The art of landscaping

The beauty of a compound comes from flowers, plants, trees plus other creative features. These are normally the first things that catch a person’s eye as they step into a compound. If you put in a lot of thought, you can end up with an appealing scenery. But how is this achieved?

Mallen Begumana, a landscaper, says that it is through landscaping that a house gets added value. It also provides family members with recreation and pleasure given the created features.

Begumana describes landscaping as the art of improving the aesthetic appearance of an enclosed piece of land. She says this can be done by planting trees, shrubs or adding decorative features. But before you think of designing or landscaping a compound, Begumana notes that you should consider using the available features in the surrounding for they will create an impact.

Begumana further explains that the different ways through which you can achieve long lasting beauty in the compound is by having a master plan that will be used as a guideline by the landscaper to bring out the desired design.

Master plan
A master plan carries every detail including a complete design or how the complete work will look like. It entails the location of things such as children’s play area, walkways, kitchen garden, fire area, and the lawn, among other things.

“A master plan is a well thought out plan of action that enables you to feel confident that the person employed will bring out what is right for the existing property. Any project can be more attainable if one is willing to accomplish the work following a drawn plan,” notes Begumana.

Weather pattern
About the weather pattern, the landscaper says consider the unpredicted changes in weather and adapt the landscape accordingly. Study the direction of the sun and the wind in different times of the day, month or year. Knowing the direction of the sun in the afternoon or evening will guide you when setting a relaxing place or where to plant the trees for a shade. The same applies to the wind direction when setting up a fireplace. For wind breaking, shade the walls with trees, large shrubs or climbing plants.

Focal point
Begumana says that it is good to find or work around a focal point in the compound; this can be a man-made rock, flower garden, fountain.

To this, focus on scale and pacing, this means that you plant tall plants besides the fence to avoid blocking the view of the other plants, trees or other items in the compound. By doing this, you will give the yard an appearance that will create a sense of organisation.

Be open to change;
You have to be honest about what you like and what may fall out of your favour with time according to Begumana. In this case, you can have potted plants, walkways made of temporary material such as pavers and floor tiles that can be changed according to the trend.

Drive way
Just like the walkways, Begumana says installed driveways help keep people off the grass. It also helps to avoid the so many car tyre marks which make the compound look ugly. In this case you can therefore use pavers or stones. These can also be boarded with flowers to make them look more beautiful.

Joseph Balikudembe, a landscaper at smart designers, says that you can use gravel or collected stones for the drive way.

The beauty of walkways
Have well designed walkways that go through the gardens to the specific destinations. This will help to keep guests and people off the grass as they try to access the rest of the buildings around the home. Putting walkways is another way of maintaining the flowers, plants and planted grass.

Children’s play area
Begumana notes that a children’s play area is another important aspect that should be considered if you are to have health plants, flowers and grass. This can be put next to the fence and in most cases, it is gazetted with beach sand to avoid the children from being hurt. The equipment installed in this area also comes with beautiful colours.

Portray brightness
There is nothing more welcoming than flowers and plants around the compound. A mixture of different colours of flowers and plants will keep the compound attractive. These can also be used to boarder the walk ways or in the centre of the lawn.

However, you can replant the flowers, plants or grass if affected during the dry season. Keep watering the new plants to make them look healthy.

The mixture of colours such as red, yellow, purple and white will make the garden look nice if planted in spieces such as hibiscus and roses. However she cautions that, “Although it is good to have a mixture, only use plants that can grow well alongside.”

Taking good care of a flower garden
Begumana says that a flower garden needs well-balanced soils with organic pesticides such as rotenone, pyrethrum, nicotine or neem oil. Using organic pesticide helps to prevent or control the spread of toxic chemicals that might be consumed by people around home.

You should also be well conversant with the kind of plants that shouldn’t neighbour others like orange tree as it carries fungal infection that can easily spread and affect the rest of the plants.
In the same line,Hadija Matovu, another landscaper notes that it’s important to pick fallen leaves and papers from the grass, water and add fertilisers in the garden, clean the plants and flowers with water to take off the dust, not forgetting mulching the garden, prune, trim and weed the plants for a healthy growth and a beautiful look.

Mulching
As every garden needs to be properly taken care of, you should mulch the plants and flowers to keep the soil moist. Dry grass or leaves are usually used to cover the roots to conserve moisture and improve soil fertility.

Weeding
Weeding should be done regularly to keep the garden healthy and safe for the plants in it. Here, you only need to get rid of the unwanted plants and give room for the new and healthy plants and flowers to grow well.

Prune and trim
Pruning helps to keep the plants fresh with a good and appealing appearance. However, the person in charge should do it carefully so as to maintain the beauty.

Avoid thorny plants
When planning a compound, you know that safety is paramount and in this case, you should beware of plants that are not suitable for the compound. Matovu points out some of the plants species that shouldn’t be planted at home.
She gives an example of dieffenbachia, it is very thorny. She also mentioned euphobia tirucalli commonly known as milkbush, it produces a bad smell and is also poisonous. “These two types of plants are dangerous and should not be planted, especially if there are children in the home. “Sometimes children get out of control, so they may end up eating the fruits from such a tree which puts their lives at risk,” she notes.

Favourite plant spices to grow
With the plant spices to grow in the compound, Begumana says what to grow depends much on the compound owner. There are those that like fruit trees because of the children at home, others will go for flowers only and others will opt for food plants. However, although you may need to look out for plants that grow faster like shrubs, some plants will do well in warm, moist or cool areas.

Care
All plants can be grown in the compound provided the home owner feeds or look after them well. “These plants need to be watered every morning and evening without fail. They also need to be cleaned, pruned, and trimmed always for a health growth.

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