Residential Landscape Designs

Maybe you've been collecting residential landscape designs for a while. Perhaps you saw a Japanese garden design at a friend's house that captured your imagination. Or maybe it was a Mediterranean garden design with sweet herbs right off the vine, relaxed spaces for entertainment, and lush, practical vegetation. Possibly your space is limited and you're looking for small garden design ideas that will have a big impact.

If you're making plans to change your residential landscape design, a good place to start is with landscape designers or landscape architects. These competent landscape professionals take you through the entire design development process, which includes consultation and program development, analysis of your property, conceptual landscaping design, construction documentation and permitting. And then on towards turning the vision in your mind into a concrete reality.

Ideas for Residential Landscape Design

• Landscape lighting. From a practical urban landscaping standpoint, the right landscape lighting provides security and safe access. It allows you to showcase beautiful trees and garden elements, while simultaneously letting you control what you don't want people to see by leaving some things dark. It is often a relatively inexpensive way to boost your property value.

• Outdoor water fountains. Outdoor water fountains make a graceful statement about a home by creating a pleasing and welcoming focal point. They are especially beneficial as camouflage for all the white noise we live with, such as traffic, air-conditioning units and lawn mowers.

• Pool design. Various geometrics, materials and plantings can be used to create the style that suits you-a water work of art, a cocktail pool, an Olympic-sized pool or a water-park for children are just a few examples. Pools are usually designed by an architect who manages the construction and oversees all the details.

• A "green" green garden. That is, a garden that is ecologically smart, prudent and sustainable. "With a design for a green garden, the goals are basically the same as for any other landscape project with a special focus on reducing the main concerns of ongoing landscape maintenance: watering, trimming, weeding and mulching," says Jeff Halper with Exterior Worlds.

Residential Landscape Design: The Unsung Heroes

A well-thought-out drainage system and irrigation system have a big impact of the health of your yard-and on your enjoyment of it. Drainage systems are an important part of any Houston residential landscape design and include catch basins, channel drains and French drains. Drainage systems impact your residential landscape maintenance by preventing standing water that can cause mosquito breeding grounds, slippery surfaces, and washed-out landscaping. A proper landscape drainage system is essential for the care of your lawn as it removes water from your property in a timely manner, thus encouraging healthy plants and allowing your maintenance crew to perform their regular lawn service duties.

Irrigation systems help you deliver the correct amount of water to the appropriate plant material. They allow your landscape to be separated by zones into lawn, bed and color areas that require different watering conditions due to varying plant materials and sunlight conditions. They do this by utilizing controller box technologies, such as timers, time delays and rain sensors, that let you set a regular schedule for your landscape watering needs while, at the same time, allowing you to switch to manual for unexpected events.

It is best when drainage systems and irrigation systems work in concert with each other. Irrigation and drainage contractors can develop a whole-system approach so that the nuts and bolts of both systems are hidden as much as possible. If that method can't be done, custom decorative drain gates can be used to reduce the negative visual impact. The overall goal is for the design and location of the two systems to be in harmony with the design of the rest of the landscape.