Landscaping a private house – create your own design

A private house is good because it has its own yard. It is good to relax in it, you can design it the way you want. But everything should be done according to certain rules – landscape design of the yard, that’s how it is called. The task is not as simple as it seems.

General principles

To make your yard was beautiful, harmonious and comfortable, it is desirable to create a plan before starting work, and then this plan is already realized in reality. And, by the way, in most cases, in the independent development of landscape design, the result is very different from the project. That saw a new plant, which was not on the plan, then did not like in reality that the picture looked “super”. Nevertheless, landscape design of the yard of your house should be done according to the rules, otherwise you can get an uncomfortable yard and unrepresentable look.

Prepare a site plan

The first thing you’ll need is a site plan to scale. You can draw it on a checkered sheet or on millimeter paper. Accept a certain scale, for example, one meter is one or two cells. In the second option, you will be able to draw small details in more detail, but the plan will be large. On the plan should be marked:

• Orientation of the plot in relation to the sides of the light. This is important when choosing plants and planning flowerbeds.
• Existing and planned buildings.

  

• Installed communications (water supply, sewerage, lighting).
• Gate, wicket, distance from the road.
• All existing plants that you will not uproot.
• The vegetable garden and orchard, if planned.
• Children’s playground.

With this initial plan, you can start planning the yard. On this plan it is immediately necessary to allocate shaded places (the sun appears only for a few hours), penumbra (half-day sunlit) and sunny (there is almost no shade at all) zones. To do this, it is best to take colored pencils and shade the zones with different colors.

If there are lower and higher zones on the plot, they should also be marked. It is also necessary to designate springs, springs, retaining walls or proposed places of their installation, all other features of the landscape. All this information should be taken into account when developing the landscape design of the yard.

Define the central object

Before you start working on the landscaping of the yard, you need to decide what you would like to emphasize. It means a large object: a pond, a fountain, a gazebo with a barbecue or without, a pergola. Here is this object and placed on the central place, and around it are placed all the other smaller ones. Moreover, if you choose a pond, does not mean that the site will not be a gazebo or fountain, just the main object will be a pond. He is the main “chip”, and all other structures will only play it up, to complement.

The same rule applies if you want to make the main “theme of the yard” recreation area – a gazebo or pergola, just a platform with sofas, benches, hammock, etc. Near them may well be located and a pond, and a fountain, small architectural objects. The idea is that this zone is the highlight of your yard, and all other objects will play it. Because, on a small usually space, two or three competing ideas is chaos and lack of harmony.

Find a place for everything

Having determined the set of desired objects, take a sheet of cardboard, cut out all the objects from it. Cut out in the scale in which we drew the map, the shape of the planned construction. You can color, you can sign.

Take the images and arrange them on the plan. In the center of the composition we place the selected “main object”. This does not mean that its place is strictly in the center – it can be on the side of the site. Just this corner should be viewed from the windows and / or from the side of the entrance. After all, you should get aesthetic pleasure from your yard.

When you have found a place for the central zone, we start to think about where to put all the other objects larger. Some can be placed close to each other, others – at a certain distance. If everything you want, you do not fit, you will have to sacrifice something or reduce the size. It’s up to the individual to decide what’s more important.

Lay out the paths and design the lighting system

When everything you want to see on the plot is placed on the plan, it’s time to lay the paths and think about the lighting system. Why do these two different systems need to be planned at the same time? Because paths are usually illuminated, otherwise it’s not very comfortable to walk along them at night. Here and pull cables along them, supplying voltage to the lights, and also – pulling the lighting to all the key points of the yard – to the gazebo, fountain, stream, etc.

When planning walkways, there are two basic rules. First – if it is necessary to visually approximate the object, lay a straight path. This rule applies if the plot is large in area or long and narrow. Another possible area of application is a yard decorated in the style of minimalism. Here just other forms are unacceptable – only strict geometric shapes. Although, broken lines are also welcome.

In all other cases, straight paths are tried to avoid. Too “loop” is not necessary, but winding, smoothly turning paths harmoniously fit into any other style of yard design.

When outlined on the plan of the paths, draw fixtures to illuminate the yard. Along the paths – after a meter and a half or two, to illuminate arbors and grounds – more often. And also looks beautiful illumination of water, if there are “water” objects.

Layout of the site from improvised means

How else but the site plan on millimetrovka and cardboard analogues of different landscape objects can visualize your design project? There is a simple way – with the help of ordinary plasticine or other improvised means. The house and other buildings are better to make of Styrofoam and cardboard, the gazebo from sticks. Paths lay out of material similar to the planned “original”. This will help to evaluate the invented texture and color scheme. Everything else – benches, a pond, fountains, trees, bushes, flowers – all this is molded from plasticine. For plausibility, trees and bushes can be made of twigs, sticking “foliage” of approximately the same shade. And yes, we do everything in scale (for example, 1 meter equals 1 cm or 2 cm). This is exactly the 3D volume image, which will accurately convey to you and proportions, and convenience and all other nuances, created by you landscape design of the yard.

Landscape design programs

If you are a confident PC user, then the task of design development will help simplify the programs for landscape design. The bad news is that they are paid, but to create a landscape design of the yard of a private house will not be difficult and interesting. There are a dozen or two programs, but here are the most popular:

• Our Garden. There is a large built-in library of plants, planner paving, fences, wickets, etc. The ability to upload missing materials or textures, plants is available.
• Googl ScatchUp. This is not a profile program, but it has a landscape planning section, which is great – full of tutorials on how to work specifically with landscape creation.
• Punch. The disadvantage of the program is that there is no possibility to add your own objects. You can use only those that are in the software library. Another disadvantage – there is no possibility to export the results, that is, you will not be able to use the created project in other programs. But it is simple and requires almost no time to learn.
• Sierra LandDesigner 3D. Large database of plants and other objects. It is possible to enter your own data and use them in your work. Each possible action has a hint, so it is easy to understand as you go along. In the program you specify the type of soil and the style in which you want to design your yard. The program will automatically select suitable objects. When finished, you can print the project and get an estimate.

Examples of the layout of the yard area

Independent landscape design of the yard of a private house is not an easy task. The difficulty is that often what looks good on the picture or “in the head”, turns out “not very” in reality. Therefore, it is easier to rely on photos of real objects. At least there you can see what you got. The idea can be taken “in its entirety”, and you can partially, adapting to your own desires or conditions.

Example one – with water objects

For example, the center is a pond. Want to still have a gazebo, fountain and stream, alpinarium, flowerbeds, benches? In this case, this option will look good:

The option with a “real” brook is easily realized in the presence of at least a small difference in height on the site. The fountain is then placed in the highest point, the pond – in the lowest. Water at this location runs by gravity, you only need to organize its supply from the pond to the fountain (using a pump of a certain capacity and a system of pipes).

If there is no height difference, there are two ways out – to make it artificially (a very large amount of work and significant material costs) or to make two autonomous water objects – a fountain and a pond, and the stream to make “fake”, made of stones. Another option is not to make a stream at all. Unrelated pond and fountain is also a very viable and beautiful option for the design of the adjacent territory.

Example two – in the center of the recreation area

If the pond is usually taken from the entrance to the house at some distance, the recreation area is often made next to it. But the “recreation area” can be perceived differently. For someone it is comfortable sofas, benches, swings on which it is convenient to read, for someone – a platform with a gazebo and a table, located next to the barbecue.

Depending on wishes, a recreation area of any type can be near the entrance, or maybe – at the opposite end of the site. And near the same gazebo can be a pond or a fountain. But not a gazebo near a pond, but a pond near a gazebo. That’s the difference. The path from the entrance leads to the gazebo, and from it you can get to the pond.

Near the gazebo, covered or open area for recreation, can be located flowerbeds, alpinariums, rockeries. Along the path – flower beds, plants higher – bushes and trees, in the shade of which it is reasonable to put benches. But whatever you plant along the path, in the future should be visible in the main object – a gazebo or a platform with sofas.

Photo-ideas of beautiful corners of private yards

Landscape design of the yard – not an easy task even for professionals, and even for amateurs and even more so. Too many nuances need to know. It is much easier to find a favorite design, and then photo reproduce on your site.

Front garden

Palisade is a small part of the plot between the front of the house and the fence. Not everyone wants to put the house right up to the sidewalk, as well as to push it far into the interior of the site. That’s what you get in front of the house is not wide (a meter or two) strip of land, which except for flowers and shrubs in any other way do not ennoble.

No matter how narrow the strip between the fence and the house, it is desirable to divide it into two zones – a flower bed and a path. The path – not necessarily solidly laid tiles or other coating. It can be lawn grass with tiles laid in any order (with gaps).

If the climate is hot, the site is arid or there is no desire / opportunity to mess with the lawn, you can replace the grass with mulch or fine gravel. An excellent composition is obtained from painted colored gravel and several beautiful plants.

Pay attention to the location of plants – it depends on the type of fence. If the fence is solid, you need to develop a planting plan so that they look good from the windows. In this case, the tallest plants are placed closer to the fence, the lowest plants – closer to the house. If the fence is sparse, more decorative, and you want a beautiful view from the street, the planting plan is reversed: the tallest plants – along the house, the lowest plants – closer to the street.

If you want to have a beautiful view from both sides, there are two options. The first – planted in the flower garden small and medium-grown varieties of flowers and greenery. The second is to divide the front garden into several zones, make separate flowerbeds or alpine gardens/rockeries, which look good from any point.

Entrance/entrance area

The entrance group is the area near the porch, the entry group is the area near the gate. As you can see, the design is different, although there are some commonalities: all the “decorations” should not block the view. You should be clearly visible to those who enter or drive into your territory. Therefore, mainly medium and low-growing plants are used.

The traditional way to decorate the area near the porch or gate – flower beds or flowerbeds. They can be of the standard kind – just plants of different species that create a constantly blooming or verdant carpet.

You can also follow the latest trends in landscape design – most of the area is occupied by decorative rubble or mulch, at a distance from each other to plant plants. In addition to the modern look, this option is good because less care for fewer plants is required, and the purchase will take less money. This will really help to get by with “little blood” if you have just started to realize the created by you landscape design of the yard of a private house. Too many plants at one time to buy and plant – a lot of money and time is needed. And so, you can gradually add plants, at the same time along the way adjusting the plan.

Decorating the paths

Having planned the paths, you still need to choose the material from which they will be made. The standard approach – paving tiles, but it requires a lot of money, although the coating turns out to be reliable and comfortable. If finances are tight, you can temporarily make paths and paths from inexpensive materials. Some of them require a little money, and they look great, and in use are good.

On the edge of the paths can be let low-growing shrubs – to make a low green hedge. If you wait until the shrubbery grows is no time, plant low-growing varieties of flowers. They are available in different heights, colors and blooming dates.

The second often recessed option for decorating the place along the paths – flower beds. And, again, they can be made “in a modern way” – on the background of filling with rubble or mulch. Rockery can not be called such a thing, although the idea is taken from there.

Backyard

All the theorizing about the landscape design of the yard was, in fact, about how to equip the backyard. It is this part of the backyard is closed from prying eyes and it is here that you want it to be beautiful, cozy and comfortable. We will not talk about planning again, but we will tell you how and what is better to pave this area.

If you have a backyard paradise planned – you have no problems. Plants, lawns, paths, everything will be painted, how and what to do is clear. But if you want to make a recreation area here, so that you can put a table for the summer, deck chairs – in the sun to lie in the sun, maybe – a pool to install? What then should be the covering of the backyard? There are options:

• Lawn. This is an excellent option, if the water table is low, soils well drain water or the site is made a good drainage system. If not, there will be puddles, mud, and grass problems.
• Lay paving slabs or pave everything with flagstone – a good option even for clay soils with a high water table, easy to care for. But it is too “urban”, hard and unforgiving.
• Combine lawn with tiles. A very correct approach. And comfortable, and beautiful, and there is not so much dirt, and there is somewhere to walk barefoot.

As you can see, there are three options, but the ways of their realization – thousands, or even more. Different styles of design, different plants, combinations of materials, furniture, decorations, ponds/fountains/benches/swings. You can’t name it all. All of this allows you to create exactly your yard. Individual and different from others.

Just a photo