Three Things to Settle Before You Landscape Your Yard

I've watched neighbours spend a fortune landscaping a yard they then resented mowing, edging, and pruning every weekend for years. Landscaping goes wrong long before the first plant goes in — it goes wrong in the planning, or the lack of it.

A landscape project eats time, energy, and money, and the temptation is to skip straight to the fun part of buying plants. Resist it. The three decisions below will save you more than any clever plant choice, and they cost nothing but an honest afternoon of thinking. Get these right and the rest is just digging.

First, decide what the space is actually for

Before you sketch anything, sit with how you want to use the yard. Function comes before form, always. Do you want a spot for entertaining? A built-in barbeque? An area for kids to run, a fishpond, a swimming pool? Each of those reshapes the whole plan, and it's far cheaper to decide now than to tear out a finished bed because you forgot you wanted somewhere to put a table.

The shortcut I give everyone: start with the area where you already spend the most time. That's where your money does the most good. Map it out roughly — a simple landscape design tool or even graph paper works — and get the major zones down before you fuss over a single plant. Knowing the rough palette of plants you like helps too, but it comes after you know what the space is for.

Second, think hard before hiring a pro

An independent designer can run into hundreds of dollars, and for a straightforward flat yard that may be money you don't need to spend. Free plans are everywhere — online, and especially at a good nursery, where staff will often sketch ideas for the cost of the plants you buy. For most ordinary lots, a weekend of research and a garden spade gets you most of the way a designer would.

That said, I don't tell people to never hire one. If you've got a genuinely awkward block — very steep ground, drainage problems, a tricky slope — a professional's expertise can save you from costly mistakes that are miserable to fix later. The test is honest difficulty: a flat rectangle doesn't need a pro; a hillside that sheds water toward your foundation probably does. Pay for expertise where the stakes are high, and keep your money where they aren't. A few retaining wall blocks handled wrong on a slope can become an expensive lesson.

Third, match the style to your house and your life

Here's where good intentions collide with reality. The style has to suit your home — formal geometric gardens wrapped around a rustic cottage look as wrong as a tuxedo at a barbecue. But the bigger trap is matching the garden to your lifestyle. Do you genuinely want to spend hours pruning rose beds and deadheading annuals? Some people do, and they should plant exactly that. If you'd rather be at the beach, plant an easy-care landscape and stop pretending otherwise. A hedge trimmer only saves you time on a layout designed to be low-maintenance in the first place.

There's no shame in low-maintenance. The most resented gardens I know are the ambitious ones owned by people who don't actually enjoy the upkeep. Be honest about your free time before you commit to anything that demands a lot of it.

A quick tour of the main styles

Once function, budget, and honesty are settled, the look becomes a real choice. A few of the classics: Formal leans on straight lines, geometric shapes, and tightly pruned, orderly plantings — crisp but demanding. Informal suits cosy cottages, with curved bed edges and plants placed naturally rather than in rows. The English garden emphasizes harmony between the house's architecture and the planting, blending the two so neither dominates.

For smaller spaces, an Oriental style uses rocks, evergreens, and water to create interesting angles in a tight backyard — a good fit when square footage is short. A woodland style works beautifully where you've got mature trees and sloping, shaded ground, leaning into what's already there rather than fighting it. Whatever you choose, a bag of quality landscape mulch and a sturdy garden rake are the unglamorous tools that make any of them look finished.

None of this is complicated, but all of it is easy to skip in the rush to plant something. Settle the function, spend wisely on professional help only where the ground demands it, and pick a style that fits both your house and the amount of weekend you're willing to give up. Do that, and you'll end up with a yard you enjoy instead of one you maintain out of obligation.