While first impressions typically begin with your home’s front door, it’s often the backyard that makes the offers the most lasting one. Put your backyard on the map with the right foundation plantings, focal points, and hardscaping design that all contribute to a cohesive design. Whether your property is an empty canvas waiting to be filled or just needs a few touch-ups, these top landscaping ideas for a dream backyard are sure to be of use for your landscaping project.
Foundation Plantings
Take cues from top landscape designers and lay the groundwork for a fabulous backyard with foundation plantings. Planting a well-designed arrangement of shrubs, trees, vines, perennials, and ornamental grasses in a planting bed up against your home’s foundation is critical to creating a warm and inviting backyard space. The interplay between natural and architectural elements aesthetically roots your house’s structure to its surroundings.
Select foundation plantings which match the primary architectural style of your home, using its level of formality as a baseline. For example, if straight lines, symmetrical doors and windows, and an overall orderliness characterize your home’s structure, it’s best to opt for symmetrical hedges and ground covers which mimic its strong architectural edges. Plant clean, clipped hedges underneath windows to complement a formal backyard landscape. Break up your home’s vertical lines using circular or triangular shaped shrubs which mirror each other throughout the foundation planting design. On the other hand, if your home’s architecture revolves around a more fluid, abstract style, consider asymmetrical and spreading foundation plantings for your backyard landscaping. Some top ideas for a dream worthy yard include low-growing weeping varieties, organically-shaped shrubs, and tall evergreen trees planted asymmetrically around an informal architectural structure.
When choosing plantings to ground your dream backyard, it’s important to make sure they don’t obstruct views of key architectural elements, especially when they reach full maturity. Read plant tags carefully before purchasing to determine how much space mature shrubs, trees, and grasses will require. While it may seem relatively easy to select an individual plant at the nursery, the skill, art, and training that’s required to bring it all together cohesively is very extensive. Working with a landscape design professional will result in a better overall project, both aesthetically and functionally.
Utilize Focal Points
Once you’ve successfully anchored your house to its site, is time to practice your creative license. Like any great piece of art, your backyard landscaping should be composed of three visual parts: fore, middle, and background. Focal points reinforce continuity throughout the area, directing the eye from one section to another in the most aesthetically pleasing manner. Highlight specific areas of your backyard landscaping with cleverly located features, such as garden art or a water feature, as well as specimen plants and trees.
Determine the optimal locations for focal points by surveying your backyard. If you were to section off your property into various parts, which areas are you likely to look at first? Try out this method from multiple angles, both from your home’s interior and exterior, and over multiple days. Once you’ve chosen your points of interest, take spatial distance into account. Small, detailed objects fare well in foreground sections, while stately or sprawling trees are necessary for leading the eye to the furthest corners of your backyard landscaping.
Finally, think about the ambiance you’d like to evoke. Do your top landscaping ideas include a Spanish garden design? Incorporate symmetrically installed water fountains and weathered urns into your property, finishing off the look with eye-catching ironwork along its outer edges. Or, for a more quirky, unique look, consider fun elements such as vintage bicycles and rustic wheelbarrows. Adding focal points is an ideal time to bring your dream backyard to fruition, so don’t hold back. Of course, keep in mind that it’s a good idea to refrain from cluttering your landscape. If one or a few sections appear too busy, simply rearrange or remove some focal points until the design appears cohesive.
Never Underestimate Hardscaping
Bring beauty, function, and style to your backyard landscaping with a cleverly integrated hardscape design. Hardscaping refers to the “hard” surfaces of your landscaping, including things like patios, walkways, retaining walls, outdoor kitchens, and outdoor masonry fireplaces. Because these elements form the functional structure of your backyard design, they are critical to its success. Working with a professional design and installation company, install the seating areas, walkways to and from individual outdoor rooms, and focal elements such as a well-placed masonry water feature. Concrete pavers and retaining wall systems offer incredible design versatility, and when you choose Unilock, these products are guaranteed to last a lifetime. Check out the incredibly beautiful and durable products by visiting the Unilock Design Ideas Catalog here.
