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In your backyard, every detail matters. You focus on ensuring you don't have a patch of lawn that looks different from the rest due to overgrowth or dead grass. You monitor the health of every flower and trim and prune each tree to perfection. And Southern Love is here to help every step of the way! We love taking care of all the details. But, it's also vital not to lose the landscaping forest for the trees. So while most of our blogs have focused on getting each detail perfection in your Cedar Park yard, today, we're taking a big Texas to step back and looking at landscaping as a whole. Walk with us!
What Should You Consider Before Making Landscaping Choices?
There are a lot of factors that go into what you decide to do with your yard. Today, we will break them down into three categories: Aesthetics, Purpose, and Maintenance. Which is your top priority will depend on personal preferences but landscape design choices are a balance between the three.
Beauty
For many homeowners, the aesthetic of the landscape is the be-all and end-all for all their choices. And with your yard, that's ok! Looks do matter. And while beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, there are some general guidelines in landscape design that landscapers and homeowners tend to follow. The rules help to promote a balance of exciting contrast with the big harmonic pictures. They, too, fall into three categories: texture, color, and height. With that said, there's no accounting for taste, so feel free to color outside the lines.Color
We'll begin with the familiar to ease you into the landscape design. Then, like all home design choices, color theory comes into play. Typically, you'll want to pick colors that go well together. Different shades of one color or complementary colored flowers work wonderfully with a darker mulch to set them off. That's a general introduction to something about which people have written Ph.D. theses!Height
Different heights make for an attractive yard: Tall trees with short grass and mid-sized shrubs in between. It's a relatively easy concept to grasp. Think of a cityscape and try to emulate that.Texture
The texture is the most foreign of the landscaping design concepts for most people. While you may like to touch your plants, the texture doesn't refer to how your plants feel on your skin. Instead, it's more about the visual or perceived texture. For example, round petals have a different texture than angular ornamental grass. Likewise, trees with smooth bark have a different texture than rough-barked trees.It's in the Way That You Use It
For many homeowners, the outside of their home is used as much as the inside. We live in an area where outdoor entertaining is possible nearly all of the year! So, if you want to use your yard as another room, you'll want to take some time to think about how you'll be using that space. Outdoor living spaces are versatile and can include elements that support your entertaining goals or hobbies. For home cooks, there are outdoor kitchens. For example, you can consist of grills, ovens, or whole ovens and ranges! Other people may want to have a place to relax in nature. Water elements like fountains can aid in that. Running water not only provides a relaxing ambiance but also can give a welcome respite to animals in warmer weather. Finally, for gathering, nothing beats a fire pit! Your guests will love gathering around your fire pit while it provides warmth and lighting long into the evening hours. Landscape lighting can further improve the ambiance, and you have the ability to adjust it depending on the time of year and entertainment goals.Care
Finally, whatever you do with your yard, you must care for it. So be careful with your big ideas!
Will you still want that little tree when it towers over your home, and will it get in the way of future plans?
You love the look of vibrant annuals, but do you want to replace them yearly? Of course, with the help of Southern Love, you won't have to do your landscape maintenance yourself, but maintenance is still something you should keep in mind when making your choices.