Landscaping Your Orlando Home...go for the Gusto!

Landscaping in Orlando - and for all of Florida for that matter - is like no other in the country. It has been transformed into a highly specialized art form. The warm, year-round climate offers unique landscaping opportunities for Orlando homeowners. Tropical and semi-tropical plants and trees are viable here, offering a much wider variety of choices for landscaping your Orlando home. With proper selection and placement in their landscaping, Orlando homeowners can create a beautiful outdoor paradise that blossoms year round.
Choosing the right grass, plants, trees, shrubs and flowers to plant, as well as the array of mulches and other accents can be a daunting task - one that requires the assistance of a landscaping professional in the Orlando area. If you have a difficult time deciding which plants to buy, control the impulse to buy one of everything. For bedding plants and flowers, choose 3 to 5 types and buy at least 15 of each plant. You can then mix them together, or plant them in overlapping sweeps in the flowerbed for a stunning visual effect
The landscaping surrounding your Orlando home should start with a good foundation planting, including trees and shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous. Plan to change your annual plants at least twice a year. Nobody enjoys looking at wilted plants, struggling to survive in the heat.
When making decisions for your Orlando landscaping, you may want to consider composting. This is especially helpful in Florida because you'll be doing a lot of pruning over time, and you can help the environment by placing all the branches and other material you have removed from your yard into a compost bin. Feel free to throw your kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and vegetables into the compost bin as well, for an even richer blend.
Another issue when it comes to landscaping in Orlando involves the decision regarding how much turf to include in the entire design. Generally, in Florida it's a better idea to focus more on landscaping and minimize the amount of grass you plant. Keep in mind when landscaping your Orlando home, less grass = less water. Even if you have a large yard, you can reduce the amount of grass planted by creating larger plant beds with shrubs and other plants, instead of grass. The type of grass you select is also important. Look for a grass that doesn't mind a hot climate.

When selecting plants, think in terms of water conservation...choose plants that require little maintenance and small amounts of watering. Plants that attract wildlife are ideal, and if you select species that provide a lot of ground cover, eventually you won't have to worry about mulch anymore. But don't minimize the importance of mulch when you are establishing a garden, because it will conserve moisture and encourage root growth.
When designing the landscaping for your Orlando home, keep in mind that vegetable gardens also do well in Florida. So if you've been thinking about growing some of your own vegetables it shouldn't be too difficult. Because it's common for soil in Florida to be lacking in nutrients, it can be more difficult to grow vegetables than other plants, which don't require as many nutrients and can adapt to the local soil. If the landscaping around your Orlando home includes vegetables, you may have to add a rich potting soil mix to the bed so that the vegetables have access to enough nutrients to grow properly.