TipTop Business Web Directories - Add your sites link starting at £1

If you can see this, your browser doesn't understand IFRAME. However, you can click <A HREF="http://www.tiptopweb.info/newsbar/news_bar.php">here</A> to see the news.

Home | Culture And Society | Current Affairs

Landscaping for a Year-Round Yard

By: Tom Selwick

You can landscape your yard in such a way so that it looks great no matter what season you are in. Like any other great thing in life, you want your yard's beauty to last.

In order to do that, you have to plan not just for the summer months when there is an abundance of sunshine, but you have to make sure things look good on the gloomy days too. There are many factors that determine what it is you can do with your property to make this happen.

You have to consider how much space you are working with, budget, materials, climate, design, and purpose. These are just a few, but there are so many more things you need to consider when planning the look of your outdoor space.

One of the first steps you can take is to make sure you are providing something of interest in each of the four seasons. Do-it-yourself landscaping for four-season interest begins with a well researched plant-selection plan.

The goal is to have flowering trees and/or shrubs throughout spring and summer, fall foliage in the autumn, and good structure in winter. To make colors stand out more, layer your planting beds in three rows.

The back row should face north and have the tallest plants, the middle row with the next tallest, and a front row composed of your shortest plants. Use repetition, both in the planting beds and elsewhere in your yard, to provide unity.

The layering should focus on deciduous trees and shrubs, but do not forget evergreens and other plants that are known for their foliage and not so much their flowers. The deciduous species provide more color and variety, while the evergreens will provide continuity.

Perennial flowers are wonderful for your planting beds, but they only bloom for so long. You may have perennials blooming in your bed in May, then nothing until July.

Incorporating annuals into your landscaping plan will fill in the gaps and give you continuous color in the yard. Do not restrict your design plans just for the plants, there are many other aspects that you can incorporate in your outdoor space.

You can include hard-scape features as well to provide structure in winter and serve other purposes. Walls and fences make an essential design statement, as they frame your property.

Decks and arbors are other important hard-scape features. Patios and decks provide transitions from indoors to outdoors.

Good landscape designs are anchored by focal points, and one of the most popular trends is to use water features as focal points. Water features are not only visually appealing, but they emit soothing sounds as well.

If you use pre-formed rigid plastic liners, durable pumps, flexible tubing and cheap fountains, they can be a lot easier to install than you think. Once you have experimented with ponds, you may even decide to install simple waterfalls.

Flowers are great, but do not forget the characteristics of a plant's branching pattern and foliage. In landscape design, varying form and texture is one way to spice up a yard with diversity.

Evergreen conifers, while lacking flowers altogether, have foliage that offers a myriad of different forms and textures. While exploring the many different design options, you can put the pieces together of what you want your outdoor space to look like.

Be careful while putting in all of these flowerbeds and shrubs that you do not put in more than you can handle in the way of maintenance. The more plants you put in, there more you have to worry about weeds, watering, bugs, and rodents.

Even if it is beautiful, it can be a pain to maintain, and if you get lazy, it can get ugly pretty fast. Unlike typical landscaping, this will require you to take care of things year-round, and not just in the warmer months.

By staying on top of your yard and the weeds, you will be able to maintain a beautiful yard that will be the envy of all of your neighbors. In addition, you will be able to enjoy the beautiful outdoors with your family and friends on nice summer evenings.

Article Source: http://articles.tiptopweb.info

Tom Selwick has worked in the lawn care industry for the past 22 years. For quality lawn care in Atlanta he recommends (www.weedpro.com)

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Current Affairs Articles Via RSS!

Additional Articles From - Home | Culture And Society | Current Affairs

Business
Investments
Finance
Real Estate
Home Business
Wealth Building

Food and Drink
Health
Fashion
Recreation
Travel

	Print This Article
	Post Comment
	Add To Favorites
	Email to Friends
	Ezine Ready

Submit Articles
Member Login
Top Authors
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds

About Us
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Vote For Tiptop Web Aritcles Directory - http://www.articles.tiptopweb.info
at Top Article Directory List
Top List

Landscaping for a Year-Round Yard addthis_pub = 'ex_plo_rer';

Landscaping for a Year-Round Yard