The landscape is the crown jewel of your property as it provides the setting for your home as well as outdoor activities. Coming up with the perfect landscaping plan for your property can be exciting and fulfilling but it’s hard to know where to start. Therefore, it’s always great to have the advice and knowhow of an experienced landscaping professional. Here’s what landscaping contractors consider: five tips for creating a landscaping plan that works for you in Woodhaven and Trenton, MI.
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Imagine a Clean Slate
To understand the full potential of a landscape, it’s necessary to try to begin work with a clean slate in mind.
Of course most landscapes aren’t blank slates at all. There are some aspects of the landscape that will not likely be removed, such as huge trees, a large boulder, a creek, or other desirable features. These permanent features can be altered, but a successful landscape will use these as a starting point to work with, not against.
Imagine your landscape as a finished product that embraces existing features and adds new ones that support your aesthetic preferences and lifestyle.
Landscape designers will start by laying out the boundaries of the home and the property lines. From there, they mark the permanent features and work around them. The conversations with your landscape designer will allow them to determine what kind of aesthetic and lifestyle suit you and your family. Then, they’ll come up with the location and layout of key features such as a patio and pool.
Inspire with Established Designs
It’s good to have some previous successful ideas to work from. A vision board is a wonderful tool for being able to visualize differences in landscape design from the biggest feature and aesthetics to the subtle details. In the pre-digital age, a vision board would probably garnish ideas from a magazine. These days, it’s possible to create a vision board using various online sites and social media apps like Pinterest or Instagram. A collection of these ideas will go a long way in showing the landscape designer exactly what you’re looking for.
Workshop the Base Sketches
There should be a few iterations of the ideas for the landscape between you and the designer. Some ideas will work and some won’t, so it’s important to give honest feedback about what you like and don’t like. Have the landscape designer draw up various scenarios that use wildly different ideas. See what works best as a base idea, then it’s time to get creative.
Fill in the Gaps
Between each big landscape feature there will be some accents and flourishes that make a landscape memorable. You can have a fantastic pool but it can quickly become boring without a great environment surrounding it. The landscape designer will fill in the gaps with various design styles of plant life, masonry, landscape lighting, and more. It’s always great to let the creativity flow during this time so that a landscape becomes something personal and unique.
Give Your Approval and Get Going!
Once you’ve given your final approval on the project, it’s time to get going and move to the next steps. From there, a landscape designer will formalize a reasonable timeline to get things done. Pricing and scheduling comes next. A landscape contractor will give an estimate and your approval of the contract will be the last step before construction begins.
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