The Best Plants for Your Landscape

One of the most important decisions that you will be faced with as a homeowner, especially if you had your house built, is choosing which types of plants you will want to use for your landscaping. Choosing the plants which most fit your yard will not only spruce it up, but save you money and time.

Know Your Yard

There are a few things that you need to establish when choosing your plants. This means coming to know your yard and what your plans are for it. You may also want to consider what you will want to use, sprinklers or a hose or some other means to, to water your plants.

That is why one of the first things that you need to do before you purchase your plants is plan your landscape on paper. This will save you a lot of trouble in buying too many or too few of what you need.

Budget

Along those same lines, make sure to know how much you are willing to spend before you head out to the nursery. Establish a budget and stick to it, this way you will not overspend and you will have something of a general idea of how much everything will cost you.

When buying and planning also consider which types of plants would be best suited for the amount of sun your yard gets and refer to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map to avoid plants that do not grow well in your zone. Also make sure to buy plants that, when they mature, are the right size, shape, and color for your landscape.

Choose Young Plants

Also important in selecting your plants are to choose plants that are compact, healthy, and, if possible, just starting to flower. You will want to avoid weak, spindly, or insect-infested plants.

You will also want to avoid plants that are rootbound or have outgrown their pots. You may want plants that are relatively young, so as to grow into your yard and landscape.

Other Special Considerations

Makes sure as well to take into account any special considerations your plant may need, such as if they need a specific type of soil, and what the watering needs are, as you may want to invest in a drip irrigation system. Know how invasive they are, what they smell like, and even how messy they can become.

Again, it is not too difficult to choose plants for your landscape, as long as you know which direction you want to take everything. Sprinklers, labor, and everything else will all fall into place.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2012 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Gardening, Landscaping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.