Landscaping driveways does not necessarily
mean the driveway itself, although the design of your driveway
can impact the look and feel of your landscape. Rather, many
people neglect to landscape their driveways to look attractive. This includes adding landscaping elements to the sides of the
driveway, as well as at the bottom and the top of the driveway.
There are many softscape and hardscape elements that can be
added to make the area surrounding the driveway more attractive.
Your driveway landscape is the entrance to your property.
If you ignore it, the driveway can look more like
an ugly scar than a part of your landscape. If properly incorporated, however,
it is possible to create a nice looking element in your landscape,
tying it in to the rest of your design and looking as though
it truly belongs. It is very worth your while to make an attempt
at landscaping around your driveway. You need not spend a great
deal of money to landscape your driveway, but if you carefully
choose features and elements that are attractive and creative,
you can have a fairly low-cost driveway landscape that is inviting
to visitors as well as to those who live inside the house.
Before
landscaping the driveway, however, there are a few things
to take into account. First of all, you need to make
sure that what you are doing will not be so much wasted work.
Take into account your neighborhood. If there are a great deal
of children, a flower bed at the entrance, near the street,
may not be a wise decision. It may be trampled careless children,
or the flowers may be picked. While these actions do not usually
the products malice, they can result in a ragged and disheveled
looking driveway entrance. In such a neighborhood one might
consider accenting the entrance with an attractive fence, rock
wall, or even a small rock garden. Also determine the footpaths
traveled by those who live in the house. Make sure that any
elements you add to the sides or ends of the driveway are not
interfering in established walkways.
Some
of the common hardscape options are walls and fences. These are projects that can add distinction and accent to your
driveway area. A rock wall can be especially interesting if
you use different colored rocks. It is also possible to plant
grasses and small, hardy flowers in the cracks between the
stones used to construct the wall. This can be decorative and
it can add a more interesting aspect to your rock wall. Short,
attractive fences, and even some of higher height, can also
accent the driveway and give it a little more color and character.
Small hanging baskets or lanterns can be used with either a
fence or a wall to add more beauty.
There
are plenty of softscape options for dressing up the area
around the driveway. The first thing you need to decide
(and this goes for hardscape accents as well) is whether you
plan to use the landscape elements to run the length of the
driveway or to simply accent the entrance to the driveway.
If you are working with a very small budget, simply accenting
either side of the driveway, near the bottom, is a good idea.
It will cost much less, but add a great deal to the look of
your over all landscape. Some of the softscape ideas that work
well either to follow the driveway up or simply to add character
to the entrance, include beds of colorful annuals, groundcover
along the drive to create a natural and interesting border
with the lawn, ornamental trees, and shrubs. The shrubs can
even be cut to be topiary and have interesting designs.
A
curved driveway is interesting of itself, and can be made
even more so if a focal point is added to nestle in the curve. This focal point should be something of beauty. It can be as
simple as a stately oak, or a specially designed flowerbed
or rock garden. Or, instead of being something simple, the
focal point can be something else entirely. Landscape bridges,
wishing wells, garden arbors, and water gardens all make excellent
focal points that can be exceptionally attractive.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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