Landscape and Garden Design Tips For New Homeowners

Landscape and garden design is top priority as you’re excited about your new home. You can’t wait to finish decorating and furnishing every space in your home, including your lawn and garden. However, when you first start considering what the perfect layout for your garden would be, the options and work involved can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, you can simplify the entire garden design process by understanding how it works.  In order to get your landscape and garden design right, keep the following basic tips in mind:

Don’t Brainstorm Your Landscape and Garden Design Ideas in a Vacuum

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with garden design is to sit in an empty room and try to come up with ideas. Successfully designing a garden requires inspiration; for this, there is inspiration all around you. In particular, there are three sources that you should pull inspiration from:

Nature — Naturally beautiful landscapes allow you to see how garden life can flow on its own with the right setup

Professionals — Looking at beautifully laid out parks, checking out professionally landscaped homes, and consulting with a landscaper are all great sources for landscaping ideas

Your neighborhood — Walking around your area and adding features from your neighbors’ garden designs that you do like — and avoiding the features that you don’t like — can really help you develop your own design, especially since the homes in the area will have some similarities to your own

Think Function and Form for Your Design

You want to be able to enjoy your outdoor space as your own little garden oasis. For this, you need to consider both form and function (you can’t create a garden oasis feel without the right design, but you can’t enjoy your garden oasis if your design hasn’t left you with any room to relax in it).

Create a Realistic Design Budget

Garden design budgets can vary drastically. If you approach your design haphazardly, you could find yourself turning your pockets inside out before the job is even half of the way done. On the other hand, you could end up missing on some outstanding garden design elements that you could easily afford if you approach the project cheaply with no real budget in mind. Avoid these types of issues by setting a realistic budget before you begin with your final plans. This way, you know what you can really afford to do. Also, because sudden expenses can occur, be sure to give your budget an extra 10%-20% emergency cushion.

Another issue to bear in mind is water savings and homeowners should set up a design that saves water and ultimately money.  The state of California has laws in place in regards to water irrigation in order to protect and efficiently manage the county’s water supply.

Decide What You Can and Can’t Do On Your Own

Even if you have a green thumb, don’t simply assume that you can do it all. Installing certain fixtures, plants, etc into a garden the right way requires a team of professionals and the right equipment. Consult with a professional landscaper to discuss your options here.

Write Your Design Plans Down

Once you have all of your garden design plans in place, you need to make sure that you stick to them — and that you’re really going to like them. To this end, you should write everything down in two forms: prose and sketch. Writing everything you need down will keep your design plans in perspective with your budget and drawing a picture will give you a good depiction of how everything will actually look when you’re all done (the real thing doesn’t always match up with what’s in your head. If you can’t draw, then have a professional landscaper help you develop the image.

You’re Not Far From the Design of Your Dreams

Now that you know how to approach landscape and garden design, it’s time to get the process started. Reach out to us for a consultation as we’re here to help you get started.

Tagged: DK Landscaping, garden, Landscape Maintenance, landscaping