The Benefits of Landscaping for Outdoor Living
Designing Outdoor Spaces, Installing Gardens, Maintaining Landscapes
Oct 20, 2009
Home and business owners can benefit from a professional landscape design for their property that emphasizes landscapes for outdoor living.
Landscapes for outdoor living promote the creation of outdoor spaces, designed not just for static beauty but for functionality, ease of installation, low ongoing maintenance, and budgetary constraints.
What are the benefits of designing a landscape not just for aesthetic appeal but for outdoor living? A fine landscape design can:
- Function as a Whole – outdoor spaces interlock on the site, merge and transition into one another like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The result is synergy, where the whole is more than just the parts. True functionality plays a large part in designing for outdoor living, and enhances both residential and commercial properties.
- Reflect an Owner's Wants and Needs – designing for outdoor living ensures outdoor spaces that are created to reflect the true wants and needs of a home or business owner. It also causes them to think hard about how they will really use their home or business property.
- Enhance the Environment – outdoor spaces should fit seamlessly on the site, and take advantage of opportunities while addressing or avoiding constraints. When people design for outdoor living, they can protect sensitive areas, preserve mature vegetation and wildlife corridors, treat storm water at the source (or harvest it for their own use), and save energy.
- Increase Property Values – by preserving site features, creating true functional space, improving aesthetics and paying attention to detail through fine garden design principles, property values increase. Design for outdoor living takes into account not just site conditions, but reflects home or business architecture, creates curb appeal, improves site conditions and showcases homes at their finest.
- Decrease Stress – designing for outdoor living can create livable outdoor spaces for relaxation and sensory delight. The physical activity that comes with working in the garden is good, too. By doing some or all of the installation and maintenance work himself, the owner's overall strength and health should increase.
- Increase Livable Space – designing for outdoor living extends interior space outside, and creates functional outdoor rooms for relaxation, social interaction, play, work or storage.
- Save Money – fine garden design can reduce energy costs, preserve mature vegetation (thus reducing site prep costs), and create a more viable, safer investment. Designing for outdoor living also incorporates the principles of Integrated Ecology and low maintenance, saving you even more.
- Save Time – landscapes designed for outdoor living can cut down on maintenance, giving home and business owners more time to enjoy their gardens with their families, clients, employees and friends.
- Create Lasting Beauty – now comes aesthetics. Framing vistas, introducing mystery, and creating year-round interest using plants and hardscape materials in harmony are just a few of the ways designing for outdoor living introduces aesthetic appeal.
There’s a need for landscapes and gardens that seamlessly integrate the built environment with the natural. It makes sense – and cents - to apply conservation principles to landscape design whenever possible. Designing for outdoor living can spur inspiration and generate alternative ideas for functional outdoor spaces on home or commercial sites.
A little forethought can go a long way in benefiting from landscapes for outdoor living.
The copyright of the article The Benefits of Landscaping for Outdoor Living in Landscaping is owned by Richard Freeland. Permission to republish The Benefits of Landscaping for Outdoor Living in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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