Jeff Halper offers the following royalty-free article for you to publish online or in print. Feel free to use this article in your newsletter, website, ezine, blog, or forum. ----------- PUBLICATION GUIDELINES - You have permission to publish this article for free providing the "About the Author" box is included in its entirety. - Do not post/reprint this article in any site or publication that contains hate, violence, porn, warez, or supports illegal activity. - Do not use this article in violation of the US CAN-SPAM Act. If sent by email, this article must be delivered to opt-in subscribers only. - If you publish this article in a format that supports linking, please ensure that all URLs and email addresses are active links. - Please send a copy of the publication, or an email indicating the URL to [email protected] - Content Crooner (www.ContentCrooner.com) has distributed this article on behalf of the author. Content Crooner does not own this article, please respect the author's copyright and publication guidelines. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this article. ----------- Article Title: How To Work With Houston Landscape Professionals To Design A Landscape Author: Jeff Halper Category: Landscaping Word Count: 570 Keywords: Design a Landscape Author's Email Address: [email protected] Article Source: http://www.contentcrooner.com ------------------ ARTICLE START ------------------
To design a landscape that truly reflects your lifestyle and values, you have to think about visual impact, mobility, recreation, and functionality. Having a sense of these things before you sit down with your professional landscape designer will go a long way toward getting the yard of your dreams. No one expects you to design a landscape yourself in the formal sense of developing a landscape master plan. However, getting a few things sketched out, and writing down the things that are most important to you, can put your thoughts and feelings into the hands of experts who can make tangible reality out of often intangible-yet very real-feelings within the self. The first thing to do is list your priorities. Do you intend to host events outdoors? If so, you want a backyard landscaping plan that is geared toward Houston outdoor living, and you will want a front yard landscaping plan that will extend a sense of warm welcome to arriving guests. If, on the other hand, you want something comfortable and tranquil, you need to think about the forms of Nature and art that make you most feel at peace. Do not be afraid to write something down, even if it seems far-fetched or innately unrealistic. Landscape designers have an uncanny ability to blend even the most complex of manmade elements into the organic components of a yard. The next thing you need to do when you design a landscape is to be realistic about your budget. There may be some things on the list you just created that are a bit out of range price wise for the present time being. This is not to say they cannot be added to your yard at a later date. However, if something is not affordable right now, and if it is not absolutely essential to the way your home and yard ultimately work together, then it can afford to wait. The most important hardscapes and garden elements should be added first, along with patio areas and walkways that provide seating and transit areas. More elaborate structures like sophisticated outdoor rooms or outdoor buildings can be sketched out on paper and built at a later date when funding becomes available. Have a lot survey and topographical map of your property ready when your landscaping expert arrives. This will help your specialist design a landscape with proper drainage and irrigation systems that will manage water flow and water runoff efficiently and unobtrusively. I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough. The Houston landscape is very flat and prone to rapid flooding, and Houston weather ranges from too much rain to too little rain depending on the time of the year. The only way to ensure that plants get the water they need without getting drowned in the rain is to get someone who can build the proper water management systems in forms that are concealed, yet also highly reliable. Finally, bring pictures to the table when you sit down to design a landscape with an Exterior Worlds professional. Sometimes you see something in a photograph that speaks to you and you simply cannot put your finger on why. However, when you show such a photograph to an expert in patio design or garden design, he or she can immediately see how such a scene could be customized to your personal experience. Jeff Halper has a passion for landscaping and landscape design, for more information about landscaping and gardening visit http://www.exteriorworlds.com Distributed by http://www.ContentCrooner.com ------------------ ARTICLE END ------------------ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
