Your Landscape Profile

When all is said and done, at the end of the day, your landscape is about you. This is the ultimate measurement of your success; if it pleases you, works for you and entertains you, then the design is good. So, it is important to clearly understand what you want your landscape to be and do for you. Go back to the visualizing exercise we did earlier, and take a good look at what you visualized, except this time, be a little selfish. This part of the process is for you.

	Make your yard an extension of your home, bringing functions such as entertaining into the great outdoors

Since this is your landscape, it has to reflect your personal style and tastes. Carefully examine your likes and dislikes, including colors, shapes, or specific objects. Do you wish to have a specific style for your landscape, for example formal, casual, natural or a theme? Are there specific plants you definitely want in your landscape, “must-haves”? Are there any plants you definitely don’t want? What are your expectations for maintenance?

Look at your personal wants, needs, passions. Let’s study them a little closer; here are some key aspects of outdoor enjoyment and functionality that you may wish to consider including in your landscape;

Privacy - For the same reasons that the rooms in your house have doors, you may want to have private areas in your yard. These can be for meditation or quiet relaxation, reading, for private entertaining, or just to remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of the city. Whatever the reason, there are powerful landscaping techniques at your disposal to create many degrees of privacy in your yard. You can use hedges, natural screens, or fences to create perfect isolation, or just use visual isolation such as low hedges, shrub borders or low fences to create the effect of privacy without being too enclosing.

Entertaining - Many people enjoy entertaining others in their outdoor space. For such purposes, consider a deck, patio, fire pit or open lawn space as a gathering place. For entertaining purposes, it is doubly important to subdivide the yard into definite rooms, as people typically feel more comfortable in designated spaces. You may want some isolation and privacy, and you should strongly consider defined paths to guide people around your yard. Also plan for easy access to and from the house, particularly the kitchen if you like to cook outdoors. Strategically placed night lighting can extend the entertaining opportunity into the late night hours and enhance the ambiance.

Recreation - Many people enjoy using their yard for games and play space. If you like to play ball with the kids, Frisbee with friends, horseshoes with the gang, or just enjoy cajoling with your dog, be sure to leave an unobstructed run of free lawn. For these purposes, there are no real substitutes for a well-maintained and durable grass lawn. Clearly delineate the boundaries with hedges or fences, and by all means only surround this area with compatible functions (i.e. don’t put your favorite rare plant rock garden between the goalposts of the playing field…).

Hobbies - Everyone has hobbies, and your landscape is all the more valuable if it lends itself to some of your favorites. Gardening is an obvious choice, and it is very easy to fit gardens into the landscape, be they vegetable gardens, flower gardens or special gardens for cut flowers. Maybe you like to experiment with out-of-zone plants? Other outdoor hobbies that are easily incorporated into a landscape include bird watching, sun tanning, reading or painting, or woodworking. Understand what they require from a landscape, and be sure to implement it without cutting corners.

A backyard swimming pool will make you the envy of the neighborhood

Water - Do you want to have a swimming pool in your yard? If so, first of all be sure that you have the space and are able to sacrifice the real estate necessary for this feature. Also, be sure to analyze your local requirements or ordinances regarding pools. Often you must have a certain height of fence and markings. In any case, make sure it isn’t a drowning hazard for children. Maybe something more basic, such as a wading pool? Note the amount of flat space required for this. What about an outdoor spa? If so, would you use it only in summer, or have it heated for winter? Would it be attached to your deck or your patio, or off in an isolated corner of the yard?

Once you have considered these and other possible landscape applications, you also need to take into account your budget. There’s really no point in planning for an extravagant landscape that is clearly beyond your foreseeable means. Remember, your landscape is for you to enjoy, not to put you in the poorhouse. This is the time for you to carefully review your personal budget for the next couple of years. How much can you realistically afford to dedicate towards your landscape? Do you have relevant circumstances that you expect might change later, maybe starting a family or even moving? It is recommended that you take some time to work up a basic budget for the next couple of years, just to keep yourself honest about what you can afford to spend. Later on, in the design phase, you will be preparing a budget estimate and bill of materials, and that is where you will test the viability of your design against your budget.

Now that you have had a chance to seriously consider all of these factors, the final task from this exercise is to list the personal elements you want in your landscape. Based on the assessment above and your earlier visualization, pick the top five very specific functions you want from your yard and outdoor environment. Why five? Because this is a manageable number; fewer are okay, although you shouldn’t rule any out just yet, while too many more will run the risk of complicating your planning process. These five functions will be carried over into the design phase as your personal needs and requirements, so keep them handy.

A Yard for the Whole Family

The previous exercise was for you. If there is more than just you in your home, then you essentially need to repeat the above exercise for each member of your family, even going so far as to include people not actually there yet (possibly children or pets in your future?). You must put together the list of each of their top five preferences for the landscape, however, you will then have to sit down as a group and reduce these to the “household top five” from each of your individual fives. So, at the end of this exercise, you will have your family’s top five landscape wishes.

	Your private space should be both aesthetically pleasing as well as functional for the whole family

You will find as you go through the planning stages with each member of the family that there will be common interests, but also that there will be expectations of your landscape that are unique to your family as a whole. It is important to plan for these and work with them, because the time you spend with your family getting enjoyment out of your outdoor living space will become some of the most cherished moments of your life.

Kids more than anyone else in your family will appreciate your yard to its fullest. The world is brand new to them, and around every corner is another world waiting to be explored. If you give them a living landscape, they will appreciate it to its fullest. Be sure to include adequate room for the things kids like; an open lawn space to play catch or tag, a small garden of their own to learn about plants, or maybe a treehouse or clubhouse in the back yard. A climbing tree can be loads of fun if you have the room (and the time…), and a tall tree with a sturdy branch can support a swing or old tire. It is also critically important that you childproof your yard, much like you childproof your home. Eliminate poisonous plants from your plans, and avoid plants with sharp spines or thorns.

Well-designed play structures will keep the children entertained for hours in the safety of the back yard

Your family also includes your pets, and they have very special needs. Dogs enjoy having the run of the yard, lots of free space to roam about and explore. It is very possible to plan your landscape to include such a space. Ensure that it is well bounded, preferably with an impenetrable fence to ensure that Rover will never get away on you. You must also take into account Rover’s less desirable habits, too. If he enjoys rooting through your garden to dig in his bones, then you need to plan for this by isolating the part of your yard for the dog from the section containing your valuable gardens. Cats are somewhat less demanding, but can be much trickier to contain within a fence, and can be even more damaging to outdoor plants that may be of value to you. Again, visualize the possibilities for things going wrong, and plan ahead to prevent them.

Growing Up Together

When planning for your dream landscape, you must consider its evolution over time. As you grow older and more mature, so will your landscape. As you age, your needs and the needs of your family will change, and again, so will those of your landscape. You will surely have built a monument to yourself if you create a landscape that lives with you throughout your entire life, always giving, never becoming a chore, an intimate part of your life in this world. This is possible to achieve, and again, planning is the secret.

	Mature landscapes have a certain air of dignity and grace

Let’s look at your landscape over time first. Take your earlier visualization of your future landscape, and now carry it forward through time. Recognize that your large-growing trees will have matured, and will be getting taller, wider and bushier, casting shade over more and more of your yard. Many will be achieving their perfect shapes, while others will be outgrowing them, maybe getting a little ratty. Because they are shorter lived, your shrubs will likely be in need of some serious rejuvenation, or even replacing. You can rest assured that your perennials will have been replaced already, maybe a few times.

Your entire landscape is now much fuller, greener, more lush. The trees tower above your home, framing it beautifully. The hard materials have weathered; some for the better, like statues or decorative stones, others such as the fence or deck for the worse. There is more shade and less direct sun, perfect for entertaining, but difficult for your gardening aspirations. The fruit trees you planted many years ago are producing bumper crops every year, so much that you have to give some away to your neighbors.

Now let’s look at you and your needs over time. How do you expect your life script to go? Look at each stage from where you are today. Single, married, kids, teens, kids off to college, then leaving home, retirement and the golden years… Can you design a landscape that performs at each of the major stages along the way, always giving back to you what you put into it? How will your landscape suit your needs and the needs of your family at each of these stages?

What about changes or unpredictable events? Do you possibly foresee a move in the future, or are you putting down your roots here to stay? If a move is in your future, look to your landscape to add value to your home and increase the resale value. Is your neighborhood changing too? If it’s for the better, will your home and landscape keep up? If for the worse, can your landscape make a difference?

Handicap access can be successfully integrated into a landscape plan if required

Let’s extend our look into the more distant future. You are older, more mature. The kids have grown up and left home, you are alone with your spouse, maybe at retirement, with plenty of time on your hands for hobbies and other passions of life. You can immediately see how your needs will have changed; you no longer need that play area in the lawn, and in fact, it is just a great deal of maintenance right now. You would rather have gardens where you enjoy spending your time, or low-maintenance groundcovers where there used to be lawn. The kids’ playhouse is now out of place, and there is no need for that barrier between the utility area and the play area.

It is not mandatory, but it would certainly be worth your while to repeat the visualization exercise across your life in spans of ten years, each time assessing your expectations and noting the functions that may be important to you. It might be valuable to see if some of them may be worth considering for your shorter term landscaping plan, or if at the very least, accommodation can be made for them in the future within your present plans. After all, art that makes an immediate impression is special, but art that survives the ravages of time is exceptional.

Your Personal Checklist

Here is a list of basic questions that you should go over in planning your ultimate personal and functional landscape. Be sure to repeat this questionnaire for every member of the family.

Personal Preferences

· What colors do you like? What colors don’t you like?
· What landscaping elements must you absolutely have in your landscape?
· Do you like wildlife in your yard?
· Do you have any allergies that need to be considered in the planning?

Style

· Do you have a preferred landscape style (formal, casual, theme, natural)? Any that you might wish to borrow from? Any you definitely don’t like?
· Do you like sharp, formal linearity or flowing curves in your design?

Children

· Do you have or are you planning to have children? How soon?
· What play structures would you like to have in your landscape for them?
· What other parts of your landscape should they be kept separate from?

Recreation

· What outdoor games do you, your family and your friends enjoy?
· Do you want a swimming pool, outdoor spa or wading pool? What degree of maintenance are you prepared to accept to have this?

Entertaining

· Do you plan on doing much outdoor entertaining?
· If so, for how many people at any given time?
· What do you want them to see of your landscape?
· Will you be cooking outdoors? If so, where, and using what?
· Would night lighting be of value to extend your entertaining into the night?

Privacy

· What degree of privacy do you want from your landscape? Would this be the entire landscape, or would you reserve special areas for your privacy?
· Do you enjoy chatting with your neighbors, or would you rather keep to yourself?
· To achieve privacy, would you prefer a fence or living hedges?

Hobbies

· What are your favorite outdoor hobbies?
· Can you integrate them into your home landscape?
· Do you have special interests, such as cut flowers or bird watching?
· Do you want your landscape to provide you with food? Do you like canning, making jams and preserves, or freezing vegetables?

Plants

· Are there any plants that you absolutely must have in your landscape?
· Are there any plants that you definitely don’t want?
· Do you like to experiment with out-of-zone plants?

Pets

· Do you or will you have pets? If so, what animals, recognizing that they have different needs?
· Do you want to create an enclosed play area for them, or will you keep them chained or on a leash outdoors?
· Will you need outdoor shelter (i.e. a doghouse or kennel)?
· Where do you plan on letting them do their “business”?
· Will there be any parts of your landscape that you will want to keep them out of? If so, how?

Utilities

· Do you need to store large items such as a camper or a trailer outdoors?
· Do you need to store garden tools, a power tiller, a snow blower, or your lawn mower? If so, are you considering a shed, or will you keep them in the garage?
· What are your parking requirements? Will guests park on the street, or in your driveway?
· Where will you put the garbage that is out of the way?

Maintenance

· What is your tolerance of maintenance? What must you have that requires significant maintenance, and what can you trade off?
· How do you see this changing over time?
· Are you prepared to put up with some plant dieback to expand your repertoire, or do you want tried and true plants only?

Budget

· What is your realistic budget available for landscaping this year? Next year?
· What is your expectation for installing your landscape? Will you do this yourself, or hire contractors? If yourself, how much time can you realistically devote to this?
· Over how long are you willing to wait to complete your landscape?

Make a list of your answers to these questions. We will use these later during the design process to test the effectiveness of your designs.