Designing A Landscape With A Changing Climate
A successful garden design takes all the different components and details of a design into consideration before deciding on the different components and materials of a design. One of the most important factors worth considering is climate. Regardless of the landscape design style you decide on, the materials and plants you choose should work with the climate in the area that you live in. Adverse climate changes can harm your landscaping, materials, and your landscaping plants. If you’re living in a place where you experience all four seasons, this means your garden will also experience the climate changes as well. Paying close attention to landscaping plans in areas that may be effected by climate changes is important to a long term design. Here are a few ideas that may be helpful in any climate for designing landscapes or gardens.
Plant choices should be backed by a little knowledge of what works and what’s available in your area. Used quite common in Desert and Southwest landscape design ideas, planting adaptive and native plants is a good way to ensure that the plants thrive in any climate. Planting native plants wherever they will work in your garden or landscape will do a lot to make your landscape and garden more maintenance and care free. Native plants are already adapted to local soils so there’s no problem from different soils. Also, because they grow and propagate locally, natives will already be climatized and adapted to your climate. There’s a good chance that there are a lot of decorative native plants in your area that will work well in your garden or landscaping.
You can also design your planting scheme for climate by using plants for Mediterranean landscaping designs or tropical areas. Tropical flowers have vibrant colors that would surely give life to your landscape. A good thing about some tropical plant varieties is that they will actually do well in colder climates. Do a little research on tropical plants and you may find a few that will thrive in your area. A few tropical plant varieties you can grow in colder climates are the Bougainvilleas, a few varieties of Hibiscus, and Blue Agapanthus. Lantana, a profuse continuous bloomer, is also a good selection in many areas which comes in several different shades from a faded lavender to bright shades of yellow. Mandevilla vines are a very fast growing plant with trumpet shaped flowers that also works well in many climates. If you wanted that type of look, there are enough tropical plant varieties to give your landscaping some interest for all seasons in many different climates.
Another important element for a multi climate landscape or garden design is diversity. If, for instance, you don’t like the idea of having only annual plants, you can choose plants with different blooming patterns and combine all of them in your landscape design. So when one plant variety finishes its growing season, you’ll still have plants blooming in your yard or garden for the rest of the year. The trick here is to know the different blooming schedules of the plants that you choose. Know which ones are at bloom in every season and then choose a few for each season that you want in your design.
Besides plants, you can also use other ornaments in your landscaping to add more aesthetic interest. Ornaments and garden decor generally make good placements since they aren’t really effected by changes in the climate or weather. You can also use different elements like fountains, statues, pavers, pathways, and other hardscapes to make your landscaping more appealing.
Mail this post
Tags: landscape design, landscaping, landscaping ideas, landscaping pictures