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Living Landscaping for Definition and Privacy

Living landscaping such as trees, shrubs, and plant beds can help make your property a beautiful and inviting space. These elements also bring with them practical benefits that include structure, definition, and privacy for your outdoor spaces.

The placement of plant beds carves out the shape of your landscape area, creating perimeters that separate turf areas from living spaces. By breaking up your green space into multiple areas, plant beds provide your backyard with variety and usability.

Trees and shrubs take this sense of definition a step further by maturing into natural “walls” that you can use to build distinct outdoor rooms. Hedges and rows of trees create a sense of intimacy for dining and sitting areas. When planted along your property line, trees can be used as a type of privacy fence. Wherever they’re located, rows of shrubs and trees provide shade that can be very welcome in the heat of summer.

Living landscaping improves your property by adding color, beauty, and texture to your outdoor space. It also serves the practical side of your landscaping by providing definition and privacy. As you plan any new project, keep in mind the structural as well as the ornamental benefits of landscaping.

Seasonal Flowers

Floral displays ring in the growing season with life and color. Annual flowers are a good landscape investment because they’re versatile, colorful, quick to bloom and relatively inexpensive.

These dependable single-season flowers hit the ground running and provide a spectacular show all season long. Annuals provide an entire spectrum of options in terms of size, color and growth patterns. Some flowers work well as edging plants. Others are best used in planters or window boxes.

Most annuals can create dramatic displays when planted across large areas. Because annuals live only one season and have no permanent roots from which to grow the next year, they perpetuate their kind through heavy seed production. Biologically, seed and flower production go hand in hand. To produce lots of seeds, they must produce many flowers. If those flowers are cut before the seeds can form, the plant tries again and again in an effort to make up the loss. The more you cut an annual, the more it blooms, making annuals the gift that keeps on giving!

Some popular annuals that you may want to consider for your landscape include impatiens, zinnia, marigold, petunia, nasturtium, alyssum, aster, morning glory, portulaca, snapdragon and sweet pea. With the right planning, good soil, plenty of water and room to flourish, an annual flower display on your property will be a sight to behold.