As trends change and your landscape becomes overgrown, older homes look outdated and out of place. Consider giving them a fresh look by sprucing things up with a landscape makeover. This will easily improve the overall appearance of your home and make your outdoor living space a more inviting place.
Recreating your landscape may seem overwhelming, but it’s a rewarding task that will greatly impact the usability and value of your home. Start the process by deciding what look you want in your yard. If you need help visualizing, ask a professional landscape architect or designer for ideas and a landscape plan. Think ahead before starting your outdoor remodel. If you also plan to renovate the outside of your home, you should do that before you install your new yard. Make sure your projects don’t impact each other. This can cost you time and money.
It’s also important to incorporate water conserving ideas into your new yard. Consider water-wise plants that don’t require a lot of water once they are established. A well-designed, efficient irrigation system, installed by trained specialists, is a must for conserving water and maintaining healthy plants. Most of us have hectic lives, and a low maintenance landscape is a must. Use plants that are hardy for our high desert climate, slow growing and require minimal pruning. Ask an experienced plant specialist to suggest the right plants for your particular yard and tell you how to care for them before making your plant selections. Although no yard is maintenance free, good choices and planning can free up time working in our yards and reward us with time to enjoy them.
Find a landscape architect to design the yard of your dreams. A landscape architect is a licensed professional who can help create concepts, sketches, detailed plans, and construction documents that are used for significant or complicated installation plans. Many also do the very work they have designed for you.
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You’re finally relaxing in the oasis you created, getting away from it all! However, as you look around, you notice that your landscape could use more color. Fear not; you can add some pizzazz to your landscape -- even during the dog days of summer.
Annuals:
Colorful hanging baskets can spruce up a patio or entrance way; purchase one pre-made or create your own. You can also create a handsome container using a frost free pot planted with annuals, which can be moved to different locations to add the most interest; in the fall, plant with evergreens for winter interest. Plant annuals between your spent perennials and shrubs, especially in the shade where brighter colors attract the eye.
Perennials:
Add flowering perennials like ‘Stella’ daylilies that bloom twice. ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum start blooming now and into the late fall. Pair some black eyed susan, with grasses which provide three seasons of interest. Hostas love shade and come in a variety of greens and creams, flowers and different textures. Bright red crocosmia, lavender, Russian sage, asters, and cone flowers are a few that will add color during those dog days.
Shrubs:
Rose of Sharon, potentilla, butterfly bush, hydrangeas (several varieties) and many spiraea bloom now and into the end of August. Plant burning bush along with ‘Tiger Eye’ sumac for fall color -- it also provides beautiful yellow/orange color in summer.
Trees:
Maples add great fall color as do the scarlet oak and honeylocust. Ornamental pear will turn a beautiful russet color deep into November. Evergreens add winter interest and make a great perennial backdrop.
Lighting:
If you spend time sitting on your patio during our hot summer nights, consider adding subtle uplighting to accentuate the branching of your trees and place them strategically around the yard to highlight water features, a focal point or walkways.
Water Features:
Nothing soothes the spirit on a hot day like the sounds of moving water – so adding a self-contained water feature or even a water pot planted with water plants will add pizzazz to any landscape. So while you’re finishing your lemonade, identify an area or two that could use some zing, then visit your local garden center to find advice, plants and products that will take your landscape to the next level of enjoyment.
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Denver, Colorado