Using The Ideas You Find

Landscaping Ideas

Finding landscape and garden design ideas that are perfect for your property shape or exact situation can be a frustrating task for most do it yourselfers. Even with all of the plans, ideas, and pictures available on almost any landscaping or garden design situation, it can still seem impossible. So many times, it’s possible that most folks and even you are looking for the wrong thing.

Whether creating a new landscape or upgrading an existing property, finding the exact complete design you need is highly unlikely. However, finding bits and pieces from different design ideas that will work together is a strong possibility. Besides the entire design, there are a few things to look at in the plans, pictures, and designs you’ll see.

• 1) Look for the elements, principles, placements, and shapes that are repeated and used in different design ideas by different designers.
• 2) Stop trying to find the perfect design. Look for different parts of different landscaping ideas to fit certain areas of your landscape or garden. Even though they may consist of different elements and materials, these can be changed to universal elements to create continuity and consistency when you reach the final stage of the design.

Landscape Design Ideas
Pictures

After several years of being a consultant, designer, and running a few do it yourself sites, I have a good idea of what folks are looking for when they’re searching for design ideas. Pictures, plans, more pictures, and more plans. So along with a lot of good do it yourself information, Landscaping Videos and our main Landscaping Ideas Site are both a majority of pictures.

Because we have some of the largest collections online, let’s start with pictures.

Our first directory of pictures started out on The Landscape Design Site as a list of links pointing to the design portfolios of other professional landscape designers and contractors. However over time, we have added a lot of our own on pictures. See landscaping pictures for a very large list of links and pictures with design explanations.

Our second directory is strictly on-site. See landscaping idea pictures for a large directory of pictures with design ideas and explanations for each photo. And of course, let’s not forget this directory. See landscaping pictures for a huge collection of photos search-able by keyword and style.

Plans – Blueprints

While those last links should keep you busy for hours and possibly days, there is more. Besides a collection of my own plans and completed designs, there is also a directory of over 100 garden plans and design blueprints for you to take advantage of.

My own design plans and ideas are listed on both this site and The Landscape Design Site. On this site, see landscape design plans for a simple list of design layouts and pictures of designs. See landscaping plans for a more detailed list of plans with explanations and pictures of finished designs.

Videos

Last, and the main highlight of this site for getting landscaping ideas is the videos. The collection of videos on this site is hand picked to only include good how to information, tutorials, and ideas. See our landscaping videos collection which cuts out all the worthless videos that teach you nothing and leaves only the best ideas and tutorials for you to use.

With all the landscaping and garden design resources listed here, your chances of finding some good ideas that you can use and put together in your own design are pretty good.

Living and landscaping on a slope or hillside lot can be a challenge. And depending on how extreme the slope is, it can be quite a bit more expensive than a flat yard of the same square footage.

The lot in this video is sloped about as extreme as most folks would have to deal with. As it is, most of the usable space has to be created by terracing.

Other than design, drainage is the biggest issue with landscaping on a slope. Especially if the slope is toward your home. Some type of diversion through terracing and chanelling the water. Terracing helps to slow the water so that it can be handled. It also slows erosion from the hillside.

Watering is also an issue with hillside landscaping as water tends to runoff quicker than it can saturate the area. Special steps and considerations need to be taken for watering on a hillside or slope.

Anyway, watch the video. It might give you some ideas and solutions if you’re faced with landscaping on a slope or hillside.