Landscaping Details - Considering Family Needs
By:
Steve Boulden
Your outdoor landscape can provide a natural and functional
extension of your indoor living space if designed to complement
your home and your suit your family’s needs. Hobbies such as
gardening (of course!), swimming, lawn sports, creative arts
should be consider as should how you spend your leisure time. Do
you enjoy dining outside? Reading or writing? Do you prefer lots
of direct sunlight or a bit more shade? Do you seek a secluded
oasis, want a children’s playground, need privacy for an outdoor
spa or hot tub? Think about and note anything you like to do or
hope to do in your outdoor space.
Once you have done so, plot your desired areas for these
activities on your site plan, keeping in mind the different living
areas inside your home. It is best to draw them into a rough house
layout on your site plan. Activity areas can include a sports
area, dining area, public zone, pool- or pondside, entrance,
living area, leisure or quiet area, storage, work area, and
vegetable and flower gardens. Outline them on your plot plan.
Rules of thumb to consider are: a) remember to have your
outdoor activity areas complement your inside living areas, so
that an outdoor deck or patio flows naturally off of your living
room or family room; your den has a pleasant view from its bay
window; your work area is near your garage, etc.; and b) be sure
to arrange landscaping areas according to neighboring area’ use
and function. If you have children, your pool and any playground
areas should be easily visible from outdoor and indoor areas,
always most preferably with a view from within your home.
Likewise, you may want to buffer or add privacy fences or hedging
to block your children’s view of certain aspects on abutting
properties.
For younger children, an outdoor environment should encourage
play by inviting them into it with easy access, open, flowing, and
relaxed spaces, and clear movement from indoors to outdoors. Your
landscape should stimulate the senses with change and contrasts in
scale, light, texture, and color, provide diverse experiences, and
offer safe ground cover and places for creative play. If you have
pets, consider both their needs and those of your neighbors. Make
notes of all aspects of your current landscape and those you
desire to implement. It can be helpful to take a poll of your
family members, asking them what they want, what they don’t like,
and so on. Once you are done with your initial plot plan, you can
transfer it onto graph paper and draw areas and certain features
to scale.
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