You’d like to remake your landscape or garden design, but you need some ideas to get you started? You’re not sure what style of garden design you prefer — for now, you just know that you’re tired of looking at the existing garden design, or tired of lawn care? You know what you like when you see it in someone else’s yard, but only at a gut level: you’re not experienced enough in garden design to translate your likes into a plan? (more…)
“Landscape design.” Sounds rather imposing, doesn’t it? And, to be sure, one could spend years studying all the ideas in the field of garden or landscape design. But what about the do-it-yourselfer who wants to give a lawn a makeover, or wishes to tinker with designing a garden? If you need to spruce up the landscape design of a house that you are about to sell, or if you simply want to enjoy an enhanced beauty in the privacy of your backyard, you could profit from a straightforward, no-nonsense look at the ideas behind designing a garden, supplemented with hands-on project guides. Let’s begin with the former: (more…)
Of what does do-it-yourself landscape design consist? To be sure, both “landscape” and “design” are common, everyday words — not terms that would send you scurrying to a dictionary. But asking ourselves exactly what do-it-yourself landscape design entails for us is a useful exercise: by exploring all of its ins and outs, we may discover an aspect of this diverse field that we’ve been overlooking all this time. Call it “do-it-yourself landscape design 101.”
Let’s begin answering the question with a basic definition that considers both aesthetics and energy conservation. Further, let’s call this a definition specifically of do-it-yourself landscape design, so as to keep our discussion distinct from professional concerns: (more…)
The Grandma Gamer 
