Improving your landscape will lead to so many amazing benefits including an increase in the beauty and value of your home as well as a better outdoor lifestyle for your family. Sometimes deciding the first steps in your landscape improvement can be challenging: where should you start? One way to help narrow the choices is to find out what’s happening in the industry and what’s making waves. Here are three landscaping trends you will want to contemplate for your Amherst, NH backyard landscape design plan.
Related: FOLLOW THESE SPRING LANDSCAPING TRENDS FOR A COLORFUL FRONT YARD IN AMHERST AND HOLLIS, NH
Reducing Your Lawn’s Footprint
One of the first images that comes to mind with the idea of a typical American home is the lush, green lawn that adorns the front yard. A lawn can make the front yard look incredible, and often acts as a first impression for arriving guests. With a backyard lawn, however, there are few uses unless you have kids or pets that need plenty of space to run and play. In fact, a lawn may actually hamper the full potential of your backyard landscape design. Keep your front yard lawn intact, yet consider reducing the footprint of your backyard lawn. This will free up some space for outdoor living. Plus, reducing the size of the backyard lawn will also help to reduce water usage and time required for maintenance.
A More Environmentally Friendly Patio
You may be wondering how the patio surface can make an impact on your local environment. The rain and snow that falls around your landscape would typically either disperse into the ground or run downstream. A typical paved surface will divert the water. Water will either pool on the surface if the patio isn’t sloped properly. Or, water will run off, oversaturating the surrounding ground or run off into the storm drain system.
A patio that features a permeable paver system will help your landscape in many ways. Such a system will allow surface water to slip between the joints into a special substrate designed to disperse the water into the ground. A permeable system will help reduce the occurrence of puddles and standing water on your paio, greatly decreasing the risk of slipping. It will also reduce much of the damage caused by freeze-thaw cycles. Lastly, it will also return water to the aquifer - completing the cycle of precipitation and evaporation in the area. This same system can be applied to all of your paved surfaces, including the walkways and driveway.
A Vertical Garden
If your landscape feels somewhat bland and is missing a certain spark, it just may be a lack of vertical interest that’s holding it back. With a wide open area and few features, a landscape may seem two-dimensional and boring. But even if your backyard is beautifully landscaped, maybe there’s an unattractive view or some nosy neighbors you’d like to screen out. A vertical garden can be an amazing feature to add to a landscape.
Several climbing vines could adorn the side of your home or a retaining wall to add greenery to the space while maintaining an open feel. A grid of small vertical planters on the side of your outdoor kitchen could be the home for a wide range of culinary herbs or smaller edible plants. A wall of soft grasses along with comfortable seating and a small fountain can help create an intimate space for zen-like relaxation. Another option is to create a vibrant privacy wall for your outdoor dining space made entirely of edible plants. There are so many possibilities!
