily embellishes and adds flavor to your yard. It especially has a reputation for bringing out the best features in your garden specifically the eastern side. These plants have been known to send subtle messages of warmth throughout the year and hence can be spotted flourishing in many back yards.

There are also landscape Designs for sun perennials. This design is very useful if you're looking to fill a hot sunny area of your Backyard. Many landscapers recommend it as a fun sun specialist that requires very little watering. They say it is easy to set up and will provide color from spring to fall and even into the winter.

There are also landscape Designs that are meant to hide ugly foundation walls. In Backyard Landscaping, plants have been used to create an environment of solitude and hide unwanted features such as unwanted Landscaping rocks and unpleasant foundations. Such a design uses only two plants that are perennials namely; the Burning bush and the Globe blue spruce.

The Globe blue spruce is used because it stays the same color throughout the year while the Burning bush, which is green in spring and the summer, has been known to explode and become bright red in the fall. These plants act as perfect camouflages and they obscure any areas that you may feel are unpleasant and wanting.

Lastly, there is also a landscape design for specimen plants. These Backyard landscape Designs are meant to highlight a particular tree or bush that you love. Many adopt this design for Crabapple trees and burning bushes although it can be used for any plant that you adore.

The trick with Landscaping is in your skills. Try as much as possible to become familiar with the principles of Backyard Designs and keep in mind that the style you choose will determine the level of beauty of your Backyard.


By Unknown with No comments

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Designing With Plants - Shape and Form


Designing with Plants using their shape or form can be an excellent way of creating structured and interesting focal points within a landscape and garden design. Some Plants have naturally interesting shapes with interesting leave patterns. Others can be pruned creating simple to interesting shapes, to contrast against adjacent wild and sprawling varieties.

Natural Shape and Form (Sculptural)

Sculptural Plants with naturally interesting and striking shapes can be best used as focal points within a garden design when used adjacent ordinary groundcovers and shrubs. Sculptural Plants can also have impressive impact within a landscape design when planted on mass over an area. The repetition of the sculptural Plants striking form can provide a strong geometric and structured design to a space. Some layout ideas are as follows: For a strong geometric pattern, plant at regular intervals based off the spread(diameter) from the centre of each plant. Keep Plants aligned as straight as possible. For a more naturalistic appearance plant in clumps spaced at similar spaces as above but this can vary. To use sculptural Plants as focal points, the use of singular specimens on their own in a smaller garden will be adequately effective but occasionally in a large garden or landscape they can fade into the background too much. To reduce this problem just minimise other planting surrounding it or add a few more so the focal point ends up being a clump.
Some examples of sculptural species are as follows:

Macrozamia communis - Burrawang
Lepidozamia peroffskyana - Scaly or pineapple zamia
Cycas revoluta - Sago Palm
Asplenium nidus - Birds Nest Fern
Doryanthes excelsa - Gymea Lily
Dicksonia antarctica - Soft Tree Fern
Xanthorrhoea spp - Grass Tree

Prune to create form

Pruning shrubs, groundcovers or even trees to shape is another option to create a feature or style a garden.

Plants should be chosen that can be shaped, hedged into simple forms that can create contrast within the garden design. Many Plants can be shaped including some Australian Native Plants. A small list of Plants has been provided below. Designing a garden where Plants are to be regularly pruned to maintain form will require a successful maintenance regime. The Plants will require pruning from early on, to start shaping and improve foliage cover over the plant. If early pruning is avoided some shrubs can become open and woody which is undesirable. There are many ways of using pruned Plants within a garden design. There is the typical formal clipped hedge garden where basically everything is clipped apart from possibly the groundcovers. Then there is the more wild and sprawling planting style with regularly clipped feature Plants formed up in shapes as focal points in the landscape design.

Some good Plants for shaping are:

Buxus microphylla - Japanese Box (Dense growing, prune to shape)
Westringia species - (Native - prune regularly as it can become woody)
Murraya paniculata - Orange Jessimine (fairly forgiving for forgetful gardeners)
Syzygium spp - Lilly Pilly (Native - Good hedging plant)
Trachelospermum jasminoides - Star Jasmine (can be grown as a climber and clipped and also as a low hedge, fast grower)
Dietes iridioides (Grass style plant - can be clipped into a ball)
Lomandra species (Native - Grass style plant - can be clipped into a ball)
Photinia species (good hedging plant)
Michellia figo (good hedging plant)
Callistemon species (Native - prune after flowering as it can become woody)
Melaleuca species (Native - prune after flowering as it can become woody)


By Unknown with No comments

Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Delight of a Courtyard Landscape Design


Court Yard. The very word stirs the imagination. What comes to mind when you think of a courtyard? Is it a royal garden? A secret place? A sanctuary? Even an outdoor sitting room or retreat might be imagined. If your garden or the architecture of your home includes a courtyard take advantage of this delightful feature. The Landscape Design details of your courtyard garden lend themselves to a bit more punch than the rest of your garden.

Designing a courtyard Landscape is as easy as a-b-c: Develop a Design, Designate a focal point and fill in the spaces with plants according to the scale of the garden.
Because the courtyard is such a special feature of your Landscape, the Design aspect is the most important step in your Landscape Design. Even before making Design choices it is important to research appropriate plants for your area, Designs that complement your architecture, and ideas that stem from your imagination and desire for your courtyard use. Even if you plan to install the Landscape yourself, you might want to consult a professional Landscape Designer for this phase. Unlike the rest of your garden, a courtyard must be a little more permanent, so carefully plan your courtyard Landscape Design.

Move on to the next step, Designating a focal point only after the Design has been carefully planned. When choosing the focal point for a courtyard Landscape Design, you have much more choices than simply plants. True, a beautiful fruit tree with a circular border, or a flowering weeping cherry might be exactly what your Design needs. However, you could also choose from a number of other plant Designs such as an herb garden or a mossy path leading to a quiet but beautiful sitting area. Perhaps a water feature; either a reflecting pool or a fountain, will provide the atmosphere you desire. Even a formal or informal sitting area, a grill or a comfy hammock could provide an inviting focal point. It might be a good idea to allow the expert Designer who is helping you with your plan give you suggestions about the focal point, helping you coordinate the mood of your courtyard and the scale of the space.

The final step, choosing and installing the right plants and other details to fill in the rest of the space is actually the most rewarding. It is exciting to watch everything come together and see your dream courtyard come alive. A courtyard Landscape Design provides ample opportunity to add small details or features that will coordinate, yet provide the unexpected. Perhaps a strawberry border to the edge of a flower bed, or a small bronze sculpture, or even a rock garden tucked into a corner will deliver that extra touch that makes the Design. When choosing the fill in elements of the courtyard Design, remember to select the largest plants first to anchor the Design, and then fill in with smaller. The focal point and the large plants should be carefully selected for their permanent home, but the smaller plants can be changed or moved seasonally. Don't forget to include some container plants as well that can be transported to different areas of the courtyard for different uses.

If you are a 'do-it-yourselfer,' and you plan to accomplish a lot of the digging and planting securing the help of the Landscape Designer will save you time and trouble in the long run. They will help you make sound decisions based on their training, knowledge and expertise, eliminating the risk of having to re do the work in the near future. To save money, you might even consider sharing the responsibility of your courtyard Landscape Design with a professional Landscape Designer. Whether you do the entire job yourself, or you hire a Designer, a court yard Landscape Design will bring you pleasure for many years to come.


By Unknown with No comments

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Designing With Plants - Foliage Colour


Designing with Plants using Foliage Colour can significantly improve the visual appearance of your landscape or garden design. Foliage Colour can be used to provide subtle or contrasting Colour variations and or provide visually aesthetic focal points that are eye catching and interesting.

When choosing Plants for Foliage Colour within your landscape design you have to be aware that some Foliage Colours might occur all year round while some might be seasonal. The seasonal Foliage Plants can be highly useful in the same way flowering Plants can be. These Plants bring a changing appearance to the landscape and are very useful for creating interest and transitional Colour year round. For example Syzygium 'Royal Flame' have green Foliage but during Spring the new growth have red tips so the whole shrub/hedge takes on a red tinge. Another example is Nyssa sylvatica, which will provide a beautiful display of bright orange and red Autumn Foliage.
Plants that hold their Colour all year round can provide interesting and contrasting Colour to a landscape design where by planting layering through groundcovers and hedges can have subtle or bold Colour differences. Singular Foliage Coloured Plants can also be used as features or focal points within a landscape design.

Green is the main Colour for Plants and is caused by Chlorophyll in the leaves which is part of the process of photosynthesis. Green is therefore an easy Colour for use as a good back drop to a landscape planting design. Tthe grey and blue greens can also be used to provide subtle changes. Other Colours can then be used to accentuate focal points, pathway nodes/ intersections, or break up the back ground of green and become accents focal points in themselves. The blue grey, silver, and green grey Foliage Plants can be used to create some interesting landscape designs especially when used in coastal gardens. Reds, yellows or orange can be used well to create highlights, i.e one feature plant.

Colour can be important in plant selection for bold and interesting landscape and garden designs.

Plants Foliage can widely vary in Colour and I was a little surprised when putting this list together how many Colours came to mind. The following are some of the Colours in that list with some Plants that are associated to the Colours;

Light to Mid Green: Plumbago, Gymea Lilies, Callistemon's, Melaleuca's

Dark Green: Clivea miniata, Spathyphilum, Iron Castor plant, Photinia, Camellias, Murraya

Yellow: Autumn Foliage of Poplar's, London Plane Trees, Foliage Colours for Durunta and some of the year of Robinia and Gleditsia tricanthos

Orange/Copper: Phormium Bronze Baby or the new Foliage for some Syzygium's

Red/ Burgundy Photinia (New Foliage), Cordyline Burgundy Spire, Pennisetum 'Rubrum'

Silver/Grey: Gazania varieties, Society Garlic

Green Grey: Westringia fruticosa,

Blue Grey: Juniperus, Festuca glauca (Blue Festcue), Themeda 'Mingo', Dianella revoluta

Variegated Foliage: Spider Plant Chlorophytum comosum, Dianella Silver Streak, Mother In laws Tongue.


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