The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

15 Basic Ways To Landscape Your Homepage

Plans On Paper Save Money

SIMPLICITY has always been the basis of good design And good garden design is nearly as easy as ir is simple.

You have only a few things to worry with when planning to landscape your home. They are: 1) How to enclose an area of privacy and recreation; 2) how to hide the unpleasant features of surrounding property and your own service area; and 3) how to create a harmonious landscape. Inexpensive solving of these basic problems will beautify your home and greatly improve its relative value.

Penciled plans are simple to prepare, easy to repair and worth their weight in gold when it's time to install new plants.

The first things you need are several large sheets of graph paper with fixe or 10 lines to the inch and plenty of plain tracing paper the same overall size, plus a pencil, ruler and eraser. Tape-measure your lot and draw its outline on the graph paper. Use a one-inch square of the graph to equal 10 square feet of your property. This places the usual 50 by 150-foot lot on the graph paper as a five by 15-inch rectangle.

If your graph paper is too short for the entire plot plan use cellophane tape and stick two sections together. Then measure the house and its relationship to the edges of your property. Transfer these dimensions to the graph paper, together with the size and location of the garage, driveway, walks and other permanent installations. It's also a good idea to mark the location of large trees or shrubs which are now growing.

Next take the plot plan outside and carefully survey the area surrounding your home. Perhaps you can see a large telephone pole beyond the back property line. Mark it on the graph paper. Indicate all neighboring houses, large trees or other obstructions in your line of sight. Mark this survey of your view from both sides, the front and rear of your home Mark down everything you can see and indicate its approximate distance from your house.
Now comes the fun. Cover the plot plan with tracing paper and you're ready to go to work; landscaping the lot with everything you would like to have and enjoy.