Landscape Design Ideas - Landscape Photos

While most homeowners can handle the simple tasks of yard maintenance -- lawn mowing, weeding, seasonal plantings and cleanup, etc. -- the larger scales project of landscaping and landscape design are beyond most of us. When we had a new home built in New England, we were left with a dirt-covered 2 acres surrounding the house, with woods behind us and that's about it. The builder offered to throw in a few small "foundation plantings" and do some lawn seeding, but hardly enough to qualify as a completed yard. So we opted for the services of a professional landscape designer and architect. What does a landscape designer do? Basically, they bring their horticultural expertise to your yard, and help you come up with a plan on how you want your yard designed, from trees, flowers, and shrub selections, to paths and walkways, to water features, to sprinkler systems, to stone work and patios, to lawns and hedges, they can assist with everything.

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One thing landscape architects are really good at is giving you landscape ideas. They should have a binder or website filled with photos from their past landscaping design jobs - ask to see them, though they should be offered to you during your first meeting. Of course your own yard size, layout, and location will in part determine what is possible, but you can get a lot of great ideas by looking at pictures of other yards and gardens. For example, you might see a patio layout that you really like, or a type of shrub or tree that jumps out at you, or a style of masonry or stonework lining a garden area. At the early design stages, it is easy to mix and match ideas. Your landscape architect should be able to tell you the best plants for your area, based not only on soil type, sunlight exposure, and latitude, but also on the look you are trying to create in your yard. Once you get out the basic ideas on what you want your yard to look like, your landscaper will put together a blueprint or sketch of the whole landscaped yard, often times using a computer program that can create 3-D views from a variety of angles to help you visualize what the yard will look like. The overhead plan drawing will be the master plan that is consulted when the plantings and other work actually takes place, so it will have to be updated if you make changes to tree locations, walkways, etc. While the design plan is being built, you'll also run up against the biggest challenge of any project - staying within budget. Most people start with a maximum budget in mind, but these things always tend to creep over by 20-30%, so be prepared for that. But based on the square footage and materials used for walkways, patios, retaining walls, etc. and the number and size of trees and shrubs going in, the master design plan should also come with a detailed budget printout, showing how much is being spent on each item. Most landscape designer wills break out the cost of labor, materials, and plantings. It is standard to put 50% down on a project with the rest due at completion. How much does landscaping cost? We managed to spend more than $25K on lawn seeding, plants and trees, some rock boulder borders, and a sprinkler system. If you are doing a lot of stone work on patios, walls, etc. your costs can quickly escalate.

Landscape Design Photos

For most people, it can be tough to visualize what a finished landscape project will look like. We found a couple of online sites with free landscape photos and designs for you to browse, helping you get ideas on what you want your yard to look like. Check out addis-gardendesign.co.uk - nothing fancy here, but a few small garden sample designs with photos to get your brain going. Even better is LeafAppeal.com with more than 200 nice, large photos of yards and gardens -- front yard pictures, side yards, plant combinations, garden art, landscape beds, curbs and beauty strips, containers and pots, even cactus gardens! For some stone work and patio ideas, check out breningsupply.com. They offer a lot of free photos based around the stone materials they sell, with some cools shots of gardens and patios and walls, and some siding shots thrown in as well. AcresWild.co.uk is another British site with their landscaping portfolio online - you can browse through a number of landscaping jobs, including ponds, pastures, herb gardens, patios, and water features. Finally, check out The-landscape-design-site.com for all kinds of landscape design diagrams, photos, and plans. They have information on creating focal points, planning small gardens and large gardens, plant encylopedias, pool landscape photos, and fence, deck, and patio plans -- nice site with lots of resources for planning.

Where can I get ideas and tips for landscaping my yard?

BHG.com, better known as Better Homes and Garden, is another great site for checking out pictures and ideas of landscaping. They have lots of articles about different landscape topics, like Front Yard Landscape Secrets, Yard Makeovers, Home Landscaping 101, Landscape the Corner Lot, Stretching Your Landscape Budget, Fall Color Garden Plans, etc. For example, the Front Yard article has 16 pages of slides showing front yard landscape ideas, with pictures of each and commentary regarding use of hedges, paving, flowers, etc. They also have a nice selection of garden plans -- for late season color, cold climates, small front yards, shade gardens, etc. To get access to the detailed planting guides that come with these plans, you have to register with the site, which is free. This is a great site overall, with a lot of first-rate content - be sure to check it out when you begin your search for landscape ideas and photos.

Landscape Lighting

Often overlooked, landscape lighting can really add to your yard, giving it a dramatic, welcoming glow once the sun goes down. Lighting can also make your property safer, providing less places for prowlers to hide and preventing family and guests from stumbling in the dark .Best planned and installed when you do your original landscaping, you can also add landscape lights as an afterthought to add accent lights to your front or back yard. But planning in advance makes it much easier -- for example if you are putting in walkways and patios, you'll want to run conduit beneath them beforehand so electrical wires can be snaked through later -- it's no fun trying to excavate a tunnel for wires beneath a finished driveway or walk. Some of the most common outdoor lighting uses are: to light up a walk way; to light up the perimeter of a patio; to light up a deck area; to add dramatic effect by lighting up specific trees around a home -- commonly done in the front yard. Most landscape lighting installations require the work of a professional electrician, since an outdoor electrical box will have to be installed and wired into the home electric system, then wiring must be run to all the exterior lights -- figuring out the proper loads and connections is not a guessing game! There are a lot of good online stores that sell landscape lighting - you can either get ideas there, or buy your actual light fixtures at prices better than your local lighting store. Check out LightingDirect.com for starters. You can buy deck and rail lights for about $25 to $100 each, depending on how fancy they are. They offer a complete selection of pond and well lights, path lights, floodlights, hanging lights, and accent lights. We have Kichler accent lights in our front yard - they look good and are durable (just change the bulbs about once a year). They offer a good variety of the Kichlers, available in spike mounts for the ground or wall mount arms, with prices ranging from $35 to $150. One word of caution -- be very skeptical of solar-powered lights. All the solar-powered lights we have seen are so dim that they really provide no useful light at all -- it's more like having a few random white Christmas bulbs sprinkled around the yard, you can see them, yes, but they throw off very little light. Stick with the wired lights if you want bright accent lighting and bright, lit-up driveways and walks. Another good site is Residential-Landscape-Lighting-Design.com. They offer accents lights, area lights, fountain and underwater lighting, flood lights, hanging and pendant lights, porch and patio lights, and more, and you can search by price range, type of light, or finish. Good selection, located in Texas they have been in business for more than 20 years. Finally, visit LandscapeLightingShop.com. They have a great selection of deck lighting, path and bollard lighting, accent lights -- you name it. They also offer no hassle returns, which is important when you are buying thing sight unseen online.

Do you have a quality site or product that belongs in this guide? We are always happy to evaluate or review new products and websites. Feel free to contact us at the email address below and let us know about you. If you have a demo product you'd like us to look at, please contact us before sending anything. Thank you.

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