No matter what the season, we all dream about having a home with a lush, green lawn, colorful flowers and landscaping that looks like it was planted by a professional gardener. Creating that yard of your dreams won't be easy, but with some research and some hard work you can do it.

Proper planning in any landscaping project is the key to success. With the proper planning and some patience, avoiding some common mistakes can make the entire project proceed without many problems and give you the result you have always wanted.

If you are planning on landscaping a small area, you shouldn't have any problems doing this small project yourself. Begin by looking at landscaping books to get some ideas. When you are out for a walk notice what you like and don't like about the yards in your neighborhood.

Write your ideas down on paper. Draw some preliminary sketches and discuss it with family and friends. Take the plans to your local nursery and discuss your plans with someone who is familiar with what plants and flowers do well in your area.

Here are some ideas for different landscaping areas and options.

Flowers to Make Your Yard Colorful

To make your home look friendlier, add some flowers to your yard. If you want color throughout the year you will need to research what plants bloom during which seasons.

By planning your garden you can arrange the flowers around the yard so that there is color year-round, and so the colors complement each other.

Besides placing flowers in the beds bordering the lawn, flowers can be used to line a sidewalk or the pathway to your front door. Splashes of color can add charm and beauty to any yard.

Designing a Functional and Beautiful Backyard

A home backyard is a special place. Unlike a front yard of the house a backyard is free of any artificial and injected rules of design. If your backyard is fenced off from public view, you have only yourself and your family to please.

Depending on the size of the yard you can have different areas. For instance, you can have a corner of the yard set up for children with a swing set and fort. Another area can be set up with a bar-b-q and picnic table. Perhaps you can even find a spot for a cascading waterfall.

Again, borrow some landscaping books from the library to give you some ideas. If you are going to go through all the work and expense of landscaping your backyard, you want to do it right. You want a yard that will bring you enjoyment and that you can be happy with for years to come.

Lawn

Do you know that a beautiful and well put together lawn has many benefits? It helps keep the house cooler in summer, provides a wonderful play area for children, and more. For added beauty, intersperse the lawn with trees randomly planted in between.

Shrubs

Some shrubs along the outside of the house will give it an entirely different look, and a stone walkway is something even a landscape novice should be able to do themselves with a little instruction.

Examples of landscape design elements in transition are plants that go from coarse to medium to fine textures or softscapes that go from large trees to medium trees to shrubs to bedding plants.

Landscaping to Reduce Expenses

Did you know that you can save money on heating and cooling costs by carefully planting trees, shrubs and even some grasses and vines around your home? By planting trees on the south and west side of your house you can actually reduce summer temperatures inside your home by ten degrees.

Letting vines and shrubs grow next to the house (so they protect basement windows) helps further. These are important things to keep in mind when developing your landscaping plans.