There is nothing more satisfying than the sense of accomplishment that stems from creating something yourself. Every year, more people are inspired to take on the challenge of doing their landscape design themselves. At Making a Difference Landscaping of Calgary, we have come up with 4 essential tips when it comes to design that will help you achieve the yard that you have envisioned for you and your family. Of course, we would love for you to come to us for your next Calgary landscaping project.
Landscape Design
Assess your initial Design Idea
Unfortunately, just because an idea looks amazing on Pinterest doesn’t mean it will look amazing on your lawn. Most of these wonderful Pinterest yard inspirations are designs from professional landscape designers who have had years to hone their craft. However, this doesn’t mean that it is impossible to create the yard of your dreams, it means that this requires more forethought that you would think. One thing any landscape designer can tell you is that, because of their physical characteristics, no two yards are ever alike. This means that throwing a few plants around, maybe creating a sort of patio, and then filling the rest of the space with lawn might not work as well as it did on your neighbor’s yard and could potentially lead to disappointment. The best solution to your yard will be the one that compliments the physical characteristics that exist within the site. Before getting any landscaping done, you need to sit down and identify the specific functions you want your space to have, and to compare it to the reality of your current available space. This is especially true in Calgary, as terrain from one neighborhood to the next can be very different.
Understanding Site Requirements
The most important skill to have to determine if the solution you have in mind is the best for your yard is observation and imagination. For example, if your yard is predominantly narrow, then large rounded shapes like largely rounded gazebos when they are not designed with discretion, aggressively split your yard into two unusable spaces, ultimately working against the very nature of your space. Think about function. What specific activity would you and your family enjoy doing in your yard? If there will be different activities, how can the arrangement of different elements complement each other to support the activities that will be ultimately taking place there? Once you have identified this, it will be easier for you to pinpoint the flow between one point in your yard to another, as well as the required space for each component.
Planning is Key
It is just like the popular saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. If you don’t know what your final product will be before you start, how will you know when you’re there? Once you have an idea of what works best for you then put it on paper! Sometimes our imagination gets a hold of ourselves and we think that everything we want will work perfectly together. It isn’t until we see it on paper that we start noticing incongruencies between what we wish to do, and what can actually be done. Having a construction blueprint will help you get an idea of your project’s budget as well as help you plan for trips to hardware stores for materials in advance. If you lack the artistic skills to make a perfect representation of your yard design, there are many software programs (free and licensed), that you can find online that help you design your plan in minutes.
Revise your Plan
There is nothing more frustrating than wasted time and effort. The best way to go about approaching any complex, yet rewarding, a DIY project like landscaping is to think ahead and think of any possible scenario. What most designers, in general, don’t tell you (and this applies to any discipline of design) is that designing is a process, and like any process it takes steps; magazine-ready landscape designs are a result of arduous time and consideration. You might have an excellent initial idea, but you should always get in the habit of thinking how it could be improved. Sure, having a wide variety of plants might look amazing but if you barely have any landscaping/gardening experience, then taking care of each plant’s need might be harder than anticipated. The point of this specific design tip is not to make you paranoid that you might have missed something important in your design, or to halt you from engaging in a positive DIY experience but to stress the point that beautiful landscaping is a result of a design process. The difference between decorating something and designing something is that when you decorate you merely worry about how something looks, yet when you design you incorporate aesthetics into something that works.
At Making a Difference Landscaping inc. we understand the importance of creating spaces that resonate with our clients. Whether you want us to help you achieve your landscaping vision, or you want us to provide quality maintenance to the result of your hard work, please don’t hesitate to give one of our specialists in Calgary a call to discuss any of your questions.
