Your landscaping is speaking louder than you think! When people approach your home, the first thing they notice is the welcome mat we call the yard. What does yours say about you?

If it’s not a showcase, don’t panic! This isn’t about having to spend a small fortune keeping up with the Joneses or feeling bad that you haven’t changed anything you inherited when you moved in ten years ago. This article will show you a few simple tricks you can use to make your landscape uniquely yours.

What kind of landscape am I?

Formal

– You like a place for everything and everything in its place. If it’s not a right angle, it’s a wrong angle. Clean lines for walkways, hedges, and gardens are important. Beds are defined and contained and tend to be filled with traditional plantings.

Modern

– You like clean lines too, but might want to shake it up a little with some trendy show-off specimen plants or boulders. Less is more, but what is there needs to make a statement. Contrast is King, with bold splashes of color against quartz rock, or an austere gray flagstone against a row of tall, feathery ruby grass.

Romantic

– You want your landscape to emote, to lure, to seduce your guests into sticking their noses deep into the roses. You want hidden corners for flirtatious evenings and magical passageways to gurgling fountains or pools of dappled morning sunlight through feather-fine acacia leaves. Nothing harsh, hard or angular, and tons of garden surprises.

Waldenesque

– You long to live in the woods and want your yard to evoke Thoreau’s cabin. Graduated layers of flowers among sweet woodruff lead to deep greens of viburnum and flowering dogwood, finally giving way to a cedar backed by tall maples and oak that together give the illusion of depth and the promise of leaving the world behind. Somehow the dirt smells earthier in your yard, and all the birds and butterflies call it home.

Zen

– You embrace the feng shui concept of stark simplicity punctuated by an object of zen-like beauty. Your landscape invites all who enter to examine the excesses of their own lives and embrace the one true quality they hold most dear. Bare earth, stone or wood chips contained in a simple wood-beam mandala provide the canvas. A cultured bonzai pine, single exquisite rose bush, bubbling fountain or meditative statue may provide the point of inspiration.

But my yard doesn’t look like any of those!

Thank goodness that the journey begins with just one step, no? Here are the simple tips we promised!

• Decide what kind of landscape represents “You.”
• Clear out anything that doesn’t feel like “You!” Pull weeds, dig up plants you don’t like, cut down dead shrubs and trees.
• Plan an enjoyable research outing to discover the myriad materials and plants available to help create your new landscape.
• Start at your front door and work outward. Frame your entrance in your style. A simple start is using container plantings. Soften sharp lines at your stoop with round tubs and cascading flowers, or accentuate them with rectangular planters and upright spikes or grasses. Appropriate pottery or statues can also help set your tone.
• Create a step-by-step plan for the rest of the yard that honors your time and budget. Pick a small area of the landscape and redo it. Even a small step like replacing a mail box or lamp post with one that reflects your new style can set a pace that will get you to the next phase.
• Plan ahead for any professional help you may need such as grading, stump removal, stonework (retaining walls, patios, walkways), water or fire feature installation, or large tree installation.

Boulder Landscape and Design can help create your personalized landscape. We offer consultations and would be pleased to speak with you about design and installation for your dream landscape. Contact Us Today to schedule an appointment.