Landscaping Tips for Beautifying Your Property

If you own a home in the Ottawa area, you want your property to be as attractive as possible. This means both choosing the right interior decorations, as well as taking care of the area surrounding your house.

Creating a garden can be one of the most exciting parts of owning a home. Putting the right one together can be tricky, though. It isn’t simply a matter of planting whatever flowers and vegetables you happen to like in the space you have available. Planning a garden requires understanding many subtle aspects of design, sunlight, and other factors. In addition, you want to be sure that you use the right materials for the areas surrounding your garden. The experts specializing in interlocking Ottawa can tell you everything that you need to know about this process.

In this article, we will provide an overview of the steps you should take in planning your garden. The specific decisions you make will depend not only on your personal preferences, but on the design and positioning of your house, as well as other components.

Steps to creating the right garden

The following are steps you should take when planning your garden:

Assess your available space

The first thing you’ll need to do is get precise measurements of your existing space. Also, you’ll need to take into consideration the direction that your garden faces from the outside of your house as this will affect the amount of sunlight that it receives. Make note of the available shady spots during different times of day and determine which parts have the greatest sun exposure.

In addition, you should take into consideration any potential issue with your actual land. For example, if your lawn is particularly bumpy, it could create problems for you. You could have waterlogging issues. You might also have poor soil, which could require special treatment. As you are assessing your space, make a list of all the potential problems you might face and how easily manageable they are.

Think about the direction your garden will face

Experts have specific recommendations for what types of plants should be grown in what direction of a given house. The amount of sunshine versus shade on a daily basis, and depending on the time of day the sunshine is received, can make a big difference on how well different types of plants fare vis-a-vis one another. For example, for gardens that face North, you should consider including shade garden plants as these areas will receive the greatest amount of shade during the course of a day.

Gardens that face South, on the other hand, will get the most sun exposure. Lavender and crab apple trees tend to do well in these areas, and certain types of vegetables, such as tomatoes and eggplants can thrive, as well. For primarily west-facing gardens, try geraniums. And for east-facing ones, a variety of edible plants such as carrots, peppers, and leafy greens tend to do well.

Make a plan for your garden

You’ll want to map out where you want your flower beds and vegetable plots to be located within your available space. Take into consideration the strong and weak points of your garden space, and think about how you should utilize them according to what they offer. Also, you want to plan “routes” leading out from doors and windows.

Once you have a rough plan of where your routes should be, you should think about the materials that you will use to cover them. One option that is popular with serious gardeners is the use of interlocking stones or bricks for path surface creation.

The benefits of interlocking pathways are many: Because the component materials fit together easily and are bound by durable, yet flexible mortar combinations, your pathways will last through many seasons. Also, you have a variety of decorative materials and shades to choose from to complement your home and garden plan.

Consider where you will plant trees and other features

The placement of whatever trees you want to plant will also play a role in your garden design. Where you plant your trees will not only help to shape the overall aesthetic appearance of your garden, but they will also provide additional shade. So you should take into consideration the effect that they will have on whatever you plant around them.

Depending on the amount of space that you have, you might also consider the addition of a garden room, shed, or possibly even a gazebo. Experts recommend that you take the time to physically sketch all these things out before you get started.

If necessary, talk to an expert landscape designer. You should keep in mind that these services generally cost several thousand dollars, but they are often worth it as you will avoid making major mistakes that could affect your gardening efforts for a long time.

Estimate your required costs

Once you have your design in place, you should calculate how much it will cost. Rather than simply calculating by space, you should take into consideration all of the component materials, and whether there are particularly fancy designs that you want to incorporate as these could raise costs.

Your landscape architect should be able to help you figure many of these things out, at least to an approximate cost so that you can gain a better understanding of the overall investment. Then you can tweak certain ideas if you need to.

Once you’ve put all these things together, you’ll be able to enjoy your garden for years to come.