Multi Purpose Gardens - Activity Areas - By: Steve Boulden

Certain factors come into play when designing your yard. A well-planned landscape should suit your lifestyle, your family’s needs, your site’s plot plan, and topography. Of course, there is also personal preference as well as the fact that your landscape should complement the architectural style of your home. In general, it helps if you decide whether you want a landscape design that is formal or informal. Think about your hardscape needs and permanent structures first. Any structures such as greenhouses, tool and storage sheds, garages, etc. require level topography along with easy access for traffic, be it pedestrian, wheelbarrow, lawnmower, or vehicular. Once structural and traffic considerations have been planned, then you can consider where to site your gardening areas and plantings.

The topographical features such as slope, soil, rock, and water features, and drainage need to be assessed. You should note where drainage measures may be necessary as well as areas that will require special irrigation for adequate water. It is also important to note how any modifications you make to your site’s topography might affect your abutting neighbors. A small pond added to your site or the redirection of a stream on your own property can affect your neighbor’s ground water table. Drainage problems may be resolved with a simple fix or may require expert advice and correction. Site modifications may not be necessary, but may be desired. Adding a raised bed, fence, or berm at a boundary for privacy or noise buffer or installing a koi pond can add interest to your yard. Just be sure not to create unnecessary drainage or irrigation issues as you beautify your lot.

If your lot is sloped, retaining walls, other hardscape features, and plantings can be used to prevent erosion. Ground covers and low-lying shrubs like junipers are usually adequate for gentle slopes and are pleasing to the eye. Steeper slopes benefit from some sort of retaining wall, the material for which should be well-suited to your overall landscaping theme. For less formal landscapes, natural materials such as smooth, rounded stones for a wall or wooden railroad ties blend nicely. Mulching steeper sloped areas and adding permanent or at least low-maintenance plantings is wise, bearing in mind that any part of your yard that has grass for groundcover will need to be mowed.

Traffic patterns, activity areas, general landscape theme, and specifics of garden beds’ shapes, placement, and layout need to be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. Once you plot your activity areas, you’re ready to plan your plantings. Color, texture, height, and other creative factors can be considered so your yard can evolve into a place of enjoyment and beauty.

About the Author

Article from Steve Boulden of The Landscape Design Site.com which offers landscape design plans, pictures, advice, and landscaping software reviews. For more design ideas and information, visit www.the-landscape-design-site.com.

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