by Michael Aral

If youre a regular putterer in the garden, the chance to work on your own backyard landscaping design sound may sound like the ultimate initiation to let your creative self roam free. Unlike in the front yard, there’s no need to feel constrained by worries about what the neighbors will say. That said, unless you’re up for headaches and wasted money designing an attractive backyard landscape isn’t something you want to jump into unprepared.

A little planning is worth it

An attractively landscaped yard almost never happens by chance. Even those seemingly free-roaming English perennial gardens are planned down to the last pot of thyme. Go in without a plan and you’re likely to come out with more than a few regrets. To make sure that doesn’t happen, take the time to look at a wide variety of backyard landscaping designs first.

Collect some ideas that appeal to and will work well in your and suit your tastes and at least and make a sketch of you backyard to . And don’t be afraid to keep re-working your plan until you get something youll really love. If you really want to get organized, pick up some landscaping software.

Permanent features: the place to start

Before you get too wrapped up in choosing just the right flowers for the planters on the patio, there’s something else you need to deal with first: the large, permanent features in your backyard. These could be things like tall trees, brick walls, and more mundane objects like garden shed. It also includes features you planning to put in, like a pond or large statue.

Before you buy anything, you need to know how you’re going to landscape around large permanent features like that tall old pine tree, the brick wall of the garage, and the propane tank. This also includes large elements that you’re planning to install, such as ponds, fountains, walls, and permanent raised beds.

Plant choice matters

You don’t have to be a professional landscaper to know lining your garden path with cacti is probably a mistake, but unfortunately most of the problems plants can cause are a more subtle than that. Because putting the wrong green thing in the wrong spot can cause major hassles in the future, you’ll want to take care with plant choice.

Youll need to know not only what climate the plant prefers, but also care requirements, lifespan, growth pattern (straight up or straggly?), lifespan, bad habits (Does it drop messy berries or attract bees?), what other plants it should and shouldn’t be near. To avoid problems in the future, thoroughly review every growing thing you involve in your backyard landscaping ideas to make sure its a good fit.