Contents
A private house is good because it has its own yard. It is good to relax in it, you can decorate it the way you want. But everything should be done according to certain rules – landscape design of the yard, that’s what it’s called. The task is not as simple as it seems.
General Principles
To make your yard beautiful, harmonious and comfortable, it is advisable to create a plan before starting work, and then turn this plan into reality. And by the way, in most cases, with the independent development of landscape design, the result is very different from the project. Either they saw a new plant that was not on the plan, or they didn’t like in reality what looked “super” in the picture. Nevertheless, the landscaping of the courtyard of your house should be done according to the rules, otherwise you may end up with an uncomfortable yard and an unpresentable view.
Preparing a site plan
The first thing you will need is a floor plan to scale. You can draw it on a sheet in a cage or on graph paper. Take a certain scale, for example, one meter is one or two cells. In the second option, it will be possible to draw small details in more detail, but the plan will be large. The plan should show:
- Orientation of the site relative to the cardinal points. This is important when choosing plants and planning flower beds.
- Existing and planned buildings.
At first, the plan may look like this, then each zone must be detailed - Laid communications (water supply, sewerage, lighting).
- Gate, gate, distance to the road.
- All existing plants that will not be uprooted.
- Vegetable garden and orchard, if they are planned.
- Playground.
With this initial plan, you can start planning the yard. On this plan, it is immediately necessary to highlight shaded places (the sun appears only for a few hours), partial shade (half a day is illuminated by the sun) and sunny (there is almost no shadow at all) zones. To do this, it is best to take colored pencils and shade the zones with different colors.
If there are lower and higher zones on the site, they should also be highlighted. It is also necessary to designate sources, springs, retaining walls or the intended places for their installation, all other features of the landscape. All this information should be taken into account when developing the landscape design of the yard.
Decide on the central object
Before starting work on landscaping the yard, you need to decide what you would like to focus on. This refers to a large object: a pond, a fountain, a gazebo with or without a barbecue, a pergola. This object is placed in the central place, and all the other, smaller ones are placed around it. Moreover, if you have chosen a pond, it does not mean that there will be no gazebo or fountain on the site, just the pond will be the main object. It is the main “chip”, and all other structures will only beat it, complement it.
The same rule applies if you want to make the main “theme of the yard” a recreation area – a gazebo or a pergola, just a platform with sofas, benches, a hammock, etc. A pond, a fountain, and small architectural objects may well be located next to them. The idea is that this zone is the highlight of your yard, and all other objects will beat it. Because, in a usually small space, two or three competing ideas are chaos and lack of harmony.
Finding a place for everything
Having decided on the set of desired objects, we take a sheet of cardboard, cut out all the objects from it. We cut it to the scale in which the map was drawn, of the form in which the construction is planned. You can color, you can sign.
We take the images and lay them out on the plan. Place the selected “main object” in the center of the composition. This does not mean that his place is strictly in the center – maybe on the side of the site. It’s just that this corner should be visible from the windows and / or from the entrance. After all, you should get aesthetic pleasure from your yard.
When we found a place for the central zone, we begin to figure out where to put all the other larger objects. Some can be located close to each other, others – at a certain distance. If everything you want does not fit, you will have to sacrifice something or reduce the size. Here everyone decides what is more important to him.
We lay paths and develop a lighting system
When everything you want to see on the site is placed on the plan, it’s time to lay paths and think over the lighting system. Why do these two different systems need to be planned at the same time? Because the paths are usually illuminated, otherwise it is not very convenient to walk along them at night. So they pull the cables along them, supplying voltage to the lamps, and also extending the lighting to all the key points of the yard – to the gazebo, fountain, stream, etc.
When planning tracks, there are two basic rules. First – if you need to visually bring the object closer, we lay a straight path. This rule applies if the site is large in area or long and narrow. Another possible area of application is a courtyard decorated in a minimalist style. It’s just that other forms are unacceptable – only strict geometric shapes. Although, broken lines are also welcome.
In all other cases, straight tracks are avoided. There is no need to “wind” too much, but winding, smoothly turning paths harmoniously fit into any other style of courtyard design.
When you have outlined the paths on the plan, draw lamps to illuminate the yard. Along the paths – after a meter and a half or two, to illuminate gazebos and playgrounds – more often. And the backlighting of water looks beautiful if there are “water” objects.
Site layout from improvised means
How else, besides the site plan on graph paper and cardboard analogues of various landscape objects, can you visualize your design project? There is a simple way – using ordinary plasticine or other improvised means. It is better to make a house and other buildings from foam and cardboard, a gazebo from sticks. Lay out the tracks from material similar to the planned “original”. This will help to evaluate the invented texture and color scheme. Everything else – benches, a pond, fountains, trees, bushes, flowers – we sculpt all this from plasticine. For plausibility, trees and shrubs can be made from twigs by sticking “foliage” of about the same shade. And yes, we do everything on a scale (for example, 1 meter is equal to 1 cm or 2 cm). This is exactly a three-dimensional 3D image, which will accurately convey to you the proportions, convenience and all other nuances of the yard landscape design you have created.
Landscape Design Programs
If you are a confident PC user, then the task of developing a design will help to simplify programs for landscape design. The bad news is that they are paid, but it will be easy and interesting to create a landscape design for the courtyard of a private house. There are about a dozen programs, but here are the most popular:
- Our Now. There is a large built-in library of plants, a planner for paving, fences, gates, etc. The ability to download the missing materials or textures, plants is available.
- Googl ScatchUp. This is not a profile program, but it has a landscape planning section, which is very good – it is full of lessons on working with landscape creation.
- Punch. The disadvantage of the program is that it is not possible to add your own objects. You can only use those that are in the software library. Another disadvantage is that there is no way to export the results, that is, you will not be able to use the created project in other programs. But it is simple, and requires almost no time to learn.
- Sierra Land Designer 3D. Large base of plants and other objects. It is possible to enter your own data and use it in your work. Each possible action has a hint, so it’s easy to figure it out along the way. The program indicates the type of soil and the style in which you want to decorate your yard. The program will automatically select suitable objects. At the end of the project, you can print the project and get an estimate.
Examples of house planning
Independent landscape design of the courtyard of a private house is not an easy task. The difficulty is that often what looks good in the picture or “in the head” turns out to be “not very” in reality. Therefore, it is easier to rely on photos of real objects. At least there you can see what happened. The idea can be taken “as a whole”, or it can be partially adapted to suit your own desires or conditions.
Example one – with water objects
For example, the center is a pond. Do you still want to have a gazebo, a fountain and a stream, a rock garden, flower beds, benches? In this case, this option would look good:
- The gazebo stands right on the shore of the pond, it is surrounded by plants. If desired, it will be possible to start up climbing plantations, which in a few years will turn it into a secluded corner.
- We carry the fountain far enough from the pond. You can – to the other end of the yard.
Bridge over the stream - Between the fountain and the pond we lay a “track” for the stream. It is better if it is sinuous, maybe even with loops.
- Along the way of the stream we find a place for benches, rock garden and flower beds.
The option with a “real” stream is easily implemented if there is at least a small difference in height on the site. The fountain is then placed at the highest point, the pond at the lowest. Water with this arrangement runs by gravity, it is only necessary to organize its supply from the pond to the fountain (using a pump of a certain power and a pipe system).
If there is no elevation difference, there are two ways out – to make it artificially (a very large amount of work and significant material costs) or to make two autonomous water objects – a fountain and a pond, and to make a “fake” stream from stones. Another option is not to make a stream at all. An unconnected pond and fountain is also a very viable and beautiful option for decorating the local area.
Example two – in the center of the recreation area
If the pond is usually taken a certain distance from the entrance to the house, then the recreation area is often made nearby. But “recreation area” can be perceived in different ways. For some, these are comfortable sofas, benches, swings on which it is convenient to read, for someone – a platform with a gazebo and a table located next to the barbecue.
Depending on the wishes, a recreation area of any type can be near the entrance, or maybe at the opposite end of the site. And near the same gazebo there may be a pond or a fountain. But not a gazebo near the pond, but a pond near the gazebo. Here is the difference. The path from the entrance leads to the gazebo, and from it you can get to the pond.
Near the gazebo, indoor or outdoor area for recreation, flower beds, rock gardens, rockeries can be located. There are flower beds along the path, taller plants are bushes and trees, in the shade of which it is reasonable to place benches. But whatever you plant along the path, the main object should be visible in the future – a gazebo or a platform with sofas.
Photo ideas of beautiful corners of private courtyards
Landscape design of the yard is not an easy task even for professionals, and even more so for amateurs. There are too many nuances to know. It is much easier to find the design you like, and then reproduce the photo on your site.
Frontage
A front garden is a small part of the area between the facade of the house and the fence. Not everyone wants to put the house close to the sidewalk, as well as move it far into the plot. So it turns out in front of the house a narrow (a meter or two) strip of land, which, except for flowers and shrubs, can no longer be ennobled.
No matter how narrow the strip between the fence and the house is, it is advisable to break it into two zones – a flower garden and a path. The path is not necessarily a solid laid tile or other coating. It can be lawn grass with tiles laid in random order (with gaps).
If the climate is hot, the area is arid, or there is no desire / opportunity to mess with the lawn, you can replace the grass with mulch or fine gravel. An excellent composition is obtained from painted colored gravel and several beautiful plants.
Pay attention to the location of the plants – it depends on the type of fence. If the fence is solid, you need to develop a planting plan so that they look good from the windows. In this case, the tallest plants are located closer to the fence, the shortest – closer to the house. If the fence is rare, more decorative, and you want a beautiful view from the street, we change the planting plan exactly the opposite: the tallest plants are along the house, the shortest ones are closer to the street.
If you want a beautiful view from two sides, there are two options. The first – we plant small and medium-sized varieties of flowers and greenery in the flower garden. The second – we divide the front garden into several zones, make separate flower beds or alpine slides / rockeries that look good from any point.
Entrance / entrance group
The entrance group is the area near the porch, the entrance group is near the gate. As you understand, the design is different, although there are common features: all the “decorations” should not block the view. You should be able to clearly see who enters or drives into your territory. Therefore, mainly medium and small plants are used.
The traditional way to decorate the area near the porch or gate is flower beds or flower beds. They can be of a standard type – only plants of different types that create a constantly flowering or green carpet.
You can also follow the latest trends in landscape design – take up most of the area with decorative gravel or mulch, plant plants at a distance from each other. In addition to the modern look, this option is good because less care is required for fewer plants, and less money will be spent on the purchase. This will really help to get by with “little blood” if you have just begun to translate into reality the landscape design of the courtyard of a private house that you created. Too many plants to buy and plant at a time – a lot of money and time is needed. And so, you can gradually add plants, at the same time adjusting the plan along the way.
Track design
Having planned the tracks, you still need to choose the material from which they will be made. The standard approach is paving slabs, but it requires a lot of money, although the coating is reliable and convenient. If finances are tight, you can temporarily make paths and paths from inexpensive materials. Some of them require a little money, but they look great, and they are good in operation.
Along the edge of the paths, you can start up a small shrub – make a low-growing green hedge. If you wait until the shrub grows once, plant low-growing varieties of flowers. They come in a variety of heights, colors and flowering times.
The second often built-in option for decorating a place along the paths is flower beds. And, again, they can be made “in a modern way” – against the background of backfilling with rubble or mulch. This cannot be called a rockery, although the idea is taken from there.
Backyard
All the theoretical calculations about landscaping the yard were, in fact, about how to equip the backyard. It is this part of the courtyard that is closed from prying eyes and it is here that you want it to be beautiful, cozy and comfortable. We will not talk about planning again, but we will talk about how and with what it is better to pave this area.
If you have a piece of paradise planned in your backyard, you have no problems. Plants, lawns, paths, everything will be painted, how and what to do is clear. But if you want to make a recreation area here, so that you can put a table for the summer, sun loungers – lie down in the sun, maybe – install a pool? How then should the backyard cover be? There are options:
- Lawn. This is a great option if the groundwater level is low, the soil drains water well, or the site has a good drainage system. If not, there will be puddles, mud, grass problems.
- Lay paving slabs or pave everything with flagstone – a good option even for clay soils with high groundwater levels, easy to care for. But he is too “urban”, tough and inexorable.
- Combine lawn with tiles. A very correct approach. And it is convenient, and beautiful, and there is not much dirt, and there is where to walk barefoot.
As you can see, there are three options, but there are thousands of ways to implement them, or even more. Different decoration styles, different plants, material combinations, furniture, decorations, ponds/fountains/benches/swings. Do not count everything. All this allows you to create exactly your yard. Individual and different from others.