Following these basic landscaping standards will help lessen the likelihood of damage to your property from natural disasters or other causes, however no amount of precaution can guarantee safety. In order to keep your home and belongings safe from the wrath of Mother Nature, it is a good idea to construct a protective landscape around it, complete with elements like windbreaks. Please take the time to read over these suggestions and put them into practise before the next major storm hits!
Stick To Basic Design Concepts
Defending your home from intruders can be as simple as following some fundamental landscaping design principles. If you build your home in accordance with standard procedures, you won't have to worry about obstructing any of the spectacular vistas.
It will provide neighbours a nice view so they can keep an eye out when you're not there. Keep in mind that intruders can easily access your second floor by climbing trees, so give them plenty of room to manoeuvre.
Your home will look safer and more put together if you stick to neat design ideas instead of letting your landscaping become a jungle. Create a perimeter around your yard with trees, bushes, or a high fence to restrict access to your house and other buildings. A home that can be approached from any direction is more of a target for potential intruders.
Reduce Popular Hiding Spots
Around windows and doorways, overgrown bushes and shrubs are a common hiding area. The risk of someone being hidden in plain sight can be reduced by cutting back branches and limbs.
It's important to safeguard outbuildings like sheds and garages because people often use them as hiding spots.
Set Up The First Line Of Defense
A home alarm system is a terrific investment, but it's not the only way to keep intruders out. As an illustration, you could put rose bushes or other thorny varieties beneath your windows.
To avoid digging up electricity and cable wires, HGTV suggests homeowners plant rose plants in a raised bed. Plants that thrive in warmer climates, like citrous, are also an excellent first line of defence.
Windows and doors can also be safeguarded by the spines on plants like Oregon grape holly. To prevent intruders from sneaking up on your home undetected, a better option than mulch is gravel.
There is an abundance of plants that can serve to both fortify your home and enhance the aesthetic appeal of your garden. Only some digging on your part is required.
Use Light To Your Advantage.
It is reported in "Anatomy of a Burglary" that criminals look for empty houses. But with some creative lighting, you may fool neighbours into thinking someone is home even when you're not.
If you want to deter would-be burglars from targeting your home, installing motion-detecting outdoor lighting is a great idea.
To keep the house looking lived in, Angie's List suggests putting in solar pathway lights.
In addition, the entire lawn can be illuminated by using up-lighting against the house and down-lighting in the trees. This will make would-be intruders think twice before venturing onto your property.
Leaving some lights on a timer in the house and yard can make it appear as though someone is home while you're away.
Keep The Landscape Maintained.
A well-kept yard is a deterrent to would-be burglars, but only if the landscaping is in good condition.
You can employ a landscaping service if you don't have the time to do it yourself. According to Angie's List, burglars can tell if a home is rarely occupied because of things like overgrown grass, shrubs, and dead plants.
If you are frequently away from home, it is very important to have a lawn service take care of things. Don't forget to cancel your mail and newspaper deliveries or have your neighbours do it for you. When homeowners leave a stack of newspapers in the front yard, it's a sure sign that they're away from home. Maintaining landscaping all through the year is essential for its ability to serve as a deterrent and a security measure.
Functionality
You may get more out of your property by improving its landscape. Put in a patio, and you'll have a lovely spot to enjoy the outdoors with your loved ones and host barbecues and other gatherings.
A garden provides you with a tranquil space in which to establish flowerbeds and cultivate delectable veggies.
You may find that you want to spend more time in your yard in the nights after installing some modern landscape lights. All of the available options are equally attractive and useful.
Know Your Yard
Microclimates can form in your yard depending on factors like the quantity and duration of sun and shadow the area receives.
It is important to take into account your microclimate while making plant selections for your landscaping, and these microclimates are typically categorised as full sun, shade, partial shade, or deep shade.
Think about how water will flow through your landscape and how the geography of your location will affect it. The greatest landscaping plans are those that direct water flows away from the house and into other parts of the yard.
Who Will Use Your Yard?
It's important to consider who will be using your yard and what activities they'll be engaging in. Will kids be playing in your yard, for instance? How about pets? Do you intend to have parties in your yard? Use your landscape to your advantage by designing distinct areas for a variety of functions. Connecting rooms and buildings with pedestrian corridors is a viable option.
You should think about your budget and maintenance preferences if you plan on using and keeping your yard (or contracting with someone to keep it). Try to ground your writing in reality. How much actual work is involved in maintaining your garden? Will you have the time to do it yourself, or will you have the resources to hire someone else to do it for you? When planning your garden, how much money do you have to work with? The success of your landscape in the long run depends on the answers to these questions.
Think About Themes
A zen garden theme can be used to tie together you're landscaping and provide direction for your plant and material choices. Your yard's theme might be as basic as using the same shapes or forms throughout, or as elaborate as designing a Zen or Oriental-inspired Garden.
Looking at the structure of your house is the first step in determining the design aesthetic for your yard. As your yard is a natural extension of your house, it's a good idea to make sure it matches the building's lines and style as closely as possible.
Make And Link Areas
To make the most of your outside space, treat it like an extension of your home. Use your resources judiciously to create distinct "rooms" in your landscape, just like you would in a house, and give your garden the same level of precise organisation as the interior.
Linking your areas is an important consideration. If your yard has multiple sections, how will guests get around? Make passages in your yard so that people will feel compelled to move around it.
Make Your Plants Work For You.
The purpose of your plants in the landscape should be established early on in the planning process. Plants have a wide range of practical applications, from producing nutritious and tasty food to enhancing the aesthetics and olfactory experience of a space.
You can use plants as barriers to demarcate spaces and show where one part of your landscape finishes and another begins. When you want to keep your views open but preserve certain barriers, you can utilise plants to do so in your landscape by physically limiting views and access to an area, and by using low growing plants to make implied barriers, blocking access yet not the view.
Landscape site conditions can also be modified through the strategic placement of plants. The landscape's trees and plants can have a significant impact on the local climate, lighting, and airflow, among other factors. Similarly, the noises in your garden can be affected by the components you include in the design, such as birdhouses, water features, and physical obstacles.
Plantings Should Be Structured
When choosing plants, think about how they will look from different perspectives. Now, consider the plane above you, which may contain things like arches and trees.
Next, think about the height and width of your plants, both individually and in groups, as well as how far apart or how closely they will be spaced on the horizontal plane.
Think about the ground level, from the placement of larger plants to the arrangement of smaller ones, groundcovers, and even hardscapes.
The garden will look more cohesive if you use repeated shapes and structures.
Emphasise Key Points
You can draw attention to a specific portion of your landscape by using focal points like unusual plants, distinct architecture, or decorative garden accessories. Using contrasting forms, sizes, textures, and hues will assist draw the eye and focus it where you want it.
Pay Close Attention To Details.
Each element of a garden, from plants to hardscapes to ornaments, offers its own unique aesthetic elements, from shape and colour to texture and form. Putting some thought into how you may use these visual aspects to compliment and contrast one another will help you design a landscape that is both unified and visually interesting.
Don't limit yourself to sight when planning your garden; the aromas produced by the plants you choose can have a significant impact on the atmosphere you wish to evoke. Plan your landscaping around the times of day when flowers will be at their most fragrant.
Consider The Future
Think about the long-term effects of time on the plants in your landscape. You should think about the plant's expected growth rate, care requirements, and eventual mature size before making your selection.
Give your plants room to expand to their full size. Remember that the recommended mature size is usually based on ideal growing conditions, and that the plant may end up much bigger or much smaller depending on the specifics of your area.
Keep Your Resources Safe
You may contribute to the protection and preservation of your environment by selecting plants that make efficient use of resources, practising conscientious water management, and selecting hardscapes that are kind to the environment.
To avoid unnecessary plant removal, you should first consider whether the plants in question may be transferred to a different part of your yard. Choose plants that use less water, fertiliser, and pesticides to maintain while making your plant selections.
If you want to make some improvements to your landscape without negatively impacting the environment, you might think about getting a rainwater collecting system. With forethought, this kind of system can even be used as a decorative flourish.
Using non-toxic alternatives to harmful preservatives, paints, stains, and cleaners is another step you can take to preserve the planet's natural resources. Don't throw away everything in the process of tearing down a building; instead, think about what you can recycle, repurpose, or incorporate into your new landscape before you start tearing things down.
Protection Against Wind Storms
You can prevent Mother Nature from blowing your house down by landscaping with windbreaks.
Planting trees or bushes as a windbreak can significantly lessen the intensity of strong winds and protect your home from damage. As an added bonus, windbreaks reduce heating expenses by shielding your home from the wind's chill.
But, you need to select the proper plants and arrange them in the right location for your windbreak to function optimally.
Windscreen Placement
A windbreak should be planted one or 2 tree heights away from your house on the side wherein prevailing winds blow, as recommended by the Arbour Day Foundation. When planting a tree, the more away from the home it should be, the greater the risk of injury should it topple. The northern and north-west sides of a house are the most vulnerable to the biting winds of winter.
Defence Against Flooding
A yard that has been thoughtfully designed can reduce the rate at which water runs off the ground, reducing the likelihood that water will seep into the soils surrounding your home's foundation and cause cracks in the walls or even flooding in the basement.
Roots from a wide variety of native (true survival) trees, plants, and shrubs fill in the gaps between the soil particles. Instead of water gathering on your lawn or in the soils around your foundation, where it might cause structural damage, it seeps into these gaps.
Environmental Benefits
Campaigns to raise public consciousness about the importance of protecting the environment are probably already familiar to you. If you take the time to landscape your property correctly, you can reap numerous environmental benefits. Plants in your yard will protect the soil, lessen the impacts of carbon dioxide in the air, and draw beneficial insects and animals like bees and birds.
Water pollution is a major problem, and plants are thought to play a key part in mitigating this problem by attracting beneficial weather patterns like rain. A landscaped yard is a great place to unwind by yourself or with loved ones.
Reduction Of Utility Costs
A lot of people think that air conditioning accounts for a disproportionate share of the sky-high utility bills that consumers have to pay. A professionally landscaped property, however, will have better air conditioning.
A homeowner's heating and cooling costs can be lowered by strategically placing a variety of trees, shrubs, and herbs. The reason for this is that plant life has evolved strategies to increase air circulation during the warmer months. Also, they can add a considerable amount of insulation in the winter.
The Benefits Of Landscaping For Your House
Personal Health Benefits
Your health can greatly benefit from the aesthetic enhancements to your home that result from well-executed landscaping. Maintaining a well-kept lawn is a standard need of landscaping these days. The risk of pests like mosquitoes and rats is reduced when you get rid of any shrubs and puddles that have formed around your home.
When it comes to our health, we all know how terrible it is when pests invade. While mosquitoes are notorious for spreading malaria, mice and other pests can be just as dangerous thanks to the viruses and bacteria they harbour.
The mental health benefits of landscaping include a reduction in stress and an increase in contentment and relaxation. A well-landscaped yard is a great place to sunbake, stretch out, and perhaps do some exercise.
All of these things, and more like them, can do wonders for your family's health. Lawn maintenance activities like trimming, weeding, and watering can be viewed as additional healthful exercises.
Family Unification
You have a lovely outside space in your home if you maintain neat grass and plant a few trees. When you and your loved ones don't feel like venturing out on the weekends, you can come together here and grow closer. Sunday night is perfect for a BBQ in the backyard while the kids play in one corner and the grownups chat in the other. Make it a habit by building an outdoor kitchen or living area to enjoy with the whole family. It's also great for holding an outside gathering.
There is more potential in your landscape design than you may have realised. There are a number of benefits to landscaping excellence, including increasing your home's value and making it safer to live in. Only a few examples of how a well-planned landscape might improve your property are given above.
FAQs About Home Builders
The principles of landscape design include the elements of unity, scale, balance, simplicity, variety, emphasis, and sequence as they apply to line, form, texture, and colour. These elements are interconnected.
Investing in residential landscaping helps you create an area for relaxation and entertainment. For example, a well designed green corner with sitting areas, plants, and trees can be extremely relaxing and makes an ideal place to spend quality time with your family and friends.
Landscape design has had a significant effect on humans and all living things to provide a conducive environment. The aggregate effects of landscape design can influence the overall housing areas' social, aesthetic, and environmental qualities.
A formal garden design features geometric shapes—usually right angles, but curves work. The secret is to create well-defined and recognisable shapes. Typically these shapes outline planting areas, but they could also be part of the hardscape.
Exotic plants often require more care and irrigation, increasing costs and using extra resources. Some non-native plants are considered invasive and can overtake the area, damaging local plants and animals. In addition, excessive use of chemicals in landscaping can pollute the groundwater.
Conclusion
High fences, plants, and trees deter attackers. Sheds and garages hide overgrown vegetation near windows and doors. Gravel deters burglars better than mulch and plants. Motion-detecting external lighting, solar pathway lights, up- and down-lighting against the house and trees, and timer-controlled house and yard lights give the sense that someone is home. Stolen voids. Only well-kept landscaping deters intruders.
Zen gardens may unify landscaping and guide plant and material selection. Due to their varied applications, plants' landscape responsibilities must be established early in the planning. Plants mark landscape changes. Climate, lighting, and ventilation change. Consider plant height, width, ground level, and long-term effects. Plant scents set the mood. A well-planned yard can prevent water from seeping into the soil surrounding your home's foundation, cracking walls, or flooding basements. Natural vegetation improves the soil.
Gardening reduces air, water, and soil pollution and attracts beneficial insects and animals. They heat and chill. They improve the lawn. Gardening decreases stress, pests, and relaxation. Watering, edging and mowing exercise. Landscaping increases house value and neighbourhood safety.
Content Summary
- To keep your home and belongings safe from the wrath of Mother Nature, it is a good idea to construct a protective landscape around it, complete with elements like windbreaks.
- Defending your home from intruders can be as simple as following fundamental landscaping design principles.
- Your home will look safer and more put together if you stick to neat design ideas instead of letting your landscaping become a jungle.
- Create a perimeter around your yard with trees, bushes, or a high fence to restrict access to your house and other buildings.
- A home alarm system is a terrific investment but is not the only way to keep intruders out.
- To prevent intruders from sneaking up on your home undetected, a better option than mulch is gravel.
- Installing motion-detecting outdoor lighting is a great idea to deter would-be burglars from targeting your home.
- Angie's List suggests putting in solar pathway lights to keep the house looking lived in.
- Leaving lights on a timer in the house and yard can make it appear like someone is home while you're away.
- A well-kept yard is a deterrent to would-be burglars, but only if the landscaping is in good condition.
- You can employ a landscaping service if you need more time to do it yourself.
- If you are frequently away from home, having a lawn service take care of things is very important.
- You may get more out of your property by improving its landscape.
- After installing modern landscape lights, you can spend more time in your yard at night.
- Use your landscape to your advantage by designing distinct areas for various functions.
- A zen garden theme can tie together your landscaping and provide direction for your plant and material choices.
- Looking at the structure of your house is the first step in determining the design aesthetic for your yard.
- The purpose of your plants in the landscape should be established early on in the planning process.
- You can use plants as barriers to restrict spaces and show where one part of your landscape finishes and another begins.
- You can draw attention to a specific landscape portion using focal points like unusual plants, distinct architecture, or decorative garden accessories.
- Plan your landscaping around the times of day when flowers will be at their most fragrant.
- Think about the long-term effects of time on the plants in your landscape.
- Choose plants that use less water, fertiliser, and pesticides to maintain while making your plant selections.
- You can prevent Mother Nature from blowing your house down by landscaping with windbreaks.
- Planting trees or bushes as a windbreak can significantly lessen the intensity of strong winds and protect your home from damage.
- Campaigns to raise public consciousness about protecting the environment are familiar to you.
- If you take the time to landscape your property correctly, you can reap numerous environmental benefits.
- Plants in your yard will protect the soil, lessen the impacts of carbon dioxide in the air, and draw beneficial insects and animals like bees and birds.
- A landscaped yard is a great place to unwind alone or with loved ones.
- A professionally landscaped property, however, will have better air conditioning.
- Your health can greatly benefit from the aesthetic enhancements to your home that result from well-executed landscaping.
- Maintaining a well-kept lawn is an everyday need of landscaping these days.
- The risk of pests like mosquitoes and rats is reduced when you get rid of any shrubs and puddles that have formed around your home.
- The mental health benefits of landscaping include a reduction in stress and an increase in contentment and relaxation.
- A well-landscaped yard is a great place to sunbake, stretch out, and exercise.
- These things, and more like them, can do wonders for your family's health.
- You have a lovely outside space in your home if you maintain neat grass and plant a few trees.
- Make it a habit by building an outdoor kitchen or living area to enjoy with the whole family.
- There is more potential in your landscape design than you may have realised.
- Some benefits of landscaping excellence include increasing your home's value and making it safer.