Ideas for Landscape Designs

Pathway to Front Door

• If you have a long pathway from the street to your doorway, an effective landscape design can take advantage of that feature. For example, you can plant trees on either side to create a canopy over the walkway. You also can line the pathway with potted plants. Plants in containers are much easier to rearrange than plants in the ground, providing you with the flexibility to change your landscaping design as the mood suits you.

Garden Path

• Create a distinct mood for a walkway through a backyard garden through your choice of paving materials and how they are laid out. A cobblestone path creates a sense of old-fashioned intimacy. A pathway that winds through your garden can lend it sense of mystery in which you never know what kind of landscaping feature you are going to see next. You might also consider painting or dyeing your pathway stones to complement the colors of your garden.

Water Features

• Adding a water feature to your landscaping scheme provides a sense of drama and artistry. You can add a pond using either a flexible or molded liner. Plants, fish and a fountain create a landscape focus around which you can build the rest of your design. You also can introduce water into your landscape without the labor and maintenance involved in adding a pond. For example, you can add a free-standing fountain. Buy the fountain premade, or design it yourself.

Artworks

• An existing landscape can become more of a showcase by adding artwork. The most obvious landscape artwork is a stone sculpture, but there are many other options. If you have a garden or tool shed in your yard, head to a junk store and buy old rakes, shovels and water buckets, then attach them to the wall of the shed. Another interesting idea is get a huge picture frame and attach it trees or shrubs so that you create a portrait that focuses on the highlighted area of your landscape. Rather than a sculpted figure, consider more offbeat landscape art like an obelisk, a sundial or something you have made yourself.