Finding Free Landscaping Ideas January 25, 2008
Posted by Peter in inspiration, landscaping. add a commentIt’s a jungle out there! Or so it can see when your lawn is looking a little worse for wear. You may diligently mow the lawn, but it still looks dry and brown, you may pull out all the weeds just to find them returning within a week. Free landscaping ideas can give you that little push to get your landscaping looking good.
Free Landscaping Ideas
Let’s look at some free landscaping ideas about a straw-like lawn. The most obvious answer is simply lack of water. How much is needed will vary greatly depending on the type of grass you have. Too much mowing can also be a source of problems, most lawns don’t need to be mowed more than once a week, or when the grass in longer than about 3 inches.
Another free landscaping idea has to do with weeds. Unfortunately in some climates weeds thrive. Humid climates, which have plenty of moisture are just what weeds are looking for and can take hold quite easily. Lemon juice is a possible solution to this. The acidic nature of the lemon juice helps to kill the weeds.
Taking a walk around your neighborhood is another free landscaping idea that can really give you an idea of where your lawn could go. Have a look at your neighbor’s yard, if you are friends with them or not you can try ask them if they wouldn’t mind you coming to have a look at their lawn. See what kind of plants they have growing in their garden, ask them if they have any problems with their lawn and how they’ve dealt with it. You could even get a glimpse of what your lawn could look like if you don’t maintain it.
Pamphlets at your local garden center can give you plenty of free landscaping ideas. There will often be a whole bunch of them on offer, often with products around the store. Not only will you get an idea of what is available, but you can get a good idea of the costs involved, and determine how much you are willing to spend.
Libraries and bookstores are great place to find information on landscaping. Now buying a book from the bookstore is not free, but you can go and browse around and see what you can find, if you are really tempted you can buy one. The library is always free, and will often keep books that are specific to your area.
Just looking at the pictures in magazines and books can give you that little bit of inspiration and help you see just what you can achieve with your lawn. So just get out there and grab all the free landscaping ideas that you can find.
Free Landscaping Software January 22, 2008
Posted by Peter in landscaping, software. 1 comment so farIf you are designing your own landscaping on a project you probably don’t want to spend a lot of money on 3D computer software. Professional landscaping software can set you back hundreds of dollars but free landscaping software can do it just as well for those on a budget. Typically, free landscaping software allows you to choose the plants and their sizes and colors that will make the most of your outdoors. Being able to select different plants including annuals and perennials and being able to change their sizes, will give you a very accurate picture of what your landscape will look like after your project is finished.
With free landscaping software you will be limited to a default house style where the flower beds and house cannot be changed you can only change which flowers and plants are used, as well as their sizes and colors. This is still a good way to see which flowers will work together when creating your color scheme.
Online companies offering flowers and flower seeds sometimes offer free landscaping software which usually centers around their products. With basic landscaping software starting at around $100 these free landscaping software alternatives might just give you your money’s worth.
Software Options Lacking
The most common features missing from free landscaping software are the ability to add landscaping stones and lumber. Do it yourself landscaping companies will often offer free landscaping software that is more fully featured than the software given away by seed companies.
The best thing about free landscaping software online is that they usually do not require registration. They are usually quick to download, and once they are downloaded you can find out what they really have to offer and if it is not to your liking simply delete it. It won’t cost you a cent.
Most free landscaping software is fairly easy to use and self explanatory. There’s usually no help included with the software that will give you an idea of which plants you can choose and which ones are suitable for individual climates. As with many other free things you quite often get what you pay for, if you want fully-featured software then you’ll probably need to buy it.
Front Yard Landscaping Secrets January 18, 2008
Posted by Peter in front yard, grass, landscaping. add a commentYour front yard is often the first impression people get when visiting your home. Make the best impression you can by putting a little time into front yard landscaping. You’ll be the envy of the neighborhood and you’ll probably even impress yourself when you return home from work at night.
Front Yard Landscaping To Match Your House
Before you even begin your front yard landscaping take a bit of time to choose a style that will match your home. If you live in a Spanish style stucco bungalow then you’ll need a front yard landscaping scheme that fits. Terra cotta planters, draping bougainvilleas and other tropical foliage would be appropriate. If you live in a ranch house get low growing shrubs and changing annuals.
Easy Maintenance Front Yard Landscaping
Before you start spending money on front yard landscaping there are a few basics that need to be in place you need a good spring, and drip water system, with a timer. This will assure that your garden is well watered and its most basic needs are taken care of.
Before planting grass your lawn will need to be leveled, an expert can give you advice on draining issues you could face. If your yard is very steep this will probably involve adding terraces, but will save you money down the road.
An easy way to avoid mowing in the front yard is to have groundcovers instead of grass. You can plant grass in the backyard but fill the front yard with shrubs, rocks, bark, or even flagstone.
Personalize It
When adding your personal touch do remember that you are designing the front yard as a whole. A few cute little gnomes or other accessories are fine but they should not detract from the overall style. Maintaining a balance can mean the difference between personalized front yard landscaping and something that is quite garish.
Three Amazing Front Yard Landscaping Ideas January 15, 2008
Posted by Peter in front yard, landscaping, plants. add a commentThe typical patch of grass, mailbox, and garden flag does not have to be your front yard. There are an endless number of front yard landscaping ideas. With some creative thinking and an open mind, you can have a front yard that everyone in the neighborhood will envy.
Create Outdoor Rooms
The first front yard landscaping idea is having outdoor rooms, which is very popular in the backyard but it is something that you can apply to the front yard as well. Have a look at the size of your front yard and find areas that can be landscaped as a separate little sitting place. Put a bench under a tree. Then fill the surrounding area with some flowers and shrubs. And a few potted plants next to your bench. This is a wonderful place to see your neighbors and to just watch the happenings of your neighborhood.
Create Visually Pleasing Displays
The second front yard landscaping idea, which will help make it a little more fun, is to add some visually stimulating objects. Adding a birdhouse or bird bath will attract lots of interesting wildlife to your front yard. Shrubs and flowers can attract butterflies and are a great way to add color to your front yard. If you place a bench, a bird bath, or a birdhouse, make sure to fill the area around them with some flowers, some shrubs or some other plants.
Containers are any easy way to add flowers and plants to places where they wouldn’t grow normally. Use pots of flowers to brighten your front porch, on your driveway, or even on your lawn. You can’t even move them around if you feel like a change.
Mix Perennials and Annuals
Annuals add a continuous burst of color in your yard but they only last for one season. They aren’t that expensive so you can replant them every spring. Because they only last for a single season they are great if you’d like to change things every year. Perennials are much easier to landscape your yard. Perennials always bloom in succession so there will always be something blooming in your yard. Having a mix of the two will give you the best of both worlds.
These front yard landscaping ideas should keep your front yard fresh and exciting for years to come.
Hillside Landscaping January 11, 2008
Posted by Peter in bushes, landscaping. add a commentNo matter how steep your hill, hillside landscaping can turn it from just any old hill into a landscape that really stands out. No matter how steep it may be or what its dimensions are you can use hillside landscaping to change it into something special.
About hillside landscaping
One of the first concerns with hillside landscaping is the safety factor. If the hill you plan on working on this very steep or very hard to walk up you might need to choose a professional to do it unless you are feeling very active.
Most likely the hillside landscaping in question is just a steep area of your own lawn. If this is the case then here are some suggestions on how to tackle that hillside landscaping.
First take a survey of the land and its location. If the hillside is in the front of your home you can choose an ornate landscaping design. Evaluate the soil, how arid is it? You’ll need to purchase nutrient rich soil before you begin.
Next you need the plants that you’d like to use in your hillside landscaping design. Bushes are one of the best ideas. Bush is a very Hardy and all kinds of weather and only requirement minimal pruning which can be done at certain times of the year. Horizontally growing bushes are the ideal kind for a hillside landscape.
After you have selected the kinds of bushes you’re going to use, the next step is to figure out what kind of pattern you going to use for them. You’ll need to choose where to plant the bushes, you need to choose how much space they will need, and what shape the area for the bushes will be.
Regarding the layout of the bushes, placing them in rows is a common choice, placing them in a spiral shape is another option. If you would like to plant them in another shape get some advice from a professional.
Bookstores are great source of inspiration for hillside landscaping. In particular gardening magazines Can give you a glimpse of what other people are doing with their lawns. With a little research the perfect landscaping is just a few bushes away.
Yard And Garden Landscaping Designs January 8, 2008
Posted by Peter in design, landscaping. 1 comment so farMowing the lawn used to be enough. Keeping that patch of green at the right length was all that was required to have a wonderful lawn. But isn’t there something more that can be done? Check some landscaping designs for your lawn and see just what can be done with some great landscaping designs.
About Landscaping Designs
A look around the neighborhood is a good place to start. You don’t have to copy the landscaping designs that your neighbors use, but they really can start your creative juices flowing and give you some ideas you wouldn’t have had before.
Planting flowers under trees is a common landscaping design that many people use. What needs to be considered is which kind of flowers are going to be planted. Flowers that require a lot of sunlight should not be planted under the trees. This is especially true for trees that have a lot of leaves.
Mulch is another choice which can be considered when doing landscaping designs. Cedar mulch is a popular kind of mulch which people often use but this kind of mulch lightens over time with the sun and the rain. There is however a newer kind of rubber mulch available that doesn’t lighten as easily.
Bushes are a great way to add privacy to your landscaping design. Bushes are a natural barrier to anyone looking in. Although bushes are low maintenance they will need pruning at certain times of the year. If the bushes are left to grow on their own they can become rather big and cumbersome.
Climate is the main concern for landscaping designs. Using indigenous plants will mean that your lawn will look good all year round. Living in a temperate climate certainly helps here as there are many plants available and they will last for more than just one season.
Books of landscaping designs are one of the best ways to be inspired and to find new ways to spruce up your landscaping design. Your local guard and center is a another great place to get good ideas be specially because the people working there are local and familiar with local gardening conditions.
Herb Garden Landscaping Ideas January 4, 2008
Posted by Peter in herbs, landscaping. add a commentThat herb garden hasn’t seen much action recently, in fact, it’s starting to look more and more like just another patch of grass in the garden. Make it your garden’s highlight with a few landscaping ideas.
A Few Landscaping Ideas
For a start, make sure the allotted area is weeded, weeds can make a lot of extra work and detract from efforts to spruce up the lawn. Get them done first. The area should also be edged to make sure that it looks good.
Depending on the size of the herb garden and in its state, this can take a day, with a bit of diligence. If not, take a little more time, but do it well. Nutrients added to the soil will ensure that the ground has all the goodness that the plants need. Now, on to the main landscaping ideas.
The local garden center will have a wide range of herbs available. There are two basic kinds of herbs that are available: cooking herbs, and the herbs that add feeling to the yard. Cooking herbs are more practical if you want them for cooking, but the second kind are most often used to add a dash of color to your landscaping ideas. How much of each kind of herb is really a personal preference, but by having a combination, it can be enjoyed by your eyes and your mouth.
Herbs tend to mix with each other, and over time become hybrids. For this reason, it is best to keep the different herbs separated, either in different sections of the lawn, or just separated by a piece of wood, perhaps a short wooden fence for aesthetics if it fits.
Because herbs have such bright colors, they should be focused on as a focal point in the backyard. The area where they are placed needs to get both sun and shade, and some kind of barrier to keep pets away from it. In larger gardens it is possible to add a lot to a herb garden. A small path, as well as a fake waterfall can both add to the feeling of the herb garden and make your yard a little more active, inviting people to go for a walk.
As always, the local garden center has details of all the herbs that work best in the area. They will be able to provide information of what grows well and what will work best for any person’s situation. They will also be able suggest others in the area who are also interested in herb gardens, giving another source of information and tips. Having a look online is always a viable option, as many people are very willing to post pictures of their creations, and show off their talent a little bit.
Landscaping Pictures: Infinite Possibilities January 1, 2008
Posted by Peter in landscaping, pools, software. add a commentIn the planning stages, being able to see the final result of a whole lot of hard work done in yard can give that bit of inspiration to keep pushing on. Checking out some landscaping pictures in books, in magazine and online can give a very good idea of how the yard will end up after so many hours of effort and hard work. It’s also a great place to look for further inspiration.
Unfortunately, looking at landscaping pictures can be a little confusing. Knowing where a picture was taken and more specifically the kind of environment it is in, can provide a gauge with how much can be expected to grow in your own garden. Landscaping pictures from a hot, dry and arid place might look good, but if living in a cooler, more lush environment, it will just not apply. Also bear in mind that the pictures in magazine are taken to show a yard at its absolute best, when the sun is bright and all the colors stand out. This is not the usual for an average lawn.
Knowing whether particular plants are suited for your area will provides a lot of insight into what is possible. Remember that not everything will fit into your own garden, either physically or aesthetically. Make sure that any shrubs and bushes will not grow beyond their space requirements, some bushes can grow very big, others stay small.
Landscaping Pictures With Similar Layouts
The vast majority of pictures in magazine tend to be of humongous houses, with big gardens, plenty of extra room to put up a swing and put in a pond. Now, these may look good, but don’t tackle the situation that the vast majority of people are in. Dealing with limited space and making smart choices that fit with what is available will pay for itself many times over.
Swimming pools and patios are also at the expensive end of landscaping pictures. With a pool, it will probably be possible to recreate some of what can be seen in magazine and books. However, limited spaces will most probably benefit most from a few well chosen flowers and shrubs placed in the right area of the backyard.
Landscaping software can really come in handy during the design phase. This software allows you to visualize what the backyard landscape will look like after modifications. The landscaping pictures can be printed and taken to the garden nursery to try and match the plants that are available to what you had envisioned for your backyard landscape.
Choosing The Right Landscaping Plants December 28, 2007
Posted by Peter in landscaping, plants. add a commentAfter a cold winter, the warm weather of summer often inspires a bit of landscaping work, now its time to liven up the back and front yards with a few landscaping plants. There are a huge variety available, something you can figure out from a trip to the local garden nursery, so lets decide just where to begin.
The Effect of Landscaping Plants
Knowing what effect particular landscaping plants will have on the backyard landscape is quite important. Two of the main purposes, although they might overlap sometimes are landscaping plants that provide privacy, like bushes, and landscaping plants that are for aesthetics, adding a touch of color or shape to the rest of the backyard.
The ivy vine is one of the primary and easiest to maintain landscaping plants for privacy. It is most often used in quaint little cottages in movies and grows easily. It simply requires something to grow on, so placing it next to a fence will give it some direction. Ivys do grow pretty fast. It might be a small little thing when you first buy it from the store, but within a few days it will already have grown a few inches. It needs to be trimmed to make sure that it doesn’t take over.
When looking for flowers as landscaping plants the first concern in the environment and climate where they will be placed. Tropical flowers need to be placed outside if the climate is warm all year round. Otherwise they need to stay indoors where the temperature is usually controlled by central heating.
In areas where there are four distinct seasons, hardy plants are recommended. Impatiens and Chrysanthemums are very hardy and can last throughout the year. These two both require watering, but only on every other day. They also need a mix of sun and shade. Although this may sound like a lot of work, they will last for very long time and will certainly need less effort than replacing the flowers every year.
This may seem to limit your options with only two kinds of flowers available. However, both of these landscaping plants are available in a variety of colors. Pick and choose the color that you want to suit where they are going to be placed in your garden. The local garden store will carry a variety that are good for growing in your area. Choosing these will make sure that they grow well and give you the most pleasure from landscaping plants.
Landscaping Software December 25, 2007
Posted by Peter in landscaping, software. add a commentVisualizing the end product of a landscaping project can be one of the most difficult things in deciding what plants, bushes and flowers are appropriate to choose to give the best effects. Knowing the right plants to choose for any particular area can limit the choices that are available, making the decision making process that little bit more difficult. Landscaping software helps to make the visualization of the end result that much easier, allowing changes to be made more quickly and easier that just planting and seeing what happens.
There is a huge range of landscaping software, varying from free all the way to thousands of dollars, which take into account the climate, rainfall and landscape to help make the best decision. Spending a thousand dollars or more on a project may seem a little excessive, and is probably reserved for professional landscapers, for whom the expediated design process, and ability to use the software for many clients would make it worthwhile. For personal use, it is almost certainly out of the question, but there is value in cheaper packages too. The cheaper software is limited in its use and will probably only let you choose form a limited number of house layouts, but even so will give a fantastic amount of information on just how your backyard will look like after it’s done.
The learning curve to the software needs to be taken into account. Professional software might seem quite tempting, even with its huge pricetag, but that’s not the only thing to be considered. Professional design software has a big learning curve, but is extremely powerful once mastered. Simpler software is easier to use, but has more limited functions. However, those limited functions should be enough, as the important thing is just getting a bit of help in visualizing the end of the landscaping project.
Project Planning With Landscaping Software
For around a $100 you can pick up any one of a few packages that will allow basic addition of flowers and other plants in the garden. If you are familiar with computers there shouldn’t be too many problems in using the new software, but getting used to adding the right plants, both annuals and perennials will take a little getting used to.
Most landscaping software offers 3D views of the backyards that you design. The most expensive will allow live manipulation of the 3D image, allowing viewing of the backyard and house from any number of different angles. Taking these views from the most common views in your home will be best. If you hardly ever view your lawn from the back then don’t focus on that, perhaps focus on the view that guests would have when walking into the backyard. At any rate, landscaping software can add that bit of visualization and inspiration when ideas are running thin.
