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Whether you are choosing a designer or planning a do-it-yourself landscape project, here are some things to think about as you get started.

Time and Landscapes

More than any other form of art or design, landscape planning involves the fourth dimension, time. All plants grow and change over time; this has to be considered at the beginning of a project. A balance between how a planting bed or yard will look immediately after installation and how it is expected to look after several years can be hard to achieve. You don’t want a planting bed to look empty the first few years or so packed with plants that after a couple of years they don’t have room to grow.

Changing Seasons

Not only does a landscape evolve as years pass by, but it goes through several cycles of change every year.  It may not be so hard to design a landscape that looks good in summer, but what happens to that yard in the winter? When the lawn is brown and leaves are gone, are there enough interesting shapes, bark patterns and evergreen foliage to carry through until spring?

Colours change with the seasons, too. Plants flower at different times, changing the combinations of colours. Leaf colours change in the fall. Knowing how the colour patterns and contrasts will work in every season is challenging.

Surviving the Weather and Daily Use

Though milder than other parts of Canada, the Vancouver region is still tough on landscapes. Plants have to survive the dry summers and wet winters. Patios, walks and outdoor structures go through constant cycles of wet and dry. Walking surfaces have to drain efficiently to be safe; materials have to be durable and age well without looking old and shabby.

Outdoor Rooms

The landscape designer often thinks of outdoor spaces as rooms without walls. In a sense, your yard is like an outdoor home that has several different rooms for different activities and functions. The hard part is to make them all work together and look good at the same time.

Landscape design is a complex, but fun challenge for the creative mind. Your local Vancouver lawn care and landscaping company has designers on staff, ready to help you plan a landscape that will look beautiful and interesting as it changes through the seasons and years.