When the landscaping bug bites you, it’s difficult to know where to start first in the quest to create a beautiful and usable yard. Looking ahead at some of the landscaping trends may help you decide where to focus your energy.
Outdoor Living Spaces
A big trend in the coming year is to create functional outdoor living spaces. With more people spending more time at home, it makes sense to refine your landscaping Fairfax VA towards serviceable sitting, eating and even cooking areas. A landscape architect can help you design a second living or dining room of sorts, to truly expand the livable space on your property.
Edible Gardens
If you’re going to spend time and money on your yard, one of the best returns for your effort is to plant food such as kale, watermelons and tomatoes. There is nothing more satisfying than eating something that you have grown and nurtured yourself. Choose plants that look decorative and produce delicious food at the same time.
Native Plants
It’s often a waste of energy to try to grow something in your yard that doesn’t like the local soil or weather. You may dream of azalea bushes, but if your soil isn’t acidic enough, you’ll be fighting a losing battle. Instead focus on what does grow well in your part of the country and use those shrubs and flowers to make up the bulk of your landscape design. If you’re desperate to try something exotic, plant it in a container where you have more control over the soil and water.
Xeriscaping
Go one step further than using native plants with xeriscaping that focuses specifically how to use water efficiently in a landscape setting. Xeriscaping is planned around periods of low rainfall and drought, so that once the plants are well-rooted, little extra must be done for them.
Beautiful English castle gardens were all about precise lines and symmetry. Today’s landscaped yard is about environmentally conscious usability. If yards are extensions of home, then they should provide something beneficial to the users and be comfortable at the same time.