Like any homeowner, you’d probably like your landscaping to look amazing. Wanting an amazing yard and creating one are two different things, of course. It’s easy to make seemingly small mistakes that can wreak major havoc on the appearance of your landscaping. By familiarizing yourself with the most common ones, you can be on your way to incredible landscape design in no time!
1. Not Having a Plan
If at all possible, come up with a plan before doing any major landscaping work. At ABC Austin, we routinely come across yards that have been worked on a little here and a little there. There’s often a mishmash of elements that don’t really go together, which results in a scattered, disheveled look. With a clear plan in mind, you can easily achieve an attractive, cohesive landscape design for your Austin home.
2. Not Considering the View from Inside
It’s easy to have tunnel vision when working on the landscape design of a home. The work is being performed outside, so you just need to worry about how it looks out there—right? That’s not entirely true. Before making major changes to your home’s landscaping, scope out the scene from inside. When you look out the window, you should be just as happy with your landscaping as you are when you’re out in the yard.
3. Positioning Plants Improperly
Sure, that sapling looks terrific over near the privacy fence. Will that still be true when it matures and gets a lot bigger? One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to take a shortsighted view when planting flowers, bushes, trees and other plants. Be sure to take things like sun exposure and soil type into consideration as well, or your plants will fail to thrive and will ultimately detract from the appearance of your landscaping.
4. Using Improper Pruning Techniques
Whatever you do, resist the urge to prune bushes, shrubs, trees and other plants in a haphazard way. Without following the correct procedure, you can damage or even kill a plant. There are no universal pruning instructions. Each plant is unique, so you should look up specific instructions for each one before getting out the shears. In fact, you should probably study up about how to prune a plant before putting it in your yard. If it’s more trouble than it’s worth, you can try something else.
5. Not Taking Maintenance into Consideration
Even if you create a plan and are careful about your Austin home’s landscaping, you can wind up in trouble by not considering how you’re going to maintain its appearance. It may look terrific right when the work is initially done, but it can quickly fall into disrepair if you’re not prepared to maintain it. Make sure you can do it yourself or are willing to hire someone to do it for you.
Whether you need help with creating a new landscape design scheme for your home or want assistance with maintaining it, ABC Home & Commercial Services in Austin is here to help. Give us a call and let us know what you need.