To increase the probability of attractive features in your landscaping plan, consider the following criteria during the tour of your yard. ¨ The house should have an inviting or interesting look as you approach the entrance from the street or driveway.

• The yard should blend naturally with adjacent property, not contrast with it.
• The buildings in the yard should be framed with trees and plantings to create a natural setting.
• If there is a pleasant view from the house or yard, plan to preserve the scene. Conversely if all you see are rooftops and garages, the scene may be screened or blocked out.
• On flat suburban lots without noteworthy natural features, you may want to create some. Garden pools, fountains, rock gardens or fireplaces are examples. These features are most effective when they can also be viewed from inside the home.
• Slopes in the natural setting can be terraced to make the yard more interesting. Steep slopes should be planted to prevent erosion. Walkways on slopes must be properly graded to prevent slipping and falling.

You will want to design features into your landscaping plan that will make your home more usable and easier to live with. Take the following criteria into account as you tour your home and yard.

All family members must be considered. Small children need a play area. Older children may need areas for sports and hobbies. Adults may want a quite retreat, a gardening area, or a place for outdoor entertaining.

An outdoor living area is usually desirable. Some outdoor living areas are not used because they are not easily accessible from the living areas of the house. Making a door out of a window or building a pathway to the area are two ways of correcting this situation.

The yard should contain provisions for clothes drying storing trashcans, garden equipment, bicycles, boats, etc. Service areas should be screened from the other areas of the yard or house, easily accessible from the kitchen or garage.

Plan your landscaping to make the most of the climate you live in.

• Note the sun patterns on your property and determine where you might want to create shade for outdoor living. This can be done by constructing a patio roof, with vines growing over lathing, or by planting trees. Don't forget to consider shading children's play areas.
• Note the prevailing wind pattern. Outdoor areas may become usable for more months of the year if strong winds are diverted. This can be accomplished by using fencing or plants as a windbreak.
• If insects are a problem in year area, consider screening in the patio.
• Check the property to see where water flows off the house roof after heavy rains and if it is carried away properly. Note whether water stands in spots for a long time before evaporates.

There are many more features to consider when you plan your landscaping. They affect the ultimate appearance of your property and how pleasant it will be to use. Some typical features are discussed below to emphasis the need for and possible benefits from careful planning.

• Portions of front yards can be reclaimed for private use by installing a screen or hedge. This is especially helpful if the house is set far back on the lot. Keep in mind any setback regulations in your area.
• Small lots, with shallow back yards, seem larger if patios or pathways lead the eye around the corner of the house. Another trick is to create hidden areas with a small fence.
• The time of the year may influence landscaping work. Wet or very cold weather can hamper construction efforts. Planting times vary for different plants.
• Consider the ages of the family members. Play areas for the small children should be planned so that they can be used for other activities as the children grow older and their interests change. For example the sandbox near a terrace can be converted into a spot for plants or a rose garden.
• Be sure a desired area will be used for enough years to make the cost worthwhile. A paved basketball court may lie idle after the first few years.
• Many a plan has gone wrong when an owner discovers how much work is necessary to keep up the yard. Avoiding large expanses of lawn can reduce maintenance. If you do not need a large lawn area, select ground cover or other plants that do not need continual trimming or cutting. Paving, broken up with small areas of plants, is another way to reduce lawn area.
• Making an overall plan that identifies all of the paving or the carpentry needs, so that they can be accomplished at one time, will same money. You may also get discounts by buying all your plants at one time.
• It may pay to hire a professional to do complicated grading or things you may not feel confident about handling yourself. Errors require the cost of correction. If you want to try your hand at construction, such as pouring concrete, test your skill on a small project like a few stepping stones.
• Smaller and cheaper isn't necessarily better if the area isn't used.
• The biggest savings in cost come through proper planning. Planning shouldn't be done in a hurry. Proper planning may require that several weekends be spent looking through literature, looking at other yards and public gardens, drawing up the plan, and then giving it a trial test.

After you assemble your ideas for what you would like in your yard, make a detailed plan that brings it all together.

It will be worthwhile to make a scale drawing of your property on graph paper. Figure out a workable scale. In your house locate the house, garage, or any other structures, and existing trees or shrubs you want to keep. Indicate the driveway, sidewalks or fences you have. Show by symbol the doors and windows. Note the height from the ground to the bottoms of the windows. Show the location of the rooms within the house to help you effectively place any outdoor living and service areas. Walk through the house, look out the windows and note the windows where you would like to create a pleasing view. Locate underground utility and sewer or septic lines.

Any pavement additions must be planned to allow future access to these lines. Use tracing paper over your scale drawings of the yard and work out several alternate plans for landscaping the yard. Experiment with different geometric shapes that define areas. Squares or rectangles are the easiest for most people to work with. You could also use circles or ovals. Curves are generally the hardest to design. Unless you are very artistic, use whatever shape you choose throughout your design. An exception might be a curved flower border along a long fence. Typical proposed landscaping designs make use of squares (1), circles (2), and rectangles (3).

Size is an important factor when planning areas for specific purposes.