Designing Your Courtyard

Accents can be used to supplement the courtyard theme

Courtyards are becoming a popular choice among many home owners and they come in all ways to suit the needs of the home owner. These outdoor solutions are also no longer confined to warm climate regions like California and Florida but have become increasingly commonplace across the country. Many look upon courtyards as mini outdoor rooms which allow the family and guests to congregate from public view. It is common to find walls, arbors and plantings and even hedges used as choices to provide relief from the hot summer sun and noise pollution.

The decision to set up a courtyard will very much depend on your tastes, budget, the architecture of your house and the time allotted. Most look upon courtyards as private areas for enjoying the outdoors. The courtyard is a place for relaxing after a hard day’s work, a place for reading the newspapers and can be even a spot for dining and entertaining your guests. Some house owners even include a water feature within its confines since the sound of water and light can add to a pleasing effect.

Designing Your Courtyard:

Add Colored Plantings To Soften the Look of the Courtyard

When designing your courtyard, think about how it will serve your purpose and ensure there is enough room to enjoy those activities. Those who enjoy having walls made of stone, brick and wrought iron as a way of screening your privacy, should consider if such structures will reduce the amount of sunlight coming to your space. One way to check on this is to create some tall stakes with string tied between them to match the expected height of your walls. Sit back and see how it feels. Imagine the views. Move your wall stakes if needed and change your string height to make any adjustments. But of course, the cheaper solution to all this would be to create hedges but even a fast growing hedge can take several years to happen.

When designing the flooring, a good rule of thumb is to ensure that the materials chosen would complement the surrounding elements of the courtyard like the ceiling and the walls. You would not want the materials used to compete with the other and result in the courtyard looking too hyped and busy. Choose plants to complement the look of the courtyard since they come in all colors and can be used to soften the look of the hard surfaces like the walls and the flooring. Vines are also a popular consideration since they can be used to add character to a wall or trellis. A water feature is also a perfect solution towards making your time in your courtyard a relaxing one since water can distract surrounding noise and offer a calming way of screening undesirable sounds.

The Importance of the Front Entry to Your Home

The front entry to your home is the place where your visitors should feel comfortable and remember the kind of reception given to them. And so, the front entry should be warm and inviting with details placed like a pot of flowers and a shiny brass knob to complement the front door so your visitors can appreciate them and feel more welcomed. Some homes even provide a shelter to wait at the front door. These can be expanded as gathering places depending on the space and act as an open invitation for your guests to commune with you over a conversation or two.

Add Front Door Hardware Which Communicate a Theme

Create your front door as part of your landscaping project. Where the front door does not appear to be obvious as part of the landscape as could happen with homes that are not designed to bear architectural symmetry, include strong visual points like the lighted pathways or include statues and potted plants lining the path to the front door. If your entry is small, you can create more attention by upgrading your front door hardware like its door knockers and handles or setting aside potted plants to add attention or better still, resurfacing your landing and steps with thin stone or brick pavers. You can also add character by adding vine covered trellises and hanging basket planters to accentuate the front door.

The bottom line is the front door is the gateway to your house. It is the place where you meet your guests and family, and where you set them off after the visit. You will want the best impressions made at such times and so it is important for the entry to your front door designed as a warm and inviting place. Small detail always add a lot more towards building the character of your front door and promotes the degree of hospitality expected once the visitor gets past the front door.

What Your Front Lawn Should Do for You

Statues like the Nakoma add Character and Structure

So many of us design our front lawns and hope that it will work for us but what should it really do? Well, a front lawn should be designed for those who will enjoy it the most and this usually means it has to work for the family who lives with it. For instance, it must work for the homeowner who needs to park and have the space to haul the bags of groceries to the front or back door of the house. And it must be designed safe for young children who use it during playtime. In short, a lawn must be functional and also aesthetically appealing.

Every home has its own set of cues which need to be addressed in the landscaping process. One of those is of course parking and finding extra room and space to house newer cars which can be larger and in need of wider driveways. If your home is close to a busy road, you may then consider designing walls and hedges to lessen the noise and hustle which comes from passing traffic.

Your yard does not have to look like the others. With a bit of creative style and a reasonable budget to lean on, you can design a project plan for your lawn and garden that works with the style and architectural inclinations of your home. Consider different approaches and get feedback from your family members when designing your project plan. Think through the changes you make. It is always better to erase and start anew with another project plan than to dig out a plant and move a walkway.  

Basics of Front Lawn Landscaping

Front yards boost the character of your home by giving your house its own personality and distinction. Where at one time, front yards or lawns were seen as utilitarian concepts, the front yards of today are now given a fresh impetus and seen as a way of adorning the home and giving it a fresh personality. The yard also boosts the warmth of your home and should be seen as a place for the family to congregate its own social activities.

Budget for Statues Which Convey the Character of Your Garden

Imagine landscaping a bare patch of land. With a little bit of creativity and imagination, you can adorn the garden the same way you would decorate your room. Give it a sense of style with an emphasis on shape, texture and a move towards your favorite colors. But before you purchase the plants and supplies, think about the following as a way of guiding you in the landscaping process:

The Lawn:

Study its physical terrain and the space you will work with and the general landscape it will work with as part of your neighborhood. Even though you may be anxious to start digging, do not rush until you are able to assess the situation with a critical eye. Pen a list of questions to ask as you study your front yard from all points of view. And always pen your observations for review later. Make a scale drawing and a site plan as needed.

The Money:

You have to know how much time and money you will put into your yard projects and the amount of time and money you will spend to keep the landscape maintained. This means you have to know whether you will do the work yourself or include hired help to do the job. Budget constraints occasionally may cause you to scale back your landscaping plans to what the budget allows. But this does not mean that you have to design your landscape all at once. Think about it as a long-term plan so you can better manage your expenses. What’s to say that a long-term plan would not allow you to appreciate the way your landscape is forging over time? In fact, a good plan stretched over time will only allow you to appreciate its results.

The Time:

You have to study the time frame, whether short or long-term, needed to realize your project goals. Trees and certain landscaping features like walls and patios may be installed first before the garden can be landscaped.

Landscaping is a practical and creative process. When you have reached a good solution, it simply means you have been able to combine your family’s needs and interests to create a garden that reflects the character and architectural elements of modern day living.

Changing Trends in Residential Landscaping

Fountain Statues add Character to a Landscape

Over the last century or more, the development of homes has become so familiar. For instance, the front yards have been made to look familiar with a lawn, a few shrubs and a tree or two which could be set up affordably and quickly. However, all this has done nothing to boost what we would call residential landscaping since the look of one house is now no different from the other. Additionally, many families now spend less time in their manicured lawns than they have ever done before.

There has also been a greater dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides with frequent irrigation used to ensure the plants and trees are continually watered. What it has done is to remove the manner gardening was engaged in back in the old days when compost and marsh sludge were applied and weeds were manually pulled out by hand. Today, we put up with fewer weeds with more dependence on chemicals to treat our lawn and garden landscaping projects. It is little wonder why rainwater has become so intensified with chemicals that it has now caused pollution in our waterways.

However, homeowners are now finding creative and environmentally friendly ways to develop their front yards. Many communities are now keeping their neighborhoods cooler with tree-lined streets while natural drainage swales reduce the amount of water carried away by storm drains. There have been pathways built with shared green spaces to support neighborhood activities in communities from basketball to outdoor activities like potlucks and community affairs. All these increase the diversity of plantings thereby boosting the development of more unique lawns and gardens to admire.