Landscape Design Six Step Start-up |

Landscape Design Six Step Start-up

| By Roy Rasmussen | Category: Outdoor

Landscape design possibilities are numerous, but they all follow some basic landscape architecture principles and begin in a similar sequence. Whether you’re renovating your front yard or preparing for gardening, here are six major steps you can use to guide the initial stages of your project.

These six steps walk you through the processes of:

Assessing your landscaping needs
Developing your redesign plan
Scheduling your work
Solving drainage problems
Laying out your site
Erecting your first post

Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love

1. Assess Your Landscaping Needs

Before you change your landscape, the first step is to assess what you already have in place. Landscaping is a long-term project and investment, so it’s advisable to spend a year observing and studying your property before pursuing any major renovations, in order to get a better feel for your landscaping needs during each season of the year. As you study your property, assess what you like and dislike in areas such as:

Does the style of my yard fit with the style of my house? (A formal garden may look out of place next to a cabin.)
Do I like the color scheme in my yard; does the color of the plants look good with my home’s color?
Do the patterns and textures of my yard’s vegetation fit with those of my house?
Does the layout of my yard complement the shape of my house?
Does the size of the plantings fit the scale of my house?
How is the view from inside my house when I look out my front, side, and rear windows?
How does my front yard look from the street? Is this a house I can feel proud bringing guests to? When I put my house up for sale and take a picture for the ad, will someone want to buy this?
Do I have enough privacy?
Are my front driveway and walkway easily accessible?
Can I get around the sides of my house easily?
Is my back yard accessible?
Do I have enough outdoor living space?
Do my house or yard get too much wind?
Do they get enough light?
Do areas of the house or yard that need shade get enough shade?
Do I like the vegetation growing in my yard and garden? Is there anything I’d like to grow? Is there anything that’s growing that I’d like to remove?
Do I like the wildlife in my yard?
Does my yard have enough recreational room for the occupants?
Is my yard suitable for entertaining guests?

Use questions like this to help you identify landscaping issues you’d like to address.

2. Develop Your Redesign Plan

Once you’ve identified some issues you’d like your landscaping changes to solve, the next step is to develop your home improvement ideas into a specific plan. You can develop your plan by following these steps:

Visualize some solutions to the issues you identified by studying how other landscapers have addressed these issues. Study your neighbors’ yards, landscaping books and magazines, websites, and other resources.
Check the feasibility of your initial ideas against building codes, setback and easement regulations, and deed restrictions. Also consider how the changes you make will affect you 5 years from now and 20 years from now, as your vegetation grows and you and your family grow with it.
To begin drawing up your ideas, obtain a map of your lot or create one. A map may be available from the builder or architect, the FHA, the VA, your mortgage office, or your deed, or your building department. If no map is available, you can hire a surveyor, or you can create your own map. To create your own map:

Make a rough sketch of your house and yard
Measure distances from property lines
Measure distances to structures, trees, and other plantings
Mark locations of eaves, first-floor doors and windows, downspouts, meters, water lines, and utilities
Convert your rough map to a scale map

Create duplicates of your base map you can use to add notes about the landscaping issues and solutions you previously identified. You can do this with computer software, scanning, Xeroxing, or tracing.
Use your duplicate maps as a basis for drawing new maps of possible plans for your yard.
Review your various plans and select one that meets your practical criteria, legal restrictions, and budget restrictions
Break the steps to execute your plan down into stages, listing any materials you’ll need and any labor you’ll need to contract
Estimate the cost for each stage of your plan
Estimate the time for each stage of your plan and create a timetable

3. Schedule Your Work

When planning your work schedule, proceed in a logical order. For most landscaping projects, these are the first logical steps:

If you need to do any landscape destruction, do that first.
Next, do rough grading, install any swimming pool, install the drainage system, install underground utilities, and prepare large areas of soil while equipment is available.
Then, build structures that can be built at this point.

Implementing these steps encompasses the next three steps discussed below.

4. Solve Drainage Problems

Drainage problems can interfere with your ability to implement the steps above, so if you have any drainage problems, you will need to address these before proceeding. You should analyze both surface and subsurface water patterns. In the process, it’s a good idea to check how these water patterns are affecting your foundation.

You can study surface water patterns by waiting for a rainstorm and checking where the water flows and collects. You should also look at erosion patterns. Most surface problems can be solved by either sculpting the terrain to divert the flow or installing a drainage pipe. More complicated issues may require measures such as catch basins, drainage chimneys, dry wells, and irrigation.

You can study subsurface water patterns by testing soil porosity. Dig a hole two feet deep and fill it with water. If all the water is gone within 24 hours, the soil is too porous. If the water is still there after 48 hours, the soil is too dense. If the water level gradually begins to rise, the level of the water table is too high. Most subsurface problems can be fixed by improving surface drainage, but others may require solutions that go below the surface, like correcting soil or installing underground drain lines.

5. Lay out Your Site

When you get past drainage problems and you’re ready to begin your main work, it’s time to lay out your site:

Mark off the approximate boundaries of the project with stakes and string.
Measure and mark the layout using batter boards and strings or stakes and strings as appropriate (depending on whether the terrain and project are sloped or level).
Check all corners to make sure they’re square.
Mark lines along the strings using powdered chalk, lime, or sand. If you need to erect posts, measure the locations of where posts will go, drop plumb bobs, and drive stakes.

6. Erect Your First Post

For many projects, the next step is to begin erecting posts. For decks, fences, and other structures to turn out right, posts must be selected from material to avoid rot, protected from drainage, plumb, well-rooted, and driven below the frost line. Follow these steps when erecting your posts:

Dig holes at the points you previously staked.
Determine whether you want to set the posts in the ground or on top of separate footings. Separate footings will require extra concrete and anchors.
Set posts in place. If you’re setting them in the ground, you’ll first soak the holes, then drop in 2 to 3 inches of gravel, and put tubular forms in the holes if desired.
Adjust each post until it is plumb in two directions, then secure it with two diagonal braces nailed to the post. If you need to check the alignment of intermediary posts, you can use string.
Double check that the posts are plumb.
Pour concrete into the holes. Poke with a rod to remove air pockets. Round off the concrete at the top of the hole or form.
Let cure 24 hours before doing any other work.