Tulsa Landscaping - The Latest Design Rules to Follow

Before you set out to renovate your landscape, keep in mind these helpful landscaping guidelines to ensure your outdoor living space looks its best.

Landscaping Do’s 

First and foremost, do carefully create a landscape design plan before you begin, even if you won’t be able to finish every aspect of the design for quite a while. While you may not need to plan out every plant you’ll include, you do need to plan where hardscapes and various groups of plants and trees will go.

Do use plants that are native to your area, that grow well together naturally, and that match the architecture or style of your home and outdoor environment. Native plants will be more resistant to disease and often require less watering. Group plants with similar watering or sunlight requirements together to make maintenance easier. 

 

Do use interesting pavers or stone to add texture and color when building your walkway instead of just concrete. 

Do consider how your family will want to use your landscape in the years to come. Do you kids like to play ball in the yard? If your family has a dog, consider how your dog will interact or be affected by the various plants or landscape designs. 

Do consider and plan for how trees and plants will mature over time. Research how big trees, shrubs, and plants will grow when they are fully mature. Will they block out sunlight or be too close to your house when they are full-grown? 

Do plant to add variety and interest all year round. Plan out which trees and plants will bloom at different times during the year and plant these so that when one group stops flowering, you’ll still have color and interest in your landscape. When choosing flowering plants, pick mostly perennials instead of annuals so that you don’t have to buy them again next year. 

Do make it easy for guests to find your front door. Sometimes homeowners may want to make several paths or walkways through their yard, but make sure visitors can easily navigate and clearly see where they should go.

Do make sure to think about proportions in your landscape. You’ll want to keep all the landscape elements in proportion, not only with your home, but also with each other so that the elements don’t seem haphazardly placed. 

Landscaping Don’ts 

Don’t plant trees too close to your house, or plant shrubs or other plants too close to walkways. Research how large the tree or plant will grow when it’s mature so that it doesn’t overtake your home, interfere with the foundation, prevent you from easily passing by on your walkway, or make your home look smaller than it is.

Don’t forget about the maintenance required for each plant or shrub. Consider whether you will have time to regularly trim shrubs and trees. This is especially true with ivy growing on your house. Will you be able to keep the ivy pruned so that it doesn’t overtake your home?

Don’t try to plant too many varieties. While you need enough variety to create interest throughout the year, too many varieties of plants will take out the “design” look of your landscape and make it look disorganized. A simple landscape design with just a few varieties and even a main color theme can create a modern look and feel. 

Don’t get caught up in using a landscaping fad, especially for hardscapes. There may be bold new color or design trends in hardscape materials, but especially with these permanent features of your landscape, you’ll want to use materials that won’t soon become outdated. 

While you can use these few guidelines to create a great landscape design with interest and balance, having a landscape design professional help will take much of the stress and work out of the project.

The Tulsa landscape designers at Oklahoma Landscape can design the best plan for your landscape using these and many other landscape design techniques to create an engaging outdoor space. Let us help you build the perfect landscape and outdoor environment for your particular home and lifestyle.

Give Your Home a New Look with Professional Tulsa Landscape Design

Over time your landscape will need little renovations or even a complete ‘remodel’ so that it doesn’t look outdated. In fact, giving your landscape a makeover can help to make your home look more contemporary as well. So, what can you do to make sure your landscape and home look their best – even as they age?

Landscaping maintenance is key. 

If you don’t have time right now to give your landscape a complete overhaul, you can simply spruce it up a little with some detailed landscaping maintenance. Trimming overgrown trees and shrubs can do a lot to refresh a yard and prevent the entire home from looking older or even vacant. Simply planting new plants along the edge of your flowerbed, walkway, or as a container garden will add new life to your landscape and home. Putting new mulch in your garden or around trees is an easy way to spruce up your yard and make things look new. Also, adding a walkway made of pavers or a border for your garden using pavers can bring new decorative interest and dimension to your landscape.

Add an outdoor living space. 

To give your landscape a real makeover you could add a complete Tulsa outdoor environment to your landscape. These outdoor living spaces can be as extravagant or as simple as you would like. You could add a patio or deck to your backyard or go all out and build a custom outdoor kitchen, outdoor fireplace, custom pool, or all of the above.

Not only do these outdoor environments make you home and landscape look more contemporary and add incredible functionality to your space, but they can also significantly increase the value of your home and property. Often, as with any building project, it’s wise to seek the advice of a professional before you embark on such a project. Our Tulsa landscape designers and landscape architects can help create the perfect outdoor living space for your home. We can design the Tulsa outdoor environment to match the architecture and style of your home and create an outdoor space that’s not only beautiful but also practical for your lifestyle.

Use low-maintenance landscape designs. 

Many older homes may still have landscapes that were designed when the home was first built. Often, these landscape designs may not have utilized techniques that are now more readily available to conserve water or make the landscape more resistant to drought.

Low-maintenance landscaping can be used to help conserve water, time, and energy in maintain the landscape. Native plants and drought-resistant plants can be used that are more adaptable to our local environment. Plants that use similar amounts of water and need similar amounts of sunlight can also be grouped together to reduce maintenance. Some older homes may have had juniper trees planted close to them, which are very combustible. There are many plants and shrubs that are more fire-resistant. Some trees can be used around various parts of your home to shade your home or serve as a windbreak and even reduce air conditioning and heating costs.

Give your home and landscape a fresh look with a landscape design makeover!

Beautify Your Tulsa Landscape With Plants That Add Color In The Fall

Fall is in the air and soon leaves will change colors and the cool fall breeze will brush through the Tulsa landscape. People love the fall season for the display of colors that can be seen across all of Oklahoma, but especially here in Green Country. For an even more colorful fall season, many homeowners plant shrubs, trees, and perennials that are known for their amazing colors in the fall.

The Virginia Sweetspire is a showcase-worthy shrub with great ornamental fall colors. Growing in either shade or sun, the Virginia Sweetspire will display little white flowers in the summer, and then its green leaves will turn to a bright red, yellow, orange, or even rich burgundy color during fall.

A tough deciduous shrub that affords an outstanding display of fall color with orange-red fall foliage is the Chokeberry. This shrub thrives in open sunlight but can tolerate partial shade as well. The Amur Maple offers nice red color during the fall and can act either as shrub or a small tree depending on how it’s managed. Also, different varieties of Sumac provide stunning displays of fall color with yellow, scarlet, orange and foliage. These Sumacs are hardy shrubs that thrive in full sun and shouldn’t be confused with their poison sumac cousin.

Naturally, Maple trees will add a nice display of color to your Tulsa landscape this fall. From the widespread Red Maple to the Japanese Maple, these trees are known for their crimson colors and elegant, unique shapes. The Autumn Purple Ash tree is another fall favorite with reddish-purple leaves that change earlier in the season than other trees. Dogwoods afford great color during any season with white and pink flowers in the spring and purplish-red leaves in the fall.

Sedums are a vibrant perennial for fall color as are Helenium, Fall Crocus, Asters and the brilliant Colchicum. These are all wonderful perennials that bloom in the fall and can bring a boost of color to your garden late in the season. For a little contrast, the Russian Sage is a perennial that has a collection of purple-blue flowers from mid-summer to fall.

Beautify your Tulsa landscape this fall with some of these brilliant late season trees and shrubs.

For more ideas on how to add a splash of amazing color to your fall landscape, contact the Tulsa landscape design specialists at Oklahoma Landscape. We can create a unique color palate for your Tulsa home and garden and create brilliant interest in your landscape throughout the year.