Hot Tips for Townhouse Landscaping

Townhouse landscaping may seem challenging because of the small yard areas incorporated in all but the hugest townhouses. However, you can create a beautiful townhouse landscape using these hot tips:

Educate Yourself First:

Don't buy anything before you prepare yourself with some education unless you are already an expert in gardening. Learn what plants grow well outdoors all year long in your area. If you live in a cold climate, you may prefer to choose some specimen plants which are brought indoors during the cold months. Learn what type of soil is in your landscape if you have lawn space so you choose the best grass for your soil and climate combination. These facts will help you maximize the use of your townhouse landscaping dollars so you can obtain bigger and better plants which will thrive instead of losing your investment as soon as the seasons change.

Sure, you may want to incorporate some annuals into your landscape and replant again next year either with seeds you save or new seeds you purchase. However you certainly don't want to invest in a large palm and sink it into the ground only to learn too late that it will not survive your locale's winter weather. Instead, you could purchase a potted palm and place it on a rolling plant stand, bringing it indoors during winter if you are in an area which gets too cold. Without the facts, you can't plan properly.

Plan Carefully:

Whether you have only a back patio to work with or have a small area of grass as well, you must plan to use the space to the maximum and use every inch optimally to get the most out of the space. If you simply start buying plants and sticking them in pots or in the ground, the results will appear disconnected and emphasis the lack of space instead of maximizing the space you do have.

Get out paper and pencil and draw a plan of your landscaping area. Place graphics place markers for any patio or lawn furniture you own or plan to purchase. Mark privacy fences since these will become not only the boundaries but the "wall space" of your landscape.

If you have an outdoor grill, mark its location when in use because you want to ensure you do not damage plants with the heat generated from outdoor cooking. Also mark where the grill is stored if that location is different than where it is located when cooking so you don't plan to place a plant in that spot either.

Next, begin populating your townhouse landscape space with graphics to represent the plants you plan to incorporate into your garden. To optimize the impact of your townhouse landscaping efforts, choose one or two points which will be landscape focal points. One focal point should be a large specimen plant or a well-selected grouping of similar plants. Another focal point might be a water fountain, bird bath, feeding station for wild birds, or an area to attract hummingbirds. Of course, you can choose to use only plants as focal points.

Indicate which plants will be potted and which, if any, will be placed directly into the soil. Mark annuals with one color and those plants which will remain permanently in the soil or pots with another color.

Plan to use the privacy fence "wall space" to hold hanging baskets, orchid pots, climbing vines or accessorize with hanging bird feeders or a wall-mounted water feature. You might choose to incorporate baskets of annuals hanging from fence-mounted brackets in baskets or you might choose to use pot brackets which allow you to mount plants in pots directly to the fence as long as you do not exceed the weight limit indicated on the pot bracket label.

Townhouse Landscape Outdoor Lighting:

Add some real pizzazz to your townhouse landscape by adding carefully placed solar powered or energy conserving electric outdoor landscape lighting. You'll only want to place a few outdoor lights to highlight your focal points. This way you can leave the [patio] window treatment open and enjoy your landscape during the evening when the lights are shining.

Buy Quality, Not Quantity:

The most common mistake in townhouse landscapingis attempting to include too many plants into too little space. Instead of buying lots of plants, buy top quality plants. Crowding your landscape will actually make the landscaped space look and feel smaller.

If you townhouse landscaping space is extremely limited, you may only need a very few plants. If that is the case, choose one tall, magnificent specimen plant to create your focal point and smaller plants for the other locations, highlighting your focal point with one landscape light.

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