Thursday, July 5, 2007

Landscaping Borders – Creating Privacy and Boundaries

If you have a garden that’s overlooked by other properties, or you want to create boundaries to section off different uses in your yard, then landscaping boarders are just what you need. The great thing is that landscaping borders come in a variety of shapes and sizes so you can still have the theme that you desire for the overall landscaping design of the garden, whilst at the same time putting up some kind of restrictive border.

Trees are a natural boundary, but the downside is that they take time to mature. Unless you can afford to buy mature trees that are several years old and are tall with many leaves (or evergreens), you are going to have to wait some time before your ideal privacy limit is reached. If you only need one tree, then buying an older tree isn’t going to be to expensive, but if you are using trees for your property outer perimeter landscaping boarders, then things start to get very expensive.

One alternative that you could use is to set up a wooden fence just behind younger trees so that for a while it’s this fence that creates the landscaping border around the property. This will allow you privacy from neighbors, block out busy roads, provide security for your children who won’t be able to wander out of the garden so easily and yet is temporary and can be removed once the trees grow to the required height.

If you do create an outer perimeter landscape border whether using higher trees, or fences you need first of all to check if there are any local laws that control how high these can be. Often there is a maximum height for any given area and you must keep your fences under this. There could be a separate law that pertains to individual trees, but if not, you will need to ensure that you cut your trees across the top just before they reach the legal maximum height – this will stop them growing upwards, but allow them to bush outwards instead.

Creating landscape borders within your garden are wonderful for providing separate places for kids to play football, or to hide garden toys from the rest of the house, create a secluded retreat where you can escape to when things get overly stressful, or just to separate a kitchen garden from the rest of the lawn. Landscape borders of this kind are can be low concrete blocks (some of these are very decorative and come in a variety of colors and designs) that edge your lawn, or higher trellises that allow you to also grow climbing flowers, shrubs or even vine fruits. The trellises in particular make for pretty garden features that don’t look as if they are landscape borders. Another idea would be to create a path in your garden that divides the kitchen garden from the rest of the yard. Edge the lawn and keep the earth in the kitchen garden in place, and this can be a perfectly functional and yet attractive yard.

Whatever landscape borders you choose, make sure they fit into the kind of design that you want, and that they match with the garden lifestyle that you have. Don’t create a fancy garden with lots of fragile borders if you have small children, but on the other hand, if you do have small children, a border is a perfect way of restricting them to certain parts of the yard so that you protect the shrubs, flowers, and/vegetables that you’re growing there.

Landscaping Borders – Creating Privacy and Boundaries.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Landscaping design

Welcome to my landscaping design blog. Here I will write about landscaping backyard design and tips related to backyard and landscaping design ideas.