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7 Landscape Design Tips for Beginners

Landscape Design Tips 



Follow our beginner-friendly gardening landscaping tips to turn your garden into a blooming paradise and get advice on personalizing your outdoor space. If you've never tried your hand at designing a landscape before, all the choices you can make can be a bit overwhelming. What plants do you want to add and where should they go? Should bedding lines and paths be curved or run in straight lines? And what about accessories like stylish benches, eye-catching gardens and birdbaths to attract colorful wildlife? It helps to think of a space in your yard like a room inside your house, because many of the same principles that guide your interior design will guide your designs outside as well. Here are seven considerations to help get your new landscaping project off to a super start.


1. Determine landscape needs and preferences


Make a list of needs and wants. Do your kids need a play space? Do you like to grow vegetables? Does your family enjoy gathering on a patio around a fire pit table (like this Great Homes & Gardens Carter Hills Propane Fire Pit Table, $349, Walmart)? Do very rough sketches of the yard with ideas of where you want to put things; This is a great organizing principle for landscape design for beginners. According to Marion Lipanovitch, author of The Big Book of Garden Designs, they don't have to be master plans (they can just be ideas). His sketch for the landscape design transformation of his front yard is just a few lines and a couple of circles. You can easily play around with ideas without much time and commitment.


2. Think about location


Study sun and wind patterns. You may want to put a patio on the west side of the house, but it will get a lot of afternoon sun, which means dinner in August can be uncomfortably hot. And a wind whistle in a corner will quickly extinguish the fire pit. These are common backyard landscaping mistakes for beginners. Your design should take into account what the sun and wind do at different times of the day and year before setting up patio furniture (like this Better Homes & Gardens Willow Sage All-Weather Wicker Outdoor Cuddle Chair and Ottoman Set, $369, Walmart). It's also a good idea to determine your hardiness zone and do a soil test before planting.


3. Spend time in your landscape


Jumping to quick decisions about your garden can lead to choices that won't work in the long run. Live with it for a while before making changes. After spending a lot of time outside, Lipanovich says, you'll start to see areas you'd like to visit and sit in that you might not have thought of at first. Patio furniture and accessories (like this Better Homes & Gardens Davenport Outdoor Console Table, $347, Walmart) are flexible and can work in multiple areas of your yard.


4. Start small


Sure, a complete outdoor makeover can happen in three days at your favorite home and garden show, but they have a large crew to handle, which most beginning home gardeners don't enjoy. Part of creating the landscape you love is slowly creating a plan and enjoying the process. From your master plan, start with a small flower bed. Go out and work for an hour or two when you have time, and don't worry about filling everything in right away. Lipanovich notes that when you take your time with your DIY landscape design, you're less likely to slow down or resort to shortcuts.


5. Find a focal point


Any good garden design has a focal point or series of focal points, and this is an easy principle. It could be a sculpture or a stunning tree or a series of shrubs. Let the design draw your eye around the landscape, Lipanovich says.


6. Focus on size and speed


This is the trickiest principle in landscape design for beginners, but measurement and pacing can be a draw for your yard. There will be variations in size, shape and color, tall plants against a building or behind a flowerbed, and paths leading people through the space. will be Lipanovich emphasizes the importance of finding a good balance between repetition and new elements. Repetition gives a sense of unity, but you don't want it to be monotonous. A new element every now and then is better than having many different elements throughout.


7. Be open to change


Unless you're seriously committed to something, be honest about what works for you and what doesn't in your design. Even Lipanovitch found the elements she once loved no longer mirrored her style. It's okay to experiment and edit as you go.

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