Where to Place Swimming Pool

Having a swimming pool constructed is one step in many when you're looking to landscape your backyard. When it comes to landscape architecture around your home, you choose plants, flowers, trees or even gazebos or garden swings. Once you've added a swimming pool to the mix and you have added another dimension to what you can do to enhance your backyard and your outdoor living experience.
Whether you consider gardening a casual hobby or a full-time endeavor, it does take plenty of pre-planning to realize the outdoor decorating dream you'd hoped for when you started. As with any landscaping project, it's always a great idea to talk to your swimming pool designer or landscape designer unless you're able to visualize a landscape from start to finish.
Prior to contacting anyone regarding your initial plans for landscaping, it's best to sketch out what you hope the completed project will look like. Next, determine which types of flowers, plants or crawling vines you want to incorporate into your landscaping theme. Remember, you don't want too many trees dropping leaves into your swimming pool or spa.
Another part of landscaping can be the addition of an outdoor kitchen, a fire pit or even a Zen garden. Will you be using your outdoor space for family parties or for an entertaining space for colleagues or business associates? Depending on the area of the country in which you live, having a pool house or a gazebo constructed can extend the number of months you can spend outside around the pool. The outdoor kitchen or fire pit also adds another level of outdoor living fun.
Another way to undertake the beginning phase of your landscaping project is by taking photographs of gardenscapes you enjoy and by looking through gardening magazines for inspiration.
Here are other places to look for inspiration for your landscaping project:

• The internet
• Gardening and landscaping shows or trade shows
• Thumb through landscaping or gardening magazines
• Take a walk around your neighborhood for inspiration.

Take stock of why you want to landscape and what you're hoping to accomplish. Do you want a serene, relaxation space? Are you looking to turn your yard into a rustic getaway? Or are you looking for a lush oasis of flowering plants and waterfalls? Regardless of what you hope to accomplish with your landscape design, you are sure to enjoy it once the project is done. Choose the perfect furniture and you have taken your outdoor living space to an even higher level!

Pool Landscaping Ideas

Of course the easiest and best way of landscaping your pool is to plan it when you are planning your house and garden. However, things don't always work out that way. All too often people buy a ready built house and pool, or they buy a house and add a pool on later.

The most difficult scenario to work with is when you buy a house with a pool and the pool has been built in totally the wrong place, perhaps next to the garage, or way down at the bottom of the garden. This is not impossible to live with, but it may involve alterations within the house itself.

Ideally the pool should be as near as possible to your living/entertainment area. You can sometimes add windows and doors to give you views and access to your pool, or even add a summerhouse, a poolroom or patio off the pool deck.

Assuming your pool is built and it is more or less where you want it, your landscaping will have to work around what you already have.

Now what you need to consider are the following:

• What view of your pool do you have from your living or entertainment area? How can you improve that view? Ideally the water itself should be clearly seen and spread out in full view. If it isn't, perhaps paving and/or a lawn leading to it would give that wide open effect. 
• If your pool is out of sight, you could try and create a curving pathway through shrubbery or decorative masonry that leads the eye. There is something enticing about a pathway leading to an unknown destination. 
• Vistas. If you cannot have a wide sweep of water in your view, how about creating hints of open spaces that are seen through narrow archways or other openings in shrubbery or walls. If you can get a glimpse of water, so much the better. A statue, a bird bath, a water feature, a part of your pool or even a part of the sundeck would all work as a focal point in that vista. 
• Now, from your pool, what is the view from there? Presumably you want privacy from the neighbours or from passers by, so you would most likely have walls, hedges or screens. Depending on your style, you might like a natural woodland type of surround, or perhaps more modern, stark geometric lines and angles. In this case, you would concentrate on textures and the impact of specimen plants and planters. 
• The paved surround or wooden deck beside your pool is probably the most important part of your pool landscape. This is mostly a question of personal taste, but your climate and amount of sunlight may also play a part too. 
• If you have intense sunlight burning down on your pool surround, you will have to decide whether a wood decking can handle it. You do get very effective polyurethane and other dressings for wood, but you may decide to rather go for one of the new wood/plastic composites that look just like wood but can take the harshest sun's rays. They don't rot or warp either.

Installing Landscape Lighting into Your Garden

Installing landscape lighting, luminaries and fire features can transform even the dullest garden into something original, exciting and functional. The investment in landscape lighting for your garden or landscape will amply repay the time, effort and expense involved.

Lighting and fire features outside the house have a positive effect on the interior by integrating the two areas. Flowing seamlessly between inside and out and without abrupt changes in intensity, landscape lighting will harmonize the two spaces and will increase functionality of your garden oasis.

Flood Lighting

Cleverly positioned flood lights can define one area with a wash of light. If positioned high up in a tree or wall, a flood light can create a moon glow effect. Placed upward, a flood light will illuminate a statue or majestic tree. Careful selection of color and position is the key. Lamps with a blue hue are best positioned high up to give the moon glow effect. Remember to carefully select placement while installing flood lights in trees. It is difficult to reposition the lamp once in position. Flood lighting can also act as security lighting. With motion sensors, flood lighting can add extra protection to your home.

Spot Lighting

Spot lights can be used to highlight a particular area or plant. Use spot lights so their narrow beam focuses on the surface of a plant or bush. Often times a spot light can be used to highlight a particular plant, bush or tree at a specific time of year. Japanese Maple trees are an example. When their foliage turns a bright, beautiful red in the fall, a spot light can highlight this unique specimen. Be sure to conceal the source of the spot light so as not to attract attention to the source but to highlight the subject.

Functional Lighting

Functional lighting is designed to identify features such as doorways, walkways, steps and pathways. This type of lighting is fixed permanently in the most effective location. Lighting for a gathering area needs to be set at a low intensity to exude a relaxed atmosphere. Walkway lighting should be positioned to illuminate the path but not distract from the other lighting features. In the same sense, step lighting should focus on the steps and should not distract from the other lighting features of the landscape.

Special Occasion Lighting

Special occasion lighting, which includes luminaries and torches, looks particularly attractive in night setting. They produce a warm, gentle glow when dotted in a gathering area or pathway. Luminaries that use eco-friendly denatured alcohol as a fuel produce a beautiful, warm blue dancing flame. The best part about denatured alcohol burning luminaries is the byproducts of the flame are only heat, water vapor and carbon dioxide. If you are interested in green living, this type of luminary is a good choice.

Fire Features

Fire features (stone fireplaces, fire pits, fire rings and chimineas) have become very popular in landscape settings. Fuel sources for fire features can be a combination of natural gas or propane, wood or glass and rock media. Often times fire features are placed in the landscape as a focal point in a gathering area. Providing warmth, dancing flames and illumination, a fire feature can focus attention on one specific area of the landscape. Careful attention to available horizontal and vertical space is necessary. Size, shape and venting of the fire feature are constrained by these factors. Local building codes may also affect your choice of fire features.

Putting Landscape Lighting All Together

Harmony is the key to a magnificently illuminated garden oasis. Choosing the right elements to illuminate while providing your guests with a warm and inviting spot to enjoy is the trick. Start with the big picture like a gathering spot with a fire feature, or a dining or conversation area. Accent the pathways or walkways between each area. Throw in a couple of unique accents with flood lights or spot lights. Once in place, your illuminated garden oasis becomes a functional space throughout the year.

Increasing Property Value with Backyard Landscaping

If you're looking to increase your property value, your backyard landscaping is nearly as important as the landscaping in the front yard. While attractive front and side yard landscaping helps make a good first impression on a prospective buyer, backyard landscaping may help convince him to actually purchase the house at your asking price. The trick, however, is to choose the types of landscaping that will bring you a good return on your investment of both money and time. Contrary to popular belief, completely revamping your home's landscape isn't always the best way to go. Chances are, all you'll need to do is spend a little time getting your existing landscape in order.

Clean up the Main Features
Before you add anything to your backyard, make sure the basic landscaping features look as good as possible. Get your lawn, shrubs and trees in good condition and make sure they look well manicured. Repair any damaged walkways, patios and decks and pull up weeds growing in or around them. Install edging around your lawn and flower beds for a neater, more finished look. Clean or replace features like sheds, lighting fixtures and statuary. Because you see your yard regularly, you might not notice areas that have begun to look run down, so it can help to invite someone else over to point out any messy looking spots you might have missed.

Minimize Maintenance
The landscaping in your backyard shouldn't give a prospective buyer visions of endless hours of exhausting garden work. Consider removing plants that need a lot of care, such as exotic species, plants that drop an abundance of needles, leaves or messy fruit, and species that may become invasive. Replace these with local native plants whenever possible. These species thrive in the wild in your locality, so they'll require almost no care in the garden. Apply sufficient mulch to flower beds so you don't have weeds popping up a week after you clear the bed. Develop bare spots or hard-to-landscape slopes into rock gardens, which look attractive, but require only minimal upkeep. If you have any tight spots that are hard to mow, create a flower bed around the area. This way you'll only have to mow around the edges of the bed.

Block Unpleasant Views
Unless you do something to minimize or improve their appearance, common items like propane tanks, stumps and sheds can become eyesores that make your backyard look junk and unkempt. In most case, there are simple ways to hide or spruce up these items. Install a trellis or fence panel in front of the propane tank and plant a climbing vine like sweet pea or clematis to block the view. Dress up a stump by drilling holes in the top, filling the holes with dirt and planning flowers. Paint the garden shed to match your home, install a weather vane or other simple decor, and plant tall plants like daylilies or ornamental grass around the perimeter.

Using Landscaping Stones in Garden Decorating

Using landscaping stones for decoration is not exactly a new concept, but it has proved itself time and time again to be a great method to improve the look of gardens and yards of homes and palaces all around the world.

Where to Find Landscaping Stones

Needless to say, there's a huge variety of stones to choose from, so planning ahead is definitely something you should do. Don't just start hauling stones to your house and then decide what you're going to use. Instead, do a well planned design that includes the types of rocks and colors you want to use. After that start searching for places you could get your stones from.

Some hardware stores have different kinds of landscaping stones available. But it has been my experience that usually the best ways to obtain these stones is to simply search the internet and order them online. 

So How Exactly Do I Use Them?

Landscaping Stones can probably be used in as many ways as there are people on Earth. One popular choice is to use them to create a pathway leading to, say, and your porch. You can even spice up the pathways themselves by creating patterns such as a checker pattern and achieve a very unique look.

Artificial landscaping stones can be used to hide things. Say you have a nasty septic tank riser in your garden that you'd like to get rid of, but really can't. Instead of ripping it off (Don't do this!), you can put a fake stone on top of it and hide it for good. You can then use that stone as a center piece and create something unique around it.

Fake Landscaping Stones

Using fake stones has recently become more and more popular thanks to constantly improving materials. These fake stones can make your garden look great, and well artificial stones are nearly impossible to distinguish from real ones. They can even be used to hide any unwanted objects in your garden such as septic tank risers.

Conclusion

Whichever way you prefer, the stones or real landscaping stones, you can't really go wrong just as long as you design your plan well, and remember that it isn't all that important to try to come up with the perfect plan. Just go with the flow and give your design your own unique look. It's better to make a small mistake and end up with a unique landscape, than to tinker around trying to perfect your design and never finishing it.

Landscaping Your Garden in the Right Way

Landscaping your garden can be an arduous process, depending on your garden type. Done correctly, you can renovate your very environment to bring together all of the things you love. Whether you include water features or paths or even a gazebo, you should try to create the garden you love. However, it's important to note that garden landscaping can be an expensive process as well as a time-consuming one, not to mention the aftercare you would need to provide to keep your garden not only alive, but blossoming all year round.

Clean Up

Some gardens may require a lot of work to create a blank slate for you to work on. Getting out the lawnmower would be a great idea, as tall grass is detrimental to navigating the garden and doesn't always fit what you might have in mind. Also try trimming back any trees that are crowding area and clearing out any refuse that might have built up. Garden tools would best be placed inside a shed or some other storage unit for later use so the end result is good.

The Design Phase

Long gardens might limit exactly what you have in mind. So try to adapt your plans and ideals for what your physical constraints are. For example, if you have a long, thin garden, a path leading to a secluded area, such as a sitting area in the shade near a pond, would be a wonderful plan. Plans should always take into consideration the needs of the people using it. Children would be best served with open areas for playing in, while water features that are deep could potentially be a danger to younger children. On the other hand, if children are not present, then these are not considerations that need noting.

Also check to see whether your plans are allowed by the local council, as trees or buildings that you erect may block neighbor's rights and lead to legal confrontations. Furthermore, piping beneath your garden could also prove to be a problem if they're where you want certain, deep-set features.