The landscaping around your house can truly define it. If you live in a tract home community, a uniquely healthy and landscaped yard can make your property stand out from the neighbors. But, you also need to think about the functionality of your yard when you are planting and designing your landscape. For instance, you don’t want to plant large, hard-to-trim plants near your HVAC system. Otherwise, your unit will have reduced airflow, and debris can get sucked into the fan unit. Here are four more helpful tips for designing landscaping that is stylish and functional at the same time.
Plan Around Your Hardscaping
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You should plan your yard around your hardscaping. That is, design and build your concrete pathways, steps, and curbs before you worry about your landscaping. You want to create hardscaping that makes it easy to reach all of your landscaping. If you cannot access a plant in a corner that is blocked by other plants, it is bound to be less healthy. Some pros only design yards that enable the homeowners to reach each plant from concrete paths. This way the homeowner is less likely to trample and kill the lawn or other plants when gardening.
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Frame Your Yard With Foundation Plants
Foundation plants (aka house huggers) get their name because they are commonly used to cover the exposed concrete foundations of houses that have basements. However, they look great on any house because they set a visual backdrop that frames the rest of your landscaping. Foundation plants are especially important when it comes to the curb appeal of your front yard. Because these plants are usually in the back, and harder to reach, you want to plant species that are low-maintenance, such as evergreens and boxwoods. Easily shaped boxwoods and rhododendrons are beautiful and functional.
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Make Sure High-Maintenance Plants are the Most Accessible
With your taller plants closest to the wall, you will create a more visually pleasing backdrop, but your foliage will also be much easier to keep up. You need to research all the plants and flowers that you are going to plant to make sure they won’t outgrow those behind them. Flowers are best planted right along the edge of the hardscaping or the lawn. Because they need the most time-intensive care, you want to be able to tend to them with ease.
Add Some Color
To make your landscaping truly stand out, don’t be afraid to add some color. You can find large foundation plants that have beautiful blossoms. With a unique flowering plant like the rhododendron, your color is not just confined to the flower beds. Other great foundation plants with a splash of color include catmint, heavenly bamboo, harland rose, and blue angels. You will love seeing how these colors change and create a completely different dynamic from season to season.
A stylish and functional garden is not too difficult to create, especially if you can design the hardscape from scratch.
