?Four simple landscaping ideas

Creating an inspiring entrance space gives your home a worthy introduction and sets the theme for the rest of the garden.

We have little control over the environment beyond our homes. They should, however, be an influence in the approach you take in landscaping. 

Here are few tips to help you along.  

Block unwanted features

This calls for an introverted landscape. Making an introverted design is not as complicated as the name might suggest.

It simply means taking steps to block the unwanted ugly views.

The cheapest and easy way of doing this is by planting trees and shrubs that block these views.

Apart from blocking such views, the trees provide a natural feel to your home.

Borrow from the environment

One needs to be careful before opting for this design. As it is in many upcoming neighbourhoods, the features surrounding a given piece of land now were not the same ones two years ago.

Proper research on the likely features of the surrounding environment years from now would determine whether or not this approach is appropriate.

An extensive research would reveal the zoning by-laws and trends governing the area and the type of neighbours you are likely to have a couple of years down the line.

Supposing your piece of land is next to a national park. Evidently, the park scenery will remain unchanged for years to come.

Hence borrowing the park’s natural scenery to enhance the tranquil view from your home is very much encouraged.

To borrow from the environment and feel its effect, the position of the private area where one spends most of their time should face the major scenery in question. This explains why most beach houses have their living rooms, where guests and occupants spend most of their time, facing the sea.

Emphasise structures

A feature that could bring out this are neat hedges, leading to the centre of attraction, which happens to be gazebos in many an urban Kenyan backyard.

This simple technique of drawing attention could also be used in emphasising points of entry and using trees in place of hedges leading to the main entrance of a house.

Minimise noise

Buying land in an easily accessible area means being adjacent to busy locations which have noise as a product.

Highway noise of cars honking, markets where people are loudly hawking their goods are just some of the sources of such noise.

There are logical landscape solutions one can choose to keep the noise at bay.

If your piece of land is large enough, you could plant trees from the source of noise. The trees or plant materials refract the noise.  

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