Designing Your Outdoor Space

Working in stages is not only more affordable, but it also helps you set priorities and makes it easier to break up and prioritize tasks. Start by evaluating your space for proper drainage. If you have any standing water after a rainfall, consider these options:

• Alleviate small puddles by installing a drain field, which is a layer of gravel hidden beneath the surface that serves as a waiting room for the water until it's absorbed into the soil.
• If your entire yard is drowning, a more sophisticated drainage system linking drain fields with corrugated pipe may be necessary.
• If there is a significant elevation change on your property that could lead to erosion, dry creek beds made of rock and pebbles is both attractive and functional.

Irrigation, which is typically installed before plants and trees, can be adjusted and expanded along with your landscape. But if you install any expanse of paved surface before you install irrigation and plant material, you may want to lay a few sleeves of pipe beneath the pavers. The sleeves give you options for underground piping so you don't have to rip up your new flagstone to put in a sprinkler head later on.

The next step is to determine the sequence of your landscaping projects, considering how each phase will affect the next. For example, it may be important or cost effective for you to have a stone paver patio with a lush menagerie of shrubs, perennials and annuals in your landscape right away. But if you are thinking of installing a deck in the future, a good portion of those plants and pavers may be removed or damaged by equipment needed to dig up soil and rock. If that's the case, you may want to install these before you begin any hard landscaping, so you don't lose time and money replacing plants and turf.

Just about any blank space can be turned into an outdoor room for private conversation, child's play, or into functional spaces for herbs, vegetables and cutting gardens. Pavers are affordable and easy to install; plus it's simple to add more later on if you want to expand your space.

When you're ready to implement the landscape portion of your design, start by installing focal points such as trees and other significant vertical elements such as a gazebo or pergola. Patio furniture also makes a great a focal point and a place to relax and enjoy your garden. With the bones of your garden in place, you can easily fill in beds with shrubs and other plant material over time.