Five Steps to Landscape Design
First, determine your needs for an area.
(A few suggestions)
___ Play area for children
___ Vegetable/Herb/Fruit garden
___ Screen home from road or neighbors
___ Wildlife habitat/Butterfly garden
___ Water garden/Aquascape
___ Sitting garden
___ Area for entertaining
___ Pet area
___ Storage area
___ Pool, spa, hot tub
___ Outdoor barbeque area
___ Showcase the home
Secondly, determine the level of maintenance you want.
(Time needed for mowing, pruning, and weeding; requirements for water, fertilizers, and pesticides.)
___ High
___ Medium
___ Low
Thirdly, determine the site conditions in your yard.
___ Mountains
___ Piedmonts
___ Midlands
___ Coastal
___ sandy
___ loam
___ clay
___ full shade
___ partly shaded
___ sunny
___ well-drained soil
___ poorly drained soil
___ compacted soil
___ alkaline soil
___ acidic soil
Your county’s Cooperative Extension Service can give you information on how to collect a soil sample for pH, nutrient, and soluble salts analysis tests.
Consider plants with these characteristics to reduce maintenance:
___ drought tolerant
___ heat tolerant
___ salt tolerant
___ insect resistant
___ shade tolerant
___ slow growing shrubs
___ disease resistant
___ freeze tolerant
___ ground covers
Fourthly, create your design plan.
(Graph paper is supplied on pages 8 and 9 in the PDF version.)
Use graph paper to indicate where activities will take place, futureplans for additions to the home, and your irrigation zones, if you have an in-ground system.