Start with some great home landscaping ideas, landscape plans, and a desire to be creative, and soon you can own a beautifully landscaped property. A well-planned landscape can bring you satisfaction as well as add value to your home. To create a garden area that is both attractive and easy to maintain, you need to consider a few important things. The size of the property, local weather conditions, soil type, and the amount of moisture and sunlight are all factors that you must deal with and consider.

Planning a landscape and putting those plans into action is one of the best ways to improve the appearance of your home and increase the resale value of your property. A home that has a lot of curb appeal and a “wow” factor will also make the entire neighborhood more attractive. If you want to transform your boring expanse of lawn, maybe it’s time to explore some front yard landscaping ideas.

A challenge most homeowners face is not coming up with landscaping ideas, but too many. Landscape photography and ideas abound in magazines, creating dreams for the homeowner. Where do you start, with the driveway and driveway? Or do you renovate the well-worn backyard first? What about options for fences, pergolas, patios, garden furniture, paths, fountains, flowers, trees and shrubs? With the huge options for landscaping concepts, it’s hard to know where to start. If you’re starting from scratch, with little to no landscaping in place except for a lawn, there are literally countless landscaping ideas you can apply.

So the question is: where to start? Decide on a place to work with first. Maybe it’s the landscaping of the front lawn, the most public part, that you want to tackle first. Or maybe you want to create a cozy backyard for family use. Whatever you decide, make sure your landscaping plans are right for your budget, your lot size, local weather conditions, and the type of soil you have to work with.

The details of your design will be your own personal taste, needs and desires. Also take into account the style of your home. This is an important concept, so the end results are nice, cohesive, and satisfying.

Here are some landscaping ideas and styles to get started with:

1. Formal – This landscape style employs primary straight lines and perfect geometric shapes. The plants are arranged in a formal manner rather than haphazardly placed, with attention to detail, symmetry and balance. Often included are features such as trimmed hedges, topiaries, swimming pools, and paved walkways and patios.

2. Informal – This landscaping style works well with smaller homes and farmhouses. Flower borders and flower beds with curved edges are preferred. Random plant placement and masses of colorful perennials suit this style of landscaping. Even the use of rock gardens, attractive planters, and strategically placed urns will add to the random, casual look.

3. The English Garden – This style achieves harmony between the architecture of the house and the garden that surrounds it. Large perennial borders filled with colorful perennials, the use of flowering shrubs, and more natural flagstone or brick pathways, lined with flowers, are common features. Arbors and pergolas covered with climbing and flowering plants are essential parts of an English garden.

5. Oriental – this style is suitable for houses with small courtyards. It makes use of rocks, water, mosses, and evergreens in an idealized and balanced way. Artistic planning allows for miniature views to be revealed as one progresses through the garden. A sense of serenity and calm is desirable.

6. Woodland: This casual landscaping style is good for homes with large yards that face the woods and sloping areas to work. Rockeries, native plants, shrubs, and evergreens are components, along with nature paths and shady areas where a rustic bench can be located. Plantings should look as natural as possible, with mulch or ground cover around the plantings.