Are you looking to design a beautiful landscape for your outdoor space?

Maybe you’ve just moved to Sarasota and want to impress your new neighbors. Or maybe it’s time for a landscape renovation. Whatever your reason, you’re in the right place.

This guide aims to help you learn the best practices when landscaping.

Here are 5 landscaping tips for what to avoid when designing your outdoor space.

1. Not Understanding Your Plants

While searching for great landscaping ideas, you may rush to buy the most beautiful plants. But it’s important to research the plants you’re buying first.

It can be helpful to look into a plant’s climate and watering requirements, as well as its size at maturity. This will help you to ensure you’re buying plants that you can adequately care for.

Failing to understand the needs of your plants before buying them could lead to them becoming unhealthy and ugly. It could also mean that they outgrow their patch of land and cause landscape design problems.

2. Avoiding Hardscaping

When undergoing landscape renovations, people tend to undervalue the use of hardscapes.

Hardscaping can be a great way to enhance your outdoor space and add some magnificent landscape architecture. For example, you could feature elegant stone steps or a gravel walkway for drainage.

Making use of hardscapes can provide you with both beauty and functionality.

Hardscaping also brings a great opportunity for landscape painting. If you’re installing wooden decking, you can paint it to fit your general aesthetic. This can help to tie in your overall design.

3. Not Considering Dry Season

The average daily temperature in Florida is 70.7F. During summertime, this figure can reach up to 95F. So it’s no wonder Florida is known as The Sunshine State.

An important landscaping tip is to take this heat into consideration and prepare for dry season. The dry season runs from November through to April.

The best way you to combat dry season and preserve soil moisture is to add a strong layer of mulch to your grass. This will help to lock in moisture from irrigation and rainfall.

4. Not Segmenting Your Space

When designing your landscape, it’s good practice to consider how your space is segmented. Dividing your space is known as landscape edging. It helps to create borders between certain plants and areas.

When landscape edging is done correctly, it can help to bring an organized feel to your space. It’s typically done by installing stone or dug-out borders.

5. Not Using Outdoor Lighting

Your landscape may look beautiful during the day, but what about at night? Chances are, your hard landscaping work can’t be appreciated in the dark. Investing in a well-designed landscape lighting system can help.

Installing a lighting system will not only illuminate your landscape at night but will also help to tell a story. If you use landscape lighting correctly, you can guide people’s eyes along your landscape in a way you see fit.

This adds a more personal style to your outside space and increases functionality.

Need More Landscaping Tips?

After reading these 5 landscaping tips, you should understand the best practices to follow when landscaping.

If you’re still unsure about designing your own landscape, you may want to consider hiring a specialist.

Here at Sarasota Landscaping, we believe in superior quality. If you need help with your landscape design, you should contact us for a consultation.