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Creating a beautiful landscape designed garden takes skill and garden knowledge. In this post we will talk about the best techniques and ways to landscape your front yard and backyard. We will give you design ideas and some landscape knowledge to help you to begin your garden transformation in your front and backyard through landscape design. Get ready to transform your outdoor space!
What is your idea of the perfect landscape designed garden? Whether you prefer your front yard to be neatly landscaped to welcome your guests or your backyard to create a wonderful area for your family and friends to enjoy. From pots full of plants, to water features and fire pits, there is so much choice available that will enhance your home and create a beautiful outdoor retreat. Plaza Hollandi is here to give you some exciting design ideas for landscaping your backyard, front yard or balcony! So sit back and learn some landscape design ideas from the professionals.
The best place to begin your landscape design is to think about the type of garden you want to create. There are many different styles of landscaped gardens to choose from. Japanese, Mediterranean, cacti, European or a mixture; the list goes on and on. We all have a personal style and we all know what we like, so the best thing to do would be to put that all on a piece of paper.
What landscape design would you like? The choice is yours. You can choose a Mediterranean garden with bold and beautiful bougainvillea and unique bonsai olive trees. If a Japanese inspired garden is more your style add a mixture of grasses, bamboo and acer trees, rocks, ponds and lanterns. Or you could go for a classical garden design and add some beautifully trimmed ehretia hedges for structure. You really can create any design you want.
Once you have decided on the style of garden you would like, draw a simple sketch of the area you would like to landscape. It does not need to be an exact drawing, but should include any permanent fixtures. For example if it is your backyard, draw the shape of your backyard area and include any trees, sheds and plants that you do not want to move. Also include paved areas that will stay. If it is your front yard make note of the parking area, the door entrance and any steps or concrete structures that will remain in the location. Professional landscape designers use a computer program for this, however it is a great way to start your landscape design journey if you are doing it yourself.
For more inspiration search through garden design magazines and Instagram pages to collect pictures. Now you can start the fun part! Add the images you have collected to your drawing of your garden. From a new border full of shrubs, to a water feature. Add each one to your drawing and see if you like where they are. The great thing is that you can move the pictures around or take them away if you do not like them. Keep adding and changing your design until your landscape design is exactly what you need and want.
If landscape drawing is not of interest to you or your backyard is too large and complicated to do yourself, then our landscape design team would be happy to help. Our fully qualified landscape designers have many years experience working in Qatar and the Middle East. Having worked on many prestigious garden. They know what plants and shrubs work in Qatar and its climate. They can landscape your garden providing unique and exciting design ideas.
Your backyard is an extension of your home. It is a place where you can entertain family and friends or relax in the mornings with a coffee surrounded by beautiful green plants. Enlisting the help of a professional landscape designer can help you to realise the potential of your outside space. The landscape designer can work with you to design your backyard, designing different functional areas and styles that will work for your budget and style.
Living in Qatar we have to be mindful of the weather when designing our landscaped backyard. But this doesn’t mean that our design needs to suffer. We just need to trust someone with the experience and knowledge in landscape design to recommend the right plants, trees and soft landscaping. Our experience staff in our garden centre and plant nursery are always there to offer advice.
If you have a very large backyard you may need to prepare your area with hardscaping. The word hardscaping refers to all of the ‘non-living’ aspects of your garden. This part you need to do before you begin planting. This would include fences, driveways, paths and excavation. Besides giving your landscape design more structure the hardscaping can also reduce the amount of water needed for your garden. Depending on the size of your backyard will depend on how much work you need to do to prepare the area for landscape design.
Once the hardscaping is finished you can then begin to plant. This is called softscaping. Choose your plants carefully taking into account their design and how you would like your garden to look. Choosing plants to create a shaded area is a great way to ensure your garden is not always in full sun. This will also give you more choice of plants to add. Think about the size that each plant grows and if it would be better at the front of the boarder or the back. Decide if you would like a climbing plant, making sure you can give it a space to climb. From outdoor trees to shrubs there is a place and a time in the garden for all plants.
When the planting is complete you can add your garden furniture, comfortable loungers, tables and fire pits. Then all you need to do is invite your friends and family over to your new landscape designed backyard and sit and relax together enjoying your plants throughout the seasons.
Once your backyard landscape design is complete you can now think about the front yard area and how you would like to landscape design that. Front yard design is exciting. It is what you and your visitors see when you arrive at your home. So it is important to put some careful thought into it to create a good first impression.
The size of your front yard will be the deciding factor on how you landscape it. If you only have a small area leading to your front door, don’t worry there is still so much that you can do depending on the style and look you are going for.
For some easy simple solutions to make your front yard design look more attractive you can add a selection of terracotta pots with beautiful flowering plants. Plants such as petunia and zinnia are particularly good in Qatar, as they flower all winter and continue to flower throughout the summer. For a more dramatic design consider cycas plants, with their beautiful spiky leaves that initially grow in a lime green colour and develop into a dark green. These plants are sure to add a dramatic bold landscape design to your front entrance.
For front yards that have a large driveway it is best not to hardscape this area. A mixture of lawns, plants and stones is the ideal combination. If you have concrete or paving on your driveway when the rain falls the water will flow off into the road creating puddles and will not be absorbed into the ground. Instead consider gravel that will absorb the water allowing it to permeate into the ground; creating a water source for the other plants around the area.
There are so many design ideas you can choose from when landscaping your garden. As with your backyard you first need to decide ‘your style’. Whether you prefer cacti plants that need little to no care, or you would like a natural Mediterranean garden with olive trees and bright welcoming bougainvillea, your front garden can be equally as beautiful as your back garden.
A garden is never complete. There will always be new plants and designs that you want to add from season to season and year to year, after you have used your garden. There will be plants that need to be moved, because they have outgrown their original home. There will be plants that have struggled in their original planting position.
As the seasons change some plants will come into their own and look beautiful and some will wait until the conditions are perfect for them. The beauty about landscape design is it is never finished, you can always improve and enhance your garden as you become used to it.
The great thing about landscape designing your own garden is that you can choose what garden style you want to create. You may decide to have just one style and keep your garden uniformed. Or you may decide to landscape a mixture of garden styles. Whatever garden style you choose it is all possible with a little careful planning.
Due to the nature of the climate in Qatar it is not always easy to grow flowering perennials. Sometimes it is just too hot for our lawns let alone flowering plants. But there are certain garden styles that can work beautifully in Qatar and that you can enjoy all year around.
A drought tolerant garden is always a good choice here in Qatar. Combining plants and flowers that don’t need a lot of water and that like full sun. Add grass, aloe vera’s and beautiful bougainvillea to bring a pop of colour to your garden. The textures of mixed grasses in your garden can add movement, creating another element to enjoy. You can add some gravel to a paving area to create texture or if you would prefer having paving stones place them between the gravel to create a natural path.
For a more formal garden you can use plants and shrubs such as ehretia, olive and bougainvillea to create symmetrical lines. Adding a straight line of ehretia hedging around your grass can give your garden a formal look. By creating symmetrical designs in your garden you can create the effect of uniformity. Although this landscape design technique is generally used in public parks and spaces it can also be very effective in your own garden.
Finally for the more natural informal garden you can design your garden in an unstructured way. That is not to say that thought will not go into your planting, but that you will allow your plants to grow into their space without conformity. Creating a natural environment. This type of landscape design is especially beneficial for the environment, allowing insects, bees and birds to naturally live in your garden aid pollination.
For some extra design ideas and inspiration have a look at this small garden inspiration page on Pinterest.
For larger garden inspiration check out this Instagram page for ideas.
For more information about our landscape design service please contact Muayyad Qatato by email muayyad.qatato@hollandi.com or telephone +(974) 3381 4809. For more plant inspiration please visit our garden centre or plant nursery. Whatever unique design you would like our professional Landscape Design Team can provide any custom-made designs and planting schemes to make it happen.
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