Balancing Aesthetics and Practicality when Doing your Own Landscape Design

At some point, you cannot resist the desire to redesign your garden or front yard’s landscape especially if you have specific purpose for doing so. And when you do, it is important to know some basic guidelines on Do-It-Yourself landscape design that will allow you to balance the aesthetics and practical aspects of landscape design.

Determine the needs and wants

This will determine the design concept of your landscape. Do you want your garden to accommodate outdoor activities for the children? Then you should allocate an area where you can install a swing, a slide or a special play area that has the proper safety features. Or, would a weekend barbeque be part of your design? Then, your garden should have a barbeque pit and an open space where the family can enjoy outdoor time together. Or do you want to make it a sanctuary of some sort where the family can spend some quiet time alone? Then, your garden or patio should have more trees than grass.

Check the Practical Aspects of Landscape Design

Foremost consideration would be incorporating energy conservation design ideas. This should refer to the inclusion of trees and shrubs in your landscape design that will help promote energy conservation.

• Deciduous Trees to the South and West. Planting these trees at these two points will provide the house with good shade, which will reduce costs of air conditioning during summer. At the same time, during winter when the leaves of the trees have dropped, your home will still have sunlight, when needed.
• Evergreen Trees to the North and West. These trees will serve as windbreaks. That would also reduce the costs of heating during winter.
• Shrubs as Foundation Plantings. Having shrubs can help create an insulating dead air space around the home, thus reducing heating costs. Shrubs should be planted a few feet away from the house’s foundation.

Check the Aesthetic Aspects of Your Landscape Design

For this part, you should take into consideration the different ways that you could make your landscape visually appealing aside from just being practical. The following should be considered as well:

• Harmony. Landscape and the home should sit well together. You cannot have a massive landscape design with trees, patio or deck if the house is disproportionately small. Big trees complement big homes. However, big trees do not work well with small houses.
• Accentuate. There are views in the garden which you can highlight or accentuate to get the desirable views. If your home is located in a rural hillside, there shouldn’t be trees that will obstruct the panoramic views. Identify the finest views and clear any tree obstructing such vista much like the view you get from Villa in Phuket.
• Block Bad Views. As there are fantastic views, there are also undesirable views. These are the vista points that you should block the view with huge trees, thick shrubbery or a fountain.
• Maintain Privacy. This can be achieved by using intimate fencing which means you can make your shrubs as your “living fences” instead of wooden, steel or gated fences.
  

With these guidelines, you are well on your way to achieving a balanced landscape design where no one will think of compromising practicality over aesthetics or vice versa.