The great thing about landscaping your patio is that you have so many choices. Unfortunately, that’s also the difficult part – too many choices. With a myriad of flowers, plants, arrangements, and overall themes, you can go just about crazy trying to come up with an attractive, cohesive landscaping plan for your patio.
Fortunately, there’s a method to break the choices down and help you choose a landscape style that will bring you tremendous enjoyment throughout the year. Follow these steps to come up with a patio landscape you’ll really love.
Think about how you’ll use your patio
The first place to start in planning your patio landscaping is to think of what you’ll use it for. For instance, if you plan on sitting and enjoying the view for hours on end, don’t plant tall, dense vegetation that might obscure your sightlines. Or, if you have young children, avoid prickly bushes and other ouch-makers.
Consider your time and talent
When choosing what varieties of plants to include in your patio landscape, think about the amount of time you have to maintain them. For example, if you lead a busy life with little time left for chores, don’t plant bushes that demand extensive trimming or flowers that require frequent watering, instead sticking to looser, wilder varieties that are quite hardy.
Pick your theme
Your patio landscaping theme should complement the style of your patio and the rest of the home. Think about the colors, architectural style, and general mood of your home, then plan your patio landscaping accordingly. The styles don’t have to match exactly – that might be boring anyway. But, for instance, it probably won’t work well to have a thoroughly Southwestern patio on your Victorian house.
Consider the shape
Look at the shape of your patio space. Is it sharp-edged? Curvy? Hilly? Your planting choices can emphasize or downplay certain features of your patio as you desire. For instance, you can choose a number of soft, curvy shapes to add softness and downplay hard angles.
Find the focus
Finally, think about what you want the focal point of your patio landscape to be. This is the point that will first draw the visitor’s eye. By doing so, you can emphasize certain features of the landscape or pull the viewer’s attention away from things you want to downplay. The possibilities for focal points are almost endless, including trellises, birdbaths, a pool, or an intense concentration of colorful flowers. You can also use the topography to emphasize focal points, employing a natural rise, for instance, as a mounting place for a statue or birdbath. Just let your imagination run wild, try lots of different ideas, and enjoy yourself. The results are sure to be good.