Do-It-Yourself Landscaping Ideas

Are those statues and stones not in the right place? Are the plants a little bit obscured by your overreaching porch? These are legitimate problems, but fortunately for you, you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars an hour just to fix these trivial details. Instead, there's quite a few things you can do to spice up your landscape design all by yourself. Here are five critical, unique ideas you can use to add a bit more flavor to your do-it-yourself landscape design:

Install a Fountain

Nothing attracts more attention to your home than an elaborate, flowing fountain on the front lawn. The fountain emulates elegance, confidence, and relaxation, qualities that should define your home. In addition, fountains are great because of the soothing sound that they produce all throughout the day. Even at night, you can enjoy a night outside with a few other people and listen to the water gently flowing. In essence, owning a fountain is practically the equivalent of having a small creek in your backyard (like I do, and from personal experience, I can say they sound absolutely stunning). Best of all, you can purchase fairly cheap fountains which won't steal the all of the attention yet add a significant touch to your landscape design.

Layer Your Flowers

One line of flowers is okay, no matter how pretty they are; fortunately, we both know that you can do better than that. It's far more attractive to layer your flowers by having about three rows of them lined one behind the other. Physically, the eyes aren't forced to fit a lengthy image into a small field of view, and are instead focused on one small area with rows of flowers. If your plants vary in height, it's important to make sure that your plants in the back are tallest and the shortest are in front.

Simplicity is Good

If you have hours to spend on your yard, then you won't if it's high-maintenance. For the majority of us, though, we don't like to spend that much time in our yard. We want it to look nice and let it stay like that without our help. So, make sure that your garden is efficient and low-maintenance. If it's not, you'll hate it soon enough and it will die down before you even know it. Rather, stick with low-maintenance landscape designs over attractiveness.

Survive in the Sun

Make sure you don't get weak plants that will shrivel up in the sun. Therefore, you may want to look into some drought-resistant plants, which can live in less-watered and poorer soil. Some examples of these include the Longwood Blue shrub, the Autumn Joy sedum, or the Moonbeam Coreopsis.

Stick to the Basics

Want something attractive that you'll never have to worry about again? Get some Evergreens. Set a good chunk of land aside for one or two of these trees and give them their own space. Don't let them be crowded by other plants; rather, show intention that you put them where they are. These plants are green all year long, and look spectacular in the winter when they're covered in snow. Evergreens are a great investment and even one, central evergreen added to your landscape design is a great idea.

Sources:
David Beaulieu, "Top 10 Tips for Do-It-Yourself Landscaping." About.com.
David Beaulieu, "Drought-Tolerant Landscape Plans." About.com/