How to Landscape Your Bi-Level Home

Preparing

• 1

  Go to a nursery and look at various plants you might want to incorporate into your landscape. With a pen and paper, write down each plant's common and latin names, care requirements and mature size.

• 2

  Make a sketch of the front of your home on graph paper. The sketch doesn't need to be perfect, but it should be relatively to scale to aid you in planning your landscaping.

• 3

  Draw a bird's-eye sketch of your home on graphing paper. Again, keep it to scale. Add any trees or landscaping already at your home that you would like to keep, along with your previous sketch of landscaping against the home.

• 4

  Sketch out landscaping beds you would like to implement, along with correct shape.

• 5

  Highlight any slopes or other details in your lawn. Many bi-level homes have slopes either in the front, back or both. You can highlight slopes with hardscaping or plants. Low-growing ground covers, such as blue rug junipers, ivies or creeping phlox, do well on slopes; a weeping tree such as a weeping pussy willow or even crimson red or fern-leaf Japanese maples can accentuate the grade of the slope.

• 6

  Play with different designs on your sketch using erasable colored pencils. Emphasizing larger picture windows and down-playing the smaller lower levels can create a flowing, aesthetically pleasing look to your home because your eyes are drawn to the "right" areas. Draw different size trees that you liked at the nursery around your windows, such as a large one that's at least the height of your roofline on the outside and a medium-size one on the other side of the window. Fill in with different sizes of shrubs and plants.

  Examples include a 15-foot crabapple on the side, a 4-foot dwarf lilac or similar dwarf shrub on the other side and groups of dwarf weigela or 'little spire' Russian sage under your bottom windows. Having the smaller windows under larger ones takes away from the flow of your home, but creating different eye levels using heights of plants brings back a pleasing flow. Flesh out with groups of colorful annuals planted in the front of your bed or low growing perennials.

• 7

  Make sure in your final, chosen sketch that each "section" of landscaping (either side of the entry door or various beds) has a point of focus. Also make sure that the design is balanced; don't make one side more eye-catching than the other.

• 8

  Choose a completed sketch that you like and take it into a nursery. Ask the nursery employee about plants for your area that fit into the scaled designs you have drawn. Show the employee your drawings, and if available, a photograph of your home.

• 9

  Ask the nursery specialist to show you plants that work well together. Examples include groups of native shrubs and plants, and plants that require the same amount of water and care to make it easier to maintain.

Hardscaping

• 10

  Look at various textures for your landscaping using rocks, stone and wood to draw eyes away from a boxy silhouette or otherwise boring exterior.

• 11

  Line walkways with large rocks, flagstone, cedar boards or another material of your choice. These different textures along the walkways and paths at your home will take away from the boxy look, add dimension and a textured appearance that is aesthetically pleasing as well as functional and relatively maintenance free.

• 12

  Install colored mulches, landscape rocks or other mulching or bed material to enhance the exterior of your home. Fill in your flower beds with the mulch or rocks.

• 13

  Add items such as fountains, yard art and garden decor sparingly throughout your landscape. These items draw your eye to different areas. If your bi-level has a slope, consider placing a small to medium fountain at the bottom in a small mulched bed to keep your eyes moving along the subtle, created lines of the rest of your landscape.