While constructing a house, getting the landscape designed professionally has now become more important than ever before. It is as important as arranging the interiors beautifully and comfortably. The landscape should be delightful for eyes and grant tranquillity to the heart as soon as you enter the premises. With meticulous planning, charming landscapes could be designed without burning a hole in the pocket even on smaller plots. In case you need a spectacular landscape, designed elaborately on larger space, that too could be done. It is often up to the owner to decide the size or nature of the landscape that fits the budget.
Landscaping could be done in two ways – soft scaping and hard scaping. Soft scaping includes only the horticultural elements, without adding any artificial constructions, by retaining the natural greenery of the area. Meanwhile, in hard scaping, trees are additionally planted or designer elements are constructed using concrete or other materials. The geographical nature of the land should be studied before deciding which method suits the area. Meanwhile, landscape should have proper sewage facilities as water logging may mar its beauty and purpose. If such facilities aren’t available, then the land should be levelled before designing the exteriors.
Planning is key
Before preparing the plan, one should have an idea about requirements as well as what one likes. It is up to the owner to decide what type of garden should be done. Those who do not have much time for maintaining the garden properly could opt for dry garden that has less plants. Meanwhile, pebble garden which is paved with shiny pebbles, water garden with artificial pools and fountains and butterfly garden with unique plants that attract butterflies are some of the gardens that could be set in your landscape.
Space for play area for the kids, patio, walkway and driveway should be decided in advance. Broken concrete pieces, permeable concrete pieces, clay bricks, salvage stones and natural rocks are some of the materials that are commonly used in developing landscapes. It is better to build driveways on one side as cutting through the landscape would lose its continuity and natural charm.
Budget friendly landscapes
The trees and plants that naturally grow on the front yard could easily be made part of the garden. Besides, natural rock formations too could be assimilated into the designer landscape. Along with foreign plants, local flowering plants like bougainvillea, hibiscus and ixora coccinea (chethi) could be grown for that dash of bright hues. These plants are cheaper and could be maintained easily. Moreover, they keep blooming throughout the year and hence could be grown as the border of the garden if pruned at proper intervals.
To reduce the expenses, natural garden grass could be grown instead of paving expensive pebbles. The grass helps the rain water seep into the earth and cools the atmosphere during the summer. Cynodon dactylon (karuka) which is commonly seen in our yards could be grown as they are easily maintainable. Choosing such locally available plants and trees would help in significantly reducing the expenses as foreign varieties of ornamental plants could be a bit expensive. Excellent planning and smart execution of a landscape not only ensures mind-blowing look and ambience to our yard, but also builds a fabulous ecology around that is sync with the nature.