Designing a Home: Outdoor Garden Features

Creating a garden that you and your family can live in for many years to come often requires the same invested time that you would spend with a blueprint architect on creating your dream home. Walkways, water features, planting beds, and seating are all areas that require special consideration. Without cautious landscape planning, many problems can appear that may become disastrous pitfalls. Here are five design snares you can be sure to avoid.

Make a Plan First

Talking to a landscape architect about possibilities in your garden design may be your first inclination, but before you do that, it is desirable to know what you want to include in the design. Mark out flowerbeds and walkways to visually invest yourself in the plan. If you want to add a pool, make sure to include the decking and a safety fence in the design, and an area for movement outside the fence. With a fire pit, plan for ample seating and legroom; and don’t forget storage. Once you have the area marked out, and everything you want to be included, call in the landscaper for his or her professional opinions.

Understand Water Features

Knowing the sizes and costs of ponds, fountains, waterfalls, and pools can help you stay within your landscaping budget. If you’ve got the room to install a pool, one of the best ways to assess the cost is to check a website like this one, where an Ohio home builder breaks down the cost of installing an inground pool. Other considerations for pool-side water features can include overhanging trees that keep some areas of the yard in partial shade or drop leaves into the pool, access to an area to dry off or towel down, and a seating arrangement. For parents with young children, plan a way into the house without dripping water all over the house.

Know Your Land

Whether it is a sloping site, poor drainage, or huge tree trunks, your garden is unique. With this uniqueness can come problem areas. Perhaps you have a gravel filled area that you want to make into a flowerbed, a tree trunk in the middle of the desired walkway, or a pothole-filled area where you want a grassy yard. Although it may change your plans, consider a water feature in the gravel area, a flowerbed where the tree trunk is, and leveling the potholes to create an even play area. Knowing what your land has to offer in its unique way can help you design an area that doesn’t cost a fortune or cause maintenance problems in the future.

Include A Storage Plan

If you thought you could fit all your garden tools and accessories into the garage for storage, you might want to rethink that plan. Most garden items require storage in harsh winters, and that can include more than simple tools. Solar lighting, some fountains, children’s bikes and toys, garden chairs, recycling containers and numerous other  items will all require storage space for the winter months. One of the best options is a shed or outbuilding. Make sure there is a plan for easy access when you design the area around your shed, and that doors can open easily.

Develop a Green Plan

Gardening and composting have grown in popularity in the past two decades, and if they are part of your lifestyle, creating a working area can be a major consideration. Other than having enough space for your plants, knowing how the water will get to the area, and where the refuse can break down is essential in a gardening plan.

Your garden can become a haven if you take the time to plan out what you want to include. Talking to a professional landscaper and pool designer can also provide you with information you may not have considered. It is your life and your home, create a garden to fit into it.

Images: courtesy of Pixabay

In the first image, the garden design is by Marzenna Gaines from Krakow Garden Design

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