When planning landscapes, it is far too common to focus on how your garden looks from late spring to early autumn. For quite a few, planning for late autumn through winter is merely an afterthought. Others assume that landscapes simply cannot look good in these seasons and choose to ignore them altogether.
In reality, there are some tips and tricks that, if implemented, can ensure your landscape looks beautiful regardless of the season. Let’s go over a few key things to consider when doing four-season landscaping to make your garden stand out all year round.
Plan Your Four-Season Landscape
Planning is crucial for the success of any long-term venture, including four-season landscaping. You’ll need ample knowledge on making your lawn look good, and for that, you’ll have to revive that inquisitive child within yourself. For some, this may involve extensive reading and research. Remember to look for resources that are specific to your region as not all plants thrive everywhere.
For a landscape to work in all four seasons, you must select an array of trees, bushes, and shrubs in a way that when some of them stop blooming, others start to bloom. If these are arranged in a well thought out manner along or around the hardscape structures, you’re sure to create a landscape that gives you something to admire at all times.
You may choose to employ a more experimental approach. It is a good idea to start planting many different species in small numbers and observing them over a year. Check what works and what does not and take notes if needed. At the end of your trial, you’ll have a list of species that grow well in your Calgary garden.
Take Inspirations
You can also learn from other people’s experiences. For example, if you visit a friend’s home and find a well-maintained garden, don’t be shy to ask about the plants and get tips. Stay on the lookout for those that are impressive, even in winters.
Also, visiting public gardens throughout the year will help you determine what species grow at what time in the year. Often, you’re going to stumble upon plants, shrubs, and flowers suitable for your garden.
Implementing Four Season Landscaping
When implementing your landscaping ideas, keep the essentials of landscaping in mind. For example, use contrasting sizes, shapes, colors, and textures of hardscapes to create an overall visually appealing theme. While some general rules should be followed, landscaping is an art at the end of the day. And like all other art forms, you should feel free to leave your signature on your work.
- Try to limit or avoid perishable plants or species that only flourish for short periods.
- Don’t plant all winter species together or pick a specific area to plant a particular plant.
- Incorporate the shrubs and plants together and space them out throughout your garden.
- Remember that ‘dead zones’ defeat the purpose of four-season landscaping.
Enhance Your Garden’s Aesthetics With Hardscape Structures
Hardscape structures, such as patios, walkways, fences, and fountains, will add an aesthetical appeal to your yard. While they look good in all seasons, they look great in the winter. This holds true especially for snowy areas like Calgary. When combined with the evergreens and winter shrubs, these structures will make your entire home look welcoming throughout the year.
If you are looking for landscape supplies, such as a retaining wall or any other hardscape in Calgary, Ornamental Stone has got your back. We provide landscape products’ supply in Calgary and the surrounding areas.
Get Outside Help
Getting help from the professionals makes sense for people who don’t have the time or experience to undertake a four-season landscaping project but want to make their gardens stand out anyway. You could always hire a landscape horticulturist to do the job. These professionals have a technical understanding of four-season plants and know how to incorporate them into your landscape.
Final Thoughts
A landscape is incomplete unless it looks good at all times. Thankfully, you can easily create one that holds its visual appeal throughout the year – with a little bit of research and effort, of course. While such a landscape may look different each season, it will never look anything short of stunning as long as it is done correctly.