Landscaping your home

1. Landscaping begins at the same time as building work on the house itself

Planning how to landscape the immediate surroundings of any building should be an integral part of the building project. Construction of the actual building will turn your dreams into reality and leave you with what is hopefully a practical, affordable, beautifully decorated home; however, this will only be the case if the exterior is properly landscaped. Otherwise, your home will look unattractive and feel uncomfortable. The actual physical landscaping work begins after building work is complete and represents the final element in the aesthetic masterpiece that should be your finished home. However, the outside of your home, just like the inside, must be as practical as it is attractive.

2. What exactly is landscaping?

What do we mean by the term landscaping? Basically, the term refers to the art of transforming and improving the aesthetics of an outdoor area by planting or removing trees, shrubs and greenery, for example, or by installing a variety of structures. The surroundings of any home can be understood as a system of logical, efficiently connected areas that bring the site to life and offer residents a variety of outdoor activities. In other words, landscape design deals with sorting out the exterior of the home, i.e. the garden, yard and drive. Elements may include an access road and driveway, paved surfaces, a garage, fencing, lighting, a patio, a porch, a gazebo, a shed, a lawn, trees, flower beds, a play area, a garden, a fruit and vegetable patch, water and/or stone features, and so on. Some or all of these structural elements may be used in any number of combinations. What you choose depends above all on what you want, what you need, and what you can afford, but also on whether your ideas are practical to implement.

3. Landscape designers and landscaping

When it comes to landscaping, you don’t have to consult an expert. You can do the planning and work yourself. However, it is certainly a good idea to write down or sketch out all your ideas and wishes and show these to various contractors. Our advice is to leave the more difficult jobs, such as paving with stone or concrete slabs, to professional tradespeople, while you can easily take on some of the other, simpler landscaping tasks yourself. Another approach, which certainly offers a more comprehensive, expedient solution, is to use a landscape designer. These professionals deal with landscaping open spaces every day and will know how to advise you, plan and make everything you want reality as efficiently and quickly as possible while bearing in mind the most important factors.

4. Basic steps of landscaping

In principle, the landscaping process is a fairly standard one, although of course each site is unique, which presents its own challenges. A landscape designers job is, in cooperation with their client, to assess all the advantages and disadvantages of the site in question and to get the maximum out of it. In this way, the house and its surroundings will become a unique whole. The unwritten rule with landscaping is to always start with the major, more difficult (construction) jobs. Once these are done, attention can move to the smaller tasks. In this sense, landscaping is not too different from building a house itself. In both cases, the first, most crucial stage is the planning, followed by the larger construction jobs, with work on the fine details only starting when everything else has been completed.

4.1. Site analysis

The first important stage when landscaping the area around your home is the site analysis. The position, location, and orientation of the plot are what determines everything else that will be done. All the assets and liabilities of the location will determine which of your wishes and requirements can be achieved and how. Each location is special and unique and represents a challenge for both the designer and the owner of the property. In fact, the natural environment very often presents the final solutions on its own; it just needs to be listened to.

4.2. Planning and landscaping

After reviewing and analysing the site, a landscape designer draws up a comprehensive technical, stylistic and aesthetic plan based on the wishes of the client. This can then be adapted and supplemented during further consultations. Only when both parties have agreed on all the details and the client is satisfied with the landscaping vision and concept can on-site work actually begin.

4.3. The start of landscaping work

As a rule, initial work includes any major excavating and earthworks, such as sorting out the access road and drive either using paving or asphalt, the construction of garden paths to the patio, porch, or outbuildings, erecting a fence or boundary wall, and the excavation of a pit for a pond or a pool. Facilities such as a outdoor kitchen, an outdoor lounge, a sports court, a shed, or a car canopy also need to be built. To ensure the end result lives up to your vision, we suggest you leave these initial, more demanding construction jobs to the professionals.

4.4. Landscaping: gardens and yards

When these major works are complete and the exterior of your home has begun to take shape and to resemble the vision you had, work can start on the finer details, which are an integral part of any residential landscaping project. This includes laying a lawn, planting trees, shrubs, creepers, flower beds, and vegetable and fruit gardens, putting the finishing touches to the patio, installing lighting, and much more. The landscape designer and his/her associates will best know what types of plants can and should be planted. It is these finishing touches that will give your yard or garden its final appearance and will determine how you will feel in such a space.