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The landscape is a very important aspect of a home. Having a beautiful, creative and functional landscape requires some understanding of design principles, plant materials and outdoor structural elements. A landscape installation can be very simple or extremely complicated. Designing irrigation systems, outdoor lighting, stone walls and patios requires skills that go beyond those of the average homeowner. When the job seems too big, it may be time to call in a professional. This publication provides guidelines and suggestions for finding a garden designer.

Designing a landscape is much like designing the interior of a house. Colors, patterns and textures must be arranged in a manner that is functional and suits the taste of the owner. The one major difference with landscape design is that most of the elements are living, providing seasonal change, forever growing taller and wider, and occasionally dying. An experienced garden designer has the ability to incorporate all this information into the design, but the homeowners must do their homework and be prepared to talk to the designer. This publication will help homeowners develop a plan for working with a landscape designer.

Preparing a landscape plan can be an enjoyable and satisfying experience if you do a little homework and follow a few guidelines. A simple landscape base map can be drawn without a computer, special software or even expensive drafting supplies, and is the first step in developing a landscape plan. The base map is an accurate representation of the existing landscape, scaled to fit the paper, showing information such as house dimensions, distance to street, and the location of trees,
woods, driveways and sidewalks, if these are already present in the landscape. This publication explains how to draw a base map for landscape planning.

Designing a beautiful landscape for the home can be a very enjoyable and satisfying experience. With a little homework, a landscape plan is within reach of most homeowners. Before great ideas can become a plan, you must determine the limitations and assets of the site. This publication briefly describes how to create a site analysis for landscape design.