At Home Living: Careful landscaping creates curb appeal

The yard is blah.

It needs a certain something to give it curb appealand make it more useful and enjoyable.

But dont expect to grab shovels, trees and paving bricks at the local big box, spend a weekend afternoon horsing stuff around and then getting a satisfactory result.

To get a good resultwhether a do it yourself project or letting the landscaping professionals do itit takes a number of steps, but one in particular: Planning.

Dont start landscaping without a plan even if you intend to do the work in stages, HGTV advises in 7 Top Landscaping Donts. Know where your hardscaping (the inanimate features of the yard) needs to go, allow room for access by delivery or work vehicles, and, where theres going to heavy traffic, put plants in last.

Thus, delay the trip to Lowes, the Home Depot or one of the areas several greenhouses before beginning. Remember, people go to school to learn how to landscape properlyand artistically.

Further, landscaping is more than just some trees, shrubs, flowers and a weed-free lawn. As Topeka Landscape notes on its website at topekalandscape.com, the choice of landscaping elements is broad: deciduous trees and shrubs, evergreen trees and shrubs, vines and groundcovers, grasses, perennials, annuals, rock, walls and patios.

Add in further luxury items like fountains, pools, fire pits, kitchens, walkways, fancy planters and gazebos and the complexity of the project compounds.

Though a simple or complicated plan, one local horticulturist and landscaper says having a design focal point is key.

Its a point of interest that youre creating, said Kirk McFadden of Urban Prairie Lawn in Eudora, Kansas. You want something thats a little out of the norm. Thats where your eye will go.

Go here to read the rest:
At Home Living: Careful landscaping creates curb appeal