How to Identify Your Landscape Needs
Landscaping can be as simple as adding a few plants and top dressing last years' mulch, or even adding a retaining wall or patio. To us, it is an experience! While making the exterior of your home beautiful and valuable, landscaping also has a very practical side that will maximize the functionality of your property, reducing maintenance time and protecting your home from the elements. Common practical landscapes include shade gardens, rain gardens and drainage solutions to limit water retention and soggy spots, retaining walls and erosion control to create usable spaces in your yard, hill-side gardens and shoreline protection to keep everything in place, and heat control gardens that reduce weeds and thrive in the sun.
This article will help you identify when and how each of these landscaping techniques can be used to benefit your outdoor experience.
Shade Gardens: It's well know that certain directional sides of your home, especially the North facing side, get limited sunlight throughout the day and require specific shade-tolerant plants as part of their landscaping efforts. These shade gardens can be beneficial beneath trees and around other outdoor structures. Any item in your yard that blocks the sun, limiting your planting options, is a great place to start your very own shade garden. If your lawn is struggling to grow in certain areas, it is likely a sign that there isn't enough sunlight to be able to support the grass. Instead of fighting the elements and reseeding your lawn year after year, a shade garden is the perfect low maintenance solution, and our designers are here to help!
Rain Gardens & Drainage Solutions: Did you know that landscaping can actually help prevent your home from flooding? By evaluating the slope of your lawn, an expert landscape designer can strategically re-design and re-grade your lawn, directing water away from your home. Luckily for you, we can do this in a way that adds aesthetic value to your property and protects your investments. In many cases, landscaping can also be used to dress up some of your drainage routes, directing the extra water to moisture-loving plants in a beautiful rain garden.
Erosion Control & Retaining Walls: Do you dream of living in the 'house on the hill' with views for days and the wind in your hair? Rolling or vertical, hills provide you great views and outstanding property value. They also provide you with the need for specialized and unique landscaping techniques to maximize the useable space outside of your home, protecting it from wind and erosion. Hills are typically more exposed to climate changes, harsh winds, and unpredictable rains that can wear down the landscape over time. The benefits of of a retaining wall can work wonders, holding that eroding soil in place and better protecting it from the elements. A retaining wall can also create a more level, walkable space for you to enjoy without majorly altering the natural landscape. You can think of it as protecting your landscape for years to come! Adding in a naturally winding staircase to navigate the slope easier is a great way to bring a touch of nature back into your new wall!
Hill-Side Gardens: Steep hillsides can be hard to navigate and difficult for a typical lawn to take root. They are tricky spots to mow or make any functional use of. One of our experienced landscape designers can help you create a garden bed that will reduce your required maintenance of these tricky spaces. A rock garden, for example, needs minimal upkeep and isn't as prone to washing out during rainstorms. Pair this with a system of deeply-rooted native plants, and this landscape solution can double your value, working as a form of erosion control as well as a pollinator or bee garden.
Shoreline Restoration: The Midwest is home to many beautiful lakes and rivers. These stunning natural features offer amazing views and tons of fun activities. It's easy to see why many choose to live here! Unfortunately, waves and ice push against the shoreline, creating unstable banks and greatly reducing your property size over time. The landscape designers here at Green Oasis specialize in designs that can protect your shoreline these weathering events. Boulders, deep rooted plants and trees, and strategic planning to significantly reduce erosion makes the space more usable and enhances your view. Pair your restoration project with an outdoor patio and firepit to create the ultimate backyard getaway!
Heat Zone Gardens: No matter what climate zone you live in, some spots in your lawn are more prone to heat damage than others. A common place where you'll notice heat damage is along sidewalks and driveways. Grass will often struggle in these spots. Weeds, especially crab grasses and spurge, tend to do very well here. Pavement and concrete tend to absorb heat and make the areas that boarder them prone to heat damage. A landscape solution that will get rid of those ugly weeds and improve property value is to add a garden bed along your sidewalks and driveways. Mulch and rock act as a buffer between the sidewalk and the plants, allowing the plants and your lawn to thrive.
If you're in need of a landscape solution, the designers at Green Oasis are here to help! Schedule a consultation now to learn about your options and receive a free quote. Call 715-832-0800 to get on our 2024 Spring Landscape Schedule!