DIY Network

Landscaping: A Solid Design Plan From "Blueprint for Home Building" episode DBHB-209

As with every other aspect of home building discussed in DIY's Blueprint for Home Building series, a good landscaping design starts with a solid plan. Host Jeff Wilson takes you through the steps involved to reach this goal in the first segment of the "Landscaping" episode.

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	In this week's episode host Jeff Wilson discusses the rules of a green thumb around your new home.
	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

The landscape plan requires just as much attention to what the program is trying to accomplish as if it were another set of rooms in your new home.

• Your landscaping begins with a survey of the site.

  What a survey (figure A) does for your home is to give you basically the points of your lot, what the elevations are going to be and the basic "footprint" of your site so it can be handed off to a civil engineer or structural engineer to start the designing of the yard and the footprint of the house.

• The next step to consider is the placement of your house. For that you need to look at how water drains on the property -- and you should always remember that water runs downhill.

  Note: One thing you should NEVER do is to build the home on the "lowest" area of the site because all the water on the site will run down to that area. It's best to have different elevations on your site.

• Your house placement can also take advantage of the natural resources (figure B), which means the house should be aligned according to the line of the sun -- especially if you want to take advantage of the passive solar energy aspect.

• With the house placement set, it's time to consider your landscaping needs.

• To help you with a well-designed landscape, one new technology is to utilize a landscaping computer program, which can help bring the virtual plan into clear sight. There are a number of programs available. Do your homework and make sure to pick a software program that suits your needs.

• An important aspect of the landscaping plan is the maintenance program. Some people love to garden and be outside and other want to just look at it and walk away.

• Unlike many other areas of home building, your landscaping may not need to be completed by a subcontractor. It can be a project you "may" want to take on yourself. Also, it doesn't have to be done right away. The plan can be implemented in stages, which can be beneficial to your wallet.

• When it comes to designing landscaping, one option is to create a plan that's completed in a lot of phases (figure C) so it can take several years, in fact, to finish your design.

With a solid plan that suits your lifestyle, you're well on your way to having your outdoor living space be as functional as the rooms in your home

Did You Know? -- Grass eating grubs are more likely to damage lawns that are less frequently watered. When purchasing new sod, soak it thoroughly to kill any grub eggs.

In the next segment Jeff takes a look at how to choose the proper vegetation for your home's landscape.

GUESTS :

Greg Allen
Site Supervisor
Hendolhurst Homes
955 Markman Park Rd.
Baden, PA 15005
Phone: 724-935-5658
Fax: 724-935-0884
E-mail: gcrbs@adelphia.net

Lynn Underwood
Homeowner
3001 E. Wiley Lane
Vail, AZ 85641
E-mail: whiskey5alpha@yahoo.com

Elizabeth Shanahan
President
FC Construction, Inc.
PO Box TT
Newport Beach, CA 92662
Phone: 714-412-6180
E-mail: FCConstruction@earthlink.net

Regina Zernay
CMTS, Inc.
Phone: 310-390-9558

John Owens
Consultant
1265 South Camino Santiago Drive
Pueblo West, CO 81007

Stanton and Terry Saucier
E-mail: saucier1@pacbell.net

Andy Beasly
PO Box 214
Hillside, CO 81232

Niki Furstman
Homeowner
3332 N. Grand Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711

Jody Cukier Seigler
Interior Designer
951 North Bristol Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
Phone: 310-476-1286
E-mail: jodycs@yahoo.com

Igor Orlovsky
Contracting Consultant
E-mail: heyigor@sbcglobal.net