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Over time your landscape will need little renovations or even a complete ‘remodel’ so that it doesn’t look outdated.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!

Small Spaces Can Still Have Big Tulsa Outdoor Living Ideas

Tulsa outdoor living spaces do not need to be large to be interesting, practical, and filled with amazing beauty. Notice these tips for creating functional Tulsa outdoor environments in even not-so-big landscapes. 

Plan, Plan, Plan

Tulsa homeowners may want to dive in and renovate their outdoor space quickly, but careful planning is worth the wait. 

How would you most like to use your Tulsa outdoor living space? Do you do a lot of entertaining or cooking out? Would you use the space mainly to relax, read, and get away from the world? Would like to have a spa or a decorative water feature? How you plan to use your landscape will shape what features comprise the space, and with thoughtful design you can add more features. Know what your focal or main decorative points will be, and then you can design other things around those features.

 

It’s important to have things planned out so that every portion of the space is utilized to get the most function from the area. Although you may have less ground space, you can create more vertical space for gardens and additional storage. 

Our Tulsa landscape designers can assist you with planning and designing the most practical design for your outdoor space. 

Create Specific Outdoor Living ‘Rooms’

Make the most of your small outdoor space by creating different outdoor living areas in the same space by artfully dividing the space depending on its intended use. 

For instance, you may have a dining area on a small patio and cover it with an arbor or small pergola that will separate the space visually. Create a ‘living room’ area with an L-shaped sectional sofa made of indoor-outdoor materials, an area rug and even a coffee table that will divide the space. A fire pit can also be a focal point for a seating area and can form a comfy atmosphere for entertaining. 

You can use raised flowerbeds as edging, foliage such as vines or bamboo to separate and add privacy, or use different pavers and hardscape materials to differentiate the spaces. Although you want these areas to be visually divided, you will also want them to connect or seamlessly flow from one to another so that it does have the feel of one complete outdoor environment. Walkways or stone paths can help accomplish this. 

Enlarge the Space with Texture and Color

Color makes the world seem brighter and livelier. Texture can add dimension and personality to a space. Adding these to your outdoor living space will create more depth and interest in your yard. Colorful container gardens filled with plants of varying textures are very practical. 

Pavers and other hardscape materials come in an array of colors, sizes, shapes, and textures. These can often add more charm and are easier to replace or repair than concrete. 

Bright, coordinated colors and attention-grabbing fabrics for rugs, throw pillows, and seating areas can make the space more inviting. Using reclaimed, distressed, or antique pieces can tastefully be used in your outdoor space to add character and sometimes even a pop of color. 

With a little planning and creativity, any size outdoor space can be the setting for a gorgeous Tulsa outdoor environment. As your premier Tulsa landscaping company, Oklahoma Landscape can help you design the most practical and most engaging outdoor living space.

Tulsa Landscaping Companies Going "Green" with Sustainable Landscape Design

Tulsa landscaping companies like Oklahoma Landscape are striving to use more sustainable landscape design practices. Basically…the landscaping industry is going “green.” That might seem strange to say about a landscaping company. After all, aren't they all about green, living things? Well yes, but sustainable landscape design takes to the next level – putting forth a concentrated effort to conserve resources in the environment through effective design.

What are some of the principles of sustainable design and what are the benefits to Tulsa home and business owners?

Sustainable design basically focuses on promoting a better environment for present and future generations. To do this requires careful planning and design to create landscapes that do not risk the health of humans or the environment, but rather encourage regenerative systems. In this careful planning, Tulsa landscape designers would consider how the landscape will be most often be used – whether for entertaining, children playing, relaxing, or other functions – and this planning not only helps to plan out how to conserve the earth’s resources but also how to conserve the homeowner’s resources as well.

Among the principles of sustainable design, are conserving the following resources:

Preserving Soil Health

Healthy soil will promote a healthier Tulsa lawn, plants, and other vegetation while preventing erosion and reducing pollution. But often soil gets compacted over time or by construction projects. Compacted soil then stops plant roots from getting the nutrients they need, and this often can lead to erosion and increased runoff water and then flooding. In sustainable design, soil can be conserved and restored, thwarting costly erosion, flooding, and any resulting water pollution. Core aeration can help relieve compacted soil, and composts and mulching can help put nutrients back into the ground. 

Water Conservation

Drought has become an ever increasing problem in the United States. Even in winter, portions of Oklahoma are still under abnormally dry conditions with some areas in extreme drought. According to the Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™), two practices – wasteful irrigation and undervaluing rain – have contributed to the imbalance of water. Through sustainable landscape design water can be conserved and treated as a resource. This would include selecting more native plants that require less irrigation, using drip irrigation systems, as well as harvesting rainwater to use for irrigation or water features rather than allow most of it to flow into and then overflow storm drains and sewer systems.

These sustainable efforts to conserve water in the landscape save homeowners and businesses money they would spend on irrigation and promote healthier communities by preventing waste water from backing up and creating public health issues.

‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ Material Resources

As with the general effort to go “green,” conserving material resources is very important. With watchful planning and forethought, less construction and yard waste can be created. Choosing more sustainable or recoverable materials can reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, SITES™ noted.

Preserving and Adding Vegetation

Preserving the native plants in your landscape can help improve the soil, conserve water, increase air quality, and prevent erosion. Native plants are also more resistant to diseases and drought. In addition, grouping plants together with the same irrigation and sunlight needs can reduce your irrigation costs and reduce maintenance. 

Urban forests are creating cleaner, cooler cities, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) noted, reducing energy costs, and stormwater runoff. “U.S. trees remove some 784,000 tons of pollution annually, providing $3.8 billion in value,” ASLA reported. Adding urban green areas can help to combat increasing surface temperatures caused by sunlight absorbed by pavement and roofs, ASLA said. Many cities are integrating green roofs and other urban green and agricultural spaces to reduce energy expenses as well as provide various other benefits like improved efficiency and mental health while increasing property values.

Yes, the costs and health benefits of sustainable landscape design are numerous, creating a win-win situation for homeowners and urban development teams. Tulsa landscaping companies can thus successfully implement sustainable design not only in residential, but also commercial landscaping projects, so that you can ‘find yourself outside’ for generations to come.

For more information on sustainable landscapes, visit http://sustainablesites.org/.