Landscaping Harrisburg PA is a professional way to manipulate your property’s natural features into something beautiful and functional. These designs are usually confined to a particular area of your property. A successful landscape design is one that has a theme. Unity in a landscape design is achieved through using plant varieties and textures effectively, proper placement, and repetition.
The front yard is the main entrance to your home and sets the tone for visitors’ first impression. A well-designed landscape accentuates your property’s attractive features and masks its less appealing ones. While you may want a formal, manicured look, be sure to include a variety of plants with different foliage color, flowering, and berry production for year-round interest.
Start with an inventory of the current landscape and soil conditions in your front yard. Evaluate the amount of light, how much shade is provided by trees or shrubs, and if there are any drainage issues. These factors will affect the kinds of plants that can grow and how they thrive.
Make a list of the functional needs of your front yard, such as a play area or seating area. Evaluate the available space to determine if you can fit in a garden or vegetable plot, a water feature, or a rock garden. A good rule of thumb is to have a mix of plants in a front yard, including evergreens, shrubs, and perennials that provide structure and year-round interest.
Use the design principles of proportion, balance, order, repetition, and unity to guide your choices when designing the layout of your front yard landscape. These are the same design concepts that professional designers use to plan gardens, golf courses, parks, and countless other outdoor spaces. They are also the same principles that you can use at home to create a landscape that pleases you and complements your house and surroundings.
Keep Maintenance in Mind
Think realistically about how much time you’re willing to spend tending your front yard before making your final landscape design decisions. If you prefer to spend your weekends relaxing instead of pulling weeds, opt for low-maintenance landscaping that uses native or drought resistant plants and/or xeriscaping.
Back Yard
The back yard is often neglected, but it’s a large space that can be used to create an outdoor room with separate areas for different purposes. Backyard landscape design can help make the backyard more usable by incorporating elements of garden design, architecture and planning that improve flow and provide beauty.
The elements of line, form, color and texture are important in a landscape design. A landscape also includes the hardscape, non-organic elements such as paved areas and fences. Choosing the right plants and placement, adding a water feature or fire pit and accessorizing can all be part of a landscape design.
A well-planned landscape makes a property easier to read and navigate, which increases comfort and familiarity. It can also provide an environment for assembly, recreation and contemplation. It can also support wildlife and the community, add to property value and enhance quality of life.
Creating a landscape plan gives you the freedom to DIY your landscaping project over time, or it can be a tool for expressing your ideas to contractors or designers. Whether you’re doing the work yourself or hiring someone to do it, making a master plan helps you get your ideas out of your head and onto paper so that you can visualize what you want in your yard.
As you consider different uses for your back yard, think about the size of your family and how you’re likely to use your outdoor spaces. Do you have children who will need a place to play, a dining patio for entertaining or a quiet spot for reading? Consider how you’ll move from one area to the next and plan pathways that connect each room in your back yard.
Keep your budget in mind as you choose plants and hardscape. Creating a landscape plan that takes into account the initial installation costs as well as on-going maintenance will help you stay within your means. Choosing durable materials that require little upkeep can reduce your costs in the long run, as can choosing easy-to-care-for plants that won’t need extensive pruning or watering.
Patios
Patios are paved areas located on the ground, often a little away from the house and usually built from a variety of materials. Patios are generally considered part of the landscape and can be a focal point for an area or they can function as an entry to a garden or yard. The paving material and the plant selection can define the style and feel of the space.
A patio can work hard to complement a design, especially when it’s part of a series of spaces that form a usable garden. For example, in a hillside garden, a patio may be used as a sitting or dining space and surrounded by easy care plants that grow to the height of the structure. The resulting garden is both functional and lovely.
The right paving and plantings can also make a patio a unique architectural feature in itself. A popular trend is textured or tinted concrete that’s both durable and beautiful. Color-coordinating pavers with the plantings helps to tie the whole landscape together. For instance, blue star juniper pairs well with concrete pavers, while a rich blue fescue grass complements the color of flagstone.
Another way to define patios and create a landscape design is with a pergola or arbor. These structures frame a pathway or seating area and add interest to a garden. They are also a great spot for vines like trumpet vine, which can be trained to climb and add bright color.
Patio landscaping is all about balancing the hardscape features with a softening touch of plantings. The plant palette for a patio should lean toward the informal – with loose groupings of perennials, evergreen shrubs and drought tolerant grasses. In cooler climates, a mix of deciduous trees and evergreen conifers adds seasonal interest.
To design a functional patio and landscape plan, start by creating bubbles on the drawing to roughly lay out different areas of your property and their potential uses. From there, you can begin to strategically place your plant selections. Lastly, be sure to account for future water needs by including a sprinkler and irrigation system in your landscape design.
Pools
A beautiful swimming pool is the centerpiece of a backyard, but when done correctly, it also unifies and enhances your landscape design. To create a cohesive space, pool landscaping should match your home and yard’s architecture, style, color scheme and plant palette. In addition, it should be easy to maintain, as your pool will likely be splashed with chlorine and salt water that can damage grass and other plants.
Grass is a common option for pool landscaping, but you can go more exotic with bushes and shrubs that require little care. Plants like oakleaf hydrangea, caladiums and purple salvia provide lush color around your pool with minimal work. If you prefer a more tropical look, palm trees can instantly transform your landscape into a paradise resort.
You can use pavers to surround your pool, which provides a clean and modern aesthetic, or opt for a stone that complements your patio and the rest of your property. For a subtle way to add greenery, choose a low maintenance planting, such as creeping phlox or hens and chicks, that will cover the ground near your pool. These plantings are tolerant of salty and chlorinated water, and they are drought tolerant as well, making them a great choice for poolside gardens.
For a touch of luxury, consider incorporating a waterfall into your landscape. This can be a great focal point that draws the eye to the backyard, as well as creating a soothing sound and adding a tranquil feeling to the space. For a more organic and natural look, you can use rocks to create an in-ground waterfall or even make your pool part of a garden with an above-ground rock garden.
Incorporating a water feature into your pool landscape can be an effective way to increase privacy as well. Planting tall bushes or trees around the perimeter of your property can provide a sense of enclosure and protection while still allowing you to enjoy the view of your pool from inside your house. For a more creative touch, you can hang string lights in the branches of trees and shrubs for an ambient glow at night.