Every home needs an attractive landscape design. Adding beautiful garden plantings and inviting elements like seating areas, pools, patios, waterscapes, and outdoor dining spaces all immensely improve your curb appeal and property value. There is an abundance of appealing outdoor features available for both large and small properties. Plan the landscape design for your property according to its size and see just how stunning your small or large space can look all year long.
Understanding Your Acreage
Beautiful landscape plans are possible regardless of your property’s size. There are tons of attractive and unique features to implement that will vastly improve your property value, whether it’s a small slice of property or a vast expanse of acreage. Working with a professional landscape design company can help you determine the best features to fit in either a small or large space.
Landscaping for Large Properties
Landscaping for large properties can seem like an overwhelming undertaking, and that’s because it is! While a big piece of land is ideal for adding all different types of unique outdoor landscaping features, the maintenance requirements involve a lot of backbreaking work. If you’re concerned about how to landscape your large yard, consult with a professional landscaping company to develop an attractive design and appropriate maintenance plan to keep your large yard looking beautiful year-round.
When developing a landscaping strategy for your large property, keep the following ideas in mind to take your landscape to the next level:
- Create movement using different tree and plant species. Attract animals, birds, and beautiful insects like butterflies with gorgeous garden plantings specific to your local climate.
- Identify your focal points, whether it is a large water feature, statues, benches, or a designated seating area. You want your visitors’ eyes to flow across the landscape and land on each attractive focal feature.
- Consider installing artificial grass. Maintaining a large property with real grass can be tricky and time-consuming. Artificial grass lawns alleviate a lot of the pains associated with landscape maintenance.
- Utilize xeriscaping, which is a landscape design method that requires minimal maintenance and watering. Xeriscapes often incorporate eye-catching colors, unique textures, and exotic-looking garden plantings among rocks, gravel, and sand.
- Stay aware of angled surfaces and shade on your large property. Excessive runoff and overly shaded areas can make for a mucky, unattractive garden or backyard landscape. Ensure that your property’s slope drains adequately away from your house.
- Keep local laws in mind when planning your landscaping. Do you need more insurance to cover your pool or outdoor fireplace? Is your living fence encroaching on a neighbors property line? Avoid these issues by plan accordingly and account for local city ordinances and regulations.
Big backyards can be a blessing and a curse for property owners. The maintenance involved might seem intimidating, but in the end, you’ll attain a beautiful landscape design that all of your neighbors will aspire to emulate.
Finding Space in Small Yards
Living on a smaller piece of land doesn’t automatically mean you have to forego a beautiful outdoor landscape. While you might not be able to implement a pool, waterfall, or other sizeable outdoor feature like you can on a large piece of property, there are still plenty of unique ways to utilize your small space.
Although you might be disappointed to discover that your options are a bit more limited than a larger landscape, it’s actually a good thing! Less lawn means less maintenance for your outdoor landscaping, which will be incredibly beneficial to your back, knees, and other body parts involved in the heavy lifting of landscape maintenance.
Small backyards are the perfect place to implement attractive landscaping ideas for entertaining. You can install a small seating area, patio, or fire pit for friends and family to gather around. Small backyards are also the perfect place to implement a relaxing, modern zen garden using rocks and boulders. Elevated gardens or planter boxes make a beautiful addition to a small outdoor space, and you can fill them with unique plantings suited to your local environment’s plant hardiness zone. Use a terraced design to take advantage of as much space as possible and draw the eye across your landscape design.
There are plenty of unique ideas that you can implement into a smaller backyard, as you can see. If you’re still struggling to come up with an attractive landscape design for your small property, work with an experienced landscape architect or designer to discover the best features to fit into your smaller space.
Additional Outdoor Features
Once you have a better understanding of the different possibilities available for your property’s landscape, it’s time to think about all the unique elements you want to add. Whether you’re an avid entertainer or desire a simple, relaxing atmosphere to share with family, there is an attractive feature to fit your style and needs. Let’s explore all the options:
1. Driveway Design
You might be inclined to focus solely on your backyard space, but the front of your property is just as important. While asphalt and concrete are the materials most typically associated with driveway paving, another option is available to make your property’s driveway pop.
Consider installing driveway pavers on your property for added curb appeal. Plus, pavers provide an abundance of advantages to homeowners who choose to install them instead of asphalt or concrete. Pavers are the best driveway materials because they offer the following benefits:
- Pavers are available in an array of different colors and materials, including concrete, brick, and cobblestone.
- Pavers come in various sizes and shapes so that you can create eye-catching patterns.
- Pavers are a permeable material that allows water to drain easily, reducing ice and snow build-up.
- Pavers typically won’t crack, and if they do, it’s an incredibly easy fix for homeowners.
- Properly installed pavers require far less maintenance than the alternatives like asphalt and concrete.
Not only do pavers look stunning, but they stay intact and are easily maintained. Concrete, brick, or cobblestone pavers are the perfect driveway material option for properties of any size.
2. Water Features
Another excellent way to spice up your landscape design regardless of your property’s size is with a water feature. You can build your own stone waterfall or contact a landscaping company to assist in adding small ponds, fountains, and other water features to your lawn.
Adding water elements to your landscaping creates a relaxing environment filled with the sights and sounds of nature. Installing water elements is a tedious task, but the final result will make all the effort worthwhile.
3. Landscape Lighting
Adequate lighting is a crucial component of your landscape design. You don’t want to be left in the dark when the sun goes down in the summer, right? By installing landscape lighting on your property, you can continue to enjoy your outdoor space well into those warm summer nights. When deciding on the right outdoor lighting for your landscape, it’s essential to determine the purpose of implementing such lights. Different types of outdoor lighting include:
- Safety and security lights
- Decorative lighting
- Pathway lighting
- Landscape lighting
If you’re looking for lighting that helps improve your home’s safety and security, consider installing floodlights or motion-activated lighting. These types of lights alert the members of your household of any potential intruders and deter home invaders from entering your property.
Pathway lighting is the perfect way to ensure that visitors avoid stepping on your garden plantings or freshly seeded grass spots. Light the way along walkways and entrances so every guest who enters and exits your property can maintain their footing and feel confident in each step.
Decorative lights are another great way to create a desirable atmosphere in your backyard. You can shop at any big box store for beautiful decorative lights like hanging string lights or lanterns. To emphasize a focal point on your property, you can use landscape lighting. Angle grounded lights upwards to bring attention to water features, flagpoles, rock gardens, and other attractive outdoor features in your yard.
Low Voltage LED Lighting
As environmental consciousness moves to the forefront of concerns in our country, more homeowners consider a transition to LED lighting systems. Property owners who install low voltage LED lighting typically experience an increase in energy efficiency, resulting in immense energy savings.
LED lights also have a much longer lifespan than their incandescent and halogen counterparts. In fact, LED lights can last up to fifty times longer than older lightbulb options. LED lighting systems are also much smaller, so you can install them in areas where incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent lights might not otherwise fit.
You can leave your LED lighting system on all night long without increasing your energy bill. This means that low voltage LED lights can act as an overnight security system around your home. The bright LED bulbs easily deter home invaders from entering your property. It’s clear that low voltage LED lights are the way to go if you want to improve security and save more money on energy costs over time.
4. Garden Designs
To finish off your landscape design, you definitely need to include unique garden plantings, trees, shrubs, and other flowers. Consult with the experts at your local landscaping company and consider different plant species according to your environment. You can utilize raised garden beds or plant flowers, shrubs, and trees directly into the ground.
If you opt for grounded garden beds, be sure to utilize mulch to make your landscaping look all that more beautiful. Additionally, mulch provides an abundance of advantages to homeowners and will hopefully help you maintain beautiful garden designs throughout the spring and summer.
Maintaining Your Mulch
Mulch is a material that is typically spread across the top layer of exposed soil to help protect plants and add nutrients to the ground. The two types of mulch on the market include organic and inorganic mulch. When appropriately laid, mulch can add to your home’s curb appeal and offer immense benefits to flower beds and other landscaping aspects. Mulch is advantageous when added to outdoor landscapes because it helps:
- Improve soil quality
- Conserve water
- Slow weed growth
- Protect plant roots
- Reduce erosion
- Add necessary nutrients to the soil
- Slow the spread of plant diseases
However, mulch requires annual maintenance to continue taking advantage of all its benefits. If you’re utilizing mulch on your property, make sure to rake and turn it each year, assess it for mold and other fungi, and freshen it up with a new layer every spring. When adding a new layer, it’s crucial to remove some of the old mulch, so your soil doesn’t compact over time.
Choosing a Landscaping Partner
After you have decided on all the elements you’d like to add to your property, it’s time to make a plan. Although you might be tempted to take on the task of landscaping your entire yard yourself, it can be a significant undertaking for a singular person. Instead, consider getting in contact with a local landscaping company to assist in applying all your attractive landscaping ideas.
When choosing a landscaping partner to help implement your new design, consider these critical factors:
- Assess online reviews on platforms like Yelp and Angie’s List
- Ensure your chosen landscaping company has the proper insurance and licenses
- Research the company’s past projects and experience
- Ask about their team’s specific skillset
- Determine a timeline for implementation
- Review preliminary sketches and make necessary revisions before ever breaking ground
Once you are confident in your chosen landscaping company’s abilities, it’s time to get started on implementing your outdoor design. You want your yard to be a relaxing place for friends, family, and other guests to escape. An experienced landscape architect can help turn your vision into reality regardless of the size of your property. Play around with different ideas and elements until you develop a design that truly suits your lifestyle. When you are ready to start building the backyard of your dreams, contact the experts at Architectural Landscape Design to bring your vision to life.