New Landscape Designs

You're certainly not alone if you feel overwhelmed when you think about how to approach your home's landscaping. It's probably safe to assume that most homeowners who do DIY landscaping design projects have felt the same. We'd like to take a moment to help you gather your thoughts and help you focus on some simple essentials that will help you organize your project so that it's not overwhelming. Escape the landscaping runaround with these simple suggestions!

Get your motivation focused! You can do this by organizing your thoughts in a fun way. Pinterest is a great website and app for organizing ideas. You can organize ideas into categories, such as examples of landscape styles that you think you like, to types of plant cultivars that may suit your area and your tastes. If you're not comfortable using an app to organize your ideas, a simple folder with print out ideas and magazine cut-outs of ideas is essentially the same thing and can be a lot of fun to put together- especially over the winter months. Involve your family, especially your children! Organizing ideas first before you begin planting will help you feel a lot less overwhelmed.

Start really small. You don't necessarily have to landscape your entire property in one single go. In fact, breaking your project up into mini-projects is advisable because your property is going to have different types of mini-environments, and will all be seen and used differently. Getting to know your property before you plant it will help you be more successful and avoid problems later on. For example, if curb appeal is important to you, start with the foundation planting areas around your main front entrance. Get to know the site well by noting how much sunlight and shade the area gets, how moist it is, how prevalent winds affect the area. This is the time to learn about what your USDA hardiness zone. This will help you know what plants can survive in your area.

Once you've gotten to know the first area you want to landscape, couple it with the ideas you've gathered on Pinterest, or in your folder, or how ever you've organized your initial ideas. For example, if you've fallen in love with the idea of planting lots of white blooming plants and your front area is mostly shady and dry, start making a list of shrubs that have a white bloom that do well in dry shade and are hardy in your area. Keep your list handy for when it's time to shop for your plant material.

When it's time to shop for plant material, using an online mail order nursery can be a real help in making your project a lot easier. You don't have to travel to nurseries and haul heavy plants around. You can take your time using a well-working search function to narrow down your plant choices which will make your shopping experience easier. Trust in an established nursery company that has a good record of excellent customer service and offers the best plants and supplies plus stands behind their products.