If you want to know how to design a functional landscape design, it is best to do it on paper first. This way, you will have an idea of what kind of landscape you want to create before you actually start implementing the landscaping design on the ground. In fact, this is also a good idea for the house owner who wants to put some fresh landscaping in his/her backyard. The landscape design will serve as the guide when the homeowner starts with the landscaping project. As such, the landscape design is one of the most important parts of landscaping. Therefore, it is very necessary for the home owner to know how to design a functional landscape plan before he/she starts doing anything else.
Landscaping design is divided into five main stages, which are in turn classified into smaller sub-stages. The first stage of landscape design is the analysis and assessment of your site’s current condition. This is where you can determine the basic requirements of the landscaping project such as the space available for planting, the size of the plantings, the amount of water needed and the soil’s fertility level.
After the site assessment, you will now proceed with the conceptual design. Here, you will focus on the identification of the most important points to be included in your landscape design such as the focal points, the planting beds, the walkway or path, the flower beds or plants, etc. You can use your site assessment or the previous analysis for the focal points. For instance, if your site has poor soil, it may not be good for plantings with tall grasses. Thus, in this case, you can consider taller plants as focal points instead of the less tall ones to achieve the environmental conditions needed for the plants.
Planting beds are also important part of the landscape that should be given attention to. They should be selected based on their texture. The type of texture of the plant bed will depend on the overall design of the garden. Usually, the best textures are those that complement each other such as the stone and the metal or clay and the soil or rock. When selecting a plant, consider its suitability for the chosen bed texture.
One of the most challenging parts of landscape gardening is choosing the appropriate plants for your garden. It is always best to go natural when you plant your garden to avoid introducing synthetic materials into the environment. When choosing, the plant that fits well in your climate should be the first thing that you should consider. Next is the style of the plantings. You can choose traditional style themes or contemporary or tropical style themes depending on the environment that you have.
When you plant your garden, consider the mature size of the plants. For large trees and shrubs, the mature size of the plant should be bigger in relation to the size of the space available. If you want to plant flowering plants that are taller than the mature size of the soil in the area, it is advisable to use a trellis system to provide support to the growing plants. When it comes to ground cover, there are different types of plants that are suitable to different environments. You should also consider the type of insects that inhabit the environment so that you can determine the type of plants that will need to be excluded from the area.