The design and layout of your yard can either help or hinder the appearance of your landscaping, so it is important to have a good plan for its installation and management. An attractively landscaped yard starts with a plan and installation of the right features, and then vegetation follows up with regular maintenance to keep your landscaping looking great and healthy. Here are some recommendations to help you install and maintain your yard's landscaping for an attractive and beneficial design.
Define Your Landscaping Areas
When you are adding new elements to your landscaping or starting on a new landscape design, decide where you want to set up your different areas of vegetation and plants. For example, do you want to border your lawn with edging beds for shrubbery, flowers, and trees? Or you can also install a central bedding island in the middle of your lawn to add visual interest.
However you choose to design these areas, be sure you define them with a border material that is durable and attractive. You can install a vinyl or metal edging material set within the soil around the landscaping areas to control vegetation growth and act as a barrier for any mulch coverings. Concrete edging, bricks, or stones can also create a barrier to look clean and blend in with the landscaping.
Improve the Soil
There are some methods you can use with your landscaping design to improve the soil of your bedding areas, garden plot, and lawn. Supplement the soil with fertilizers made of chemical components or from organic nutrients, which you can find both at a local home and garden shop. Compost, peat moss, or manure are all good additives you can mix into your soil to boost the health of your soil and vegetation.
You can also apply a layer of organic mulch to the soil to help improve it over time. Good options for mulch include wood chips or bark, leaf mulch, pine straw, or wood shavings. The mulch will break down slowly and send nutrients back down into the soil while it also creates a barrier to retain moisture in the soil for your vegetation.
When you are laying a mulch compost material on your soil, keep in mind that you don't want to use any landscape fabric in its installation. Landscape fabric is helpful as a barrier between gravel, decorative rock, and other non-decomposable mulch materials. The barrier keeps the rock or gravel from sinking into your soil and keeps it looking attractive, but compost mulch should be left to sit directly on the soil.
