Professionally designed landscapes are unmatched when it comes to making your Riverhead, NY, home’s backyard stand out. An important aspect of modern landscape design is structuring and using space to create emphasis, not only improving the aesthetics of your backyard but also improving its usability.
Creating Separate Outdoor Rooms
Separation is a core component of creating a functional landscape with a strong structural design. The aim is to create individual areas much like rooms in your house which makes the yard feel more natural to users by mimicking an indoor space. Separation can be achieved by using all manner of features, ranging from structural supports like fences and walls to plant beds, shrubs and trees. Patios are also an excellent example of creating a separate space by variation in building material, isolating and emphasizing an area with wall units or pavers.
It is important to keep the separation logical and functional, keeping related areas like the dining area and the outdoor kitchen close together to make access easy. The individual areas can then be connected using walkways to aid movement through the yard.
Plants as Dividers
The use of plants to create separation is an easy and eco-friendly way to achieve this goal. Not only do they provide easy boundaries but they can also be molded into a variety of shapes to conform with any on-going themes. The final result is stunning but will require ongoing maintenance to keep neat and intact. Boxwood is an excellent example and highly popular for use as hedges to separate individual areas in a yard, and can easily replace wooden fences. You also have the option of using flower beds as space dividers, adding a touch of color to the yard during the blooming season while still maintaining variation.
Empty Spaces
It is also relevant to highlight the importance of blank spaces. Creating an empty space around a feature helps to emphasize its location. In some cases, such as fire pits, it is in fact a necessity to keep occupants out of range of the flames. While hardscaping is an effective way to create space, especially when contrasting lawns, low lying flowerbeds and open spaces of grass can work just as effectively. For yards with lots of variation in gradient in the form of hills and dips, terracing is an effective way to open up space while also using the retaining walls as boundaries for outdoor sections.
Plants for Creating Structure
Continuing with the theme of creating rooms, we can use a variety of plants to give our rooms structure. Hedges can be used as walls while trees with overhanging branches can create an overhead canopy mimicking a roof. Even in a classically designed landscape with less emphasis on strict rules, structure is important in creating visual conformity. Plant groups can be grouped according to type and size, with smaller plants at the forefront and larger ones in the background, especially when you enter the yard. Grouping plants is not only visually pleasing but the structure also makes it far easier when it comes to watering and pruning, decreasing water use for your yard significantly.