Land Scaping Ideas

101 Ideas: Landscaping don'ts

Avoid the time, money and maintenance hogs of big landscaping mistakes. Here are seven must-not-dos of home landscaping.

1. Don't let landscaping overwhelm your house. Choosing varieties of trees and shrubs that are bred to grow to a particular size means you won't have to spend your time pruning or fighting your way out the front door.

2. Don't start landscaping without a plan even if you intend to do the work in stages. A detailed plant-by-plant rendering isn't necessary, but do know where your hardscaping needs to go, allow room for access by delivery or work vehicles, and, where there's going to be heavy traffic, put plants in last.

3. Don't plant too much of the same thing. When flowering trees drop their buds, what will the landscape offer?

4. Don't let a big lawn suck your resources. A nice stand of lush grass is a time, water and nutrient glutton. Reduce the size of your lawn with landscape beds that feature attractive, low-maintenance perennials, shrubs and trees.

5. Don't let ivy climb your house unless you're ready to do annual pruning. The ivy vines may be beautiful, but, once established, they can cover windows, gutters and beyond. They can also serve as bridges for pests, especially termites. And never let vines climb a frame house.

6. Don't plant trees too close to the house, and don't plant species that may overtake the yard or your home's proportions.

7. Don't install one-dimensional planting beds. Plant in layers, with low-growing plants concealing the legginess of the taller plants behind. The small "facer" plants give you the chance to introduce plants of a complementary color and texture

Courtesy Marie Hofer on hgtv.com

(For thousands of other ideas visit www.hgtv.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.

Easy-to-Manage Front Yard Landscaping Ideas | Bluemels.com

Having a low maintenance front yard is the goal of many people. You can get easy-to-manage front yard landscaping done by any of the professional landscapers in your area or you can do it yourself. Either way you can have front yard landscaping done that will take minimal work to keep looking fantastic all year round. If you are going to get a professional in to do your front yard landscaping though, be sure to tell him that this is your over all goal, that you want to have a yard that will not take a lot of work to keep up.

If you have less grass in your front yard landscaping then you will cut out a lot of maintenance time right there. Mowing the lawn can take up a lot of time and energy so keeping the grass to a minimum is a great way to save on work. Talk to a landscape expert about alternatives that you can use to keep your yard look good with little lawn area.

Some people choose to use clover instead of grass. Using a clover lawn in your front yard landscaping is a good idea because it will save you money and time. You will not have to mow it very often at all and a clover lawn is even good for front yard landscaping in area that is prone to droughts. They do well virtually everywhere. And best of all for those who want to get out there and enjoy their front yard landscaping, bugs hate clover.

Watering the yard can be a big hassle as well. That is why many people incorporate automatic irrigation systems into their front yard landscaping designs these days. This can save you tons of time and money. This is one of the easiest ways for you to keep your yard looking healthy and well watered during the hotter months of the year. No more hooking up the sprinkler or having to drag out the hose. You can get a professional to install one of these systems for your front yard landscaping design quickly and easily or you can get a kit and do it yourself. We would recommend hiring a professional unless you have experience with this kind of thing. If you were to cause a leak then you could face some flooding and rotting issues and neither of these is going to do anything for your front yard landscaping.

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