When you select a home plan to build, you not only look for the floor plan that best suits your needs, but you also search for the architectural style that best reflects your personal sense of style. Likewise, the landscaping you design should be a complement to that architectural style. There are many considerations when beginning to draft a design for landscaping: seasonal temperatures and precipitation in your area; the predominance of sun or shade in the area surrounding your new home; and whether a low-care lawn or high-maintenance garden will suit your lifestyle.
The first consideration is your local climate. Determining your USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) zone in which our home is located will be a tremendous help in knowing what plants will or will not grow in your landscape. For instance, if you are building a home in south Florida, you should probably not invest in Aspen or Birch trees for shading your lawn. Likewise, a retreat in mountainous Montana will not likely have Bald Cypress trees that flourish on the property. To find the trees, shrubs and flowers that will grow most naturally on your property, make an appointment to visit your local county agricultural extension office. The extension agents are extremely knowledgeable about indigenous flora. This will provide you with a list from which you can choose shade trees, landscape shrubbery and flowering bedding plants that are known to thrive in your area.
Whether you have purchased a large plot of land or a small lot on which you will build your new home, there are likely some existing trees and other plant life that need to be removed. Hopefully though, there are also some established shade trees that may be able to be left standing during construction. Shade can be an amazing way to make your home more energy efficient: shade trees can block the sun from creating a greenhouse effect inside your home; large pre-existing trees can also make outstanding focal points for gardens. Another point that many homeowners often overlook: established trees also house birds and squirrels that can keep your pests to a minimum! Re-establishing bird life on property that has been completely stripped takes several years.
When planning the landscape of your new home, it is easy for many homeowners to get so excited about the beauty of flowers that the time demands of large gardens become secondary considerations. The reality is that there are only 24 hours in each day, and with the busy lifestyles of many homeowners – two jobs, three children, soccer camp, tennis lessons, shopping, housekeeping and getting Fido to the veterinarian regularly – there is probably not much time left over to tend an ever-needy garden. With a level head and possibly a good landscape consultant in attendance, you can find the landscape design that works best with your schedule and pleases your gardening aesthetics at the same time. Many evergreen and flowering shrubs only require light attention on a semi-annual basis, but there are also those that demand time each week. Decide what appearance you want for your home, and then reconcile that with your weekly schedule. A compromise might be necessary.
Lastly, take into consideration the architecture of your home. There are so many distinct styles from which to choose: Colonial, New England or Cape Cod, Southwestern, Spanish or Mediterranean, Country, Beach, and modern or contemporary, to name a few. Each of these home styles has a distinct exterior appearance that defines its style. The landscape should carry that appearance out into the surrounding area.
Traditional homes plans like Georgian or Colonial homes do not lend themselves to tropical plantings like palms or hibiscus. They typically lean more toward conifers such as spruce and fir, oak trees, maples or dogwoods. Many of these homes often find themselves host to lovely rose gardens with statues and fountains to convert yard space into reflection space. Flowering shrubs like azaleas, hydrangeas and roses are regular features in the yards of these homes as well. Oftentimes, a hedge row of evergreen boxwoods will border the home or its walkways.
Mediterranean style architecture better lends itself to bougainvilleas, climbing roses, grape vines, or wisteria accented with terra cotta pots and garden structures like arbors or trellises, fountains and benches. Courtyards are popular features in these home plans, and terraced lawns are also quite a lovely characteristic of this style. An indicator that the kitchen is often the center of the home plan, an herb garden is an appropriate addition to the landscape of a Mediterranean style home.
French and English home plans are often complemented by country gardens that are less formal and more whimsical. In many of these gardens, flowering herbs such as lavender and Echinacea are common, as are evergreen climbers like ivy and creeping fig. Stone walls are great to wrap around porches, and they double as shelving for pots of assorted bloomers. With the right attention to detail, you can relax in your Iowa home and be transported to Oxfordshire on the wings of the butterflies that will come to visit your garden.
Western or Spanish villas are more suited to succulents, cactus, lantana and other drought-tolerant plants. Accents of rock gardens, boulders, and terra cotta or Mexican painted pottery lend the perfect air to the landscape design of these home plans. Many windows are encased with trellises on which climbing bougainvilleas or other bright flowers are set. Typically lacking in thick shade, most of the height in Spanish gardens is man-made, in the form of arbors. An authentic look, however, can be made with the tall spires of groomed cedars or firs bordering the lawn.
Modern or contemporary home plans are matched with the sleek lines of Lombardy poplars, sky pencil holly, Japanese maples, topiaries of bottlebrush, lantana or Mexican petunias – mold your garden setting into a piece of modern artwork. The geometric patterns of sharply pruned hedges or borders are sharp but pleasant contracts to the glossy finish of a pool or zen fountain.
Whatever the style of your new home will be, design the landscaping to enhance the style, rather than detract from it. Working with a landscape artist can take this part of building a home off your plate, but with the right resources, anyone can plan the prefect lawn or garden themselves.
