How to Landscape a Large Yard With Weeds

Removing the Weeds

• 1

  Remove weeds from your property to prepare the area for landscaping. Wear gardening gloves and pull out weeds where possible or use a weed eater or trimmer to cut down tough weeds.

• 2

  Till the land where the weeds were to uproot the weeds and prevent regrowth. Till 8 to 12 inches down.

• 3

  Add a 2-inch layer of compost, peat moss or another organic material to the areas where you want to landscape to create better soil drainage. If you want to plant a garden, compost is the better option due to the number of nutrients it adds to the soil, though compost can be beneficial to almost all plants. Use a shovel or pitchfork to work the compost or peat moss down, through the soil, as uniformly as possible.

Landscaping

• 4

  Draw a basic sketch of the yard, noting where you would like to put each feature of your landscape to use as a guide. Make sure you draw large items that you want in your landscape to scale, such as a pond, so that you know how much space it will take up.

• 5

  Put in your largest landscaping features first. If it's spring and you would like to get your plants started, at least mark off the area of large features, like a pond, so that you don't invade the space when doing the rest of your landscaping.

• 6

  Add each plant to the yard in the area that will be most effective for its growth. Plants that require full sun, such as vegetable gardens, should be planted where structures and trees don't block the sunlight while plants that require partial shade should be planted in the shadows of trees or against structures to ensure they do not get full sunlight all day.

• 7

  Mulch around all of the plants that you add to the yard to keep the weeds that you removed from regrowing. Keep mulch 2 to 6 inches away from the base of the plant: 2 inches for small plants, like flowers, and 6 inches for larger plants, including trees, so that the mulch doesn't touch the plant.