A plot of land around a country house is not just a piece of property and freedom from neighbors in a city apartment, it is an opportunity to express yourself, your dream, fantasy with the tools of nature - trees, flowers, water, stones. Create a landscape design of a country house with their own hands is not difficult, but skills in caring for plants, artistic taste, diligence will still be needed. The main thing is not to hurry, to approach the development of the site deliberately, the result will certainly please, maybe not immediately, but only after a few years. But it's not scary, because the very process of landscape design is fun. Once you get a wonderful result, you just can not stop.
Beginning the landscaping work, prepare for the fact that you will never finish them. Site sanitation is an uninterrupted process, connected primarily with plants. Plants grow, require watering, pruning, weeding, transplantation, they are alive, and life can not stop and freeze in the result.
From the location of the sides of the world depends on the illumination of the territory, protection from northern, northwestern winds. From the northern side of the site it is reasonable to plan protection from cold-resistant large plants, high fencing. You can arrange in this part of the outbuildings. From the south side will be comfortable heat-loving fruit plants, vegetable beds, flower beds.
A complex relief is not always worth it. This is the very case of landscape design, when minuses easily turn into pluses. Well decorated area slope, equipped with a staircase with stone steps, or retaining wall, gabion near the ravine. A natural elevation is ideal for an alpine slide, and a marshy low for a pond. The shape of the plot sets the line for planting trees and shrubs, the location of tracks, recreation areas.
Powerful old trees are a real landscape treasure. Making a large tree a center, you can create a unique composition. High large-sized plants give the surrounding space volume. If the old trees on the site are not needed, interfere with the overall stylistics, do not rush to remove them until the appropriate planting is up. Large plants perfectly retain moisture in the soil in droughty periods, during periods of rain, it drains well, protects from the scorching sun in the heat, and is shielded from cold winds in bad weather. It's not long to cut a big tree, but it will take several decades to grow it. By harvesting large old trees, you will bare the site for a long time, for 20-30 years, until new plantings grow, thus worsening the overall microclimate of the site.
A successful landscape design of the countryside is an excellent microclimate.
Decorative, elegant area is achieved by creating an optimal microclimate for growing plants. If this point is not met, caring for plants will require tremendous efforts. It is difficult to trace the soil characteristics at once, sometimes, several years pass, in order to abandon the cultivation of any plant because of unsuitable soil. Laboratory analysis of the soil will clarify the situation, but the quality of the soil in one area may be different at a distance of several meters. Experience and observation will be here for a magic wand, and if there is no experience, just give up on growing plants that do not grow well in your area, with due uhode.Tak you'll save energy and nerves.
See also: Landscape design of the site on the slope +50 photo 
The big advantage is the location of the apartment house in the depth of the plot. This layout gives comfort, security, hides from the eyes of others, unusually decorates the house. Beautifully decorated entrance, driveway lane gives the landscape solidity, reliability. No luck with the layout, the house is right at the road, and the site behind it? The situation can be corrected by placing a beautiful outdoor terrace on the side of the plot, a cozy patio. Economic buildings are better to place on the north side of the site to protect it from the cold and make the most of the sunlight on the south side.
Groundwater is the "underwater stone" that destroys already flowering gardens a few years after planting. Well-established, giving the first fruits, apple-trees begin to die for no apparent reason, the cherry does not grow at all, but in the basement of the house water accumulates. Investigation of the level of occurrence of groundwater is the very first, the most important research that should be done when selecting a site. If groundwater is located closer than one and a half meters from the soil surface, additional drainage will be required.
Assessing the pros and cons of the territory, you can move on to detailed planning.
Design project - the basis for orderly work
Perhaps you are a creative person and can create a landscape by inspiration, today - a flower bed by the porch, and tomorrow - a summerhouse behind the house. The most experienced artist will not dare to draw a picture without preliminary sketches. Working on a site without a plan, you risk creating chaotic piles of small architectural forms and thickets of plants. Then you still have to rework, structure and organize everything.
Preliminary design of landscape design will save time, effort and resources, will allow to see the site in perspective, will open up new opportunities. Select a couple of evenings for thought-out and detailed design of the project. At this stage it is necessary:
- Highlight the functional zones;
- Choose a style direction, appropriate decoration;
- Consider the location of sites, paths;
- Choose the fencing method;
- Identify with the irrigation system;
- Develop a scheme for the electrical supply of garden communications, technical and decorative lighting.
Functional zones
This includes places for recreation - gazebos, terraces, patios, cozy garden corners, tea houses. A purely practical function is performed by the garden (although it can be made decorative). It is necessary to determine the place for fruit crops, berry fruit. If greenhouses are planned, greenhouses, outline their location. A small pond - a pond with aquatic plants, a swimming pool for swimming in hot weather will very much decorate the site. For dry soils on the sunny side, you can plan an alpine hill. Be sure to mark out the lawn.
Lawn, even a tiny one, will become a garden ornament at any time of the year. In late autumn, he pleases the eye with fresh greens until the very snow, and in spring the garden enlivens until leaves blossom in the trees. In summer, it serves as a beautiful backdrop for flowering plants.
To cook meat in the fresh air, think out a barbecue area, fireproof, protected from rain and wind. For children, plan the equipment of the playing area - sandbox, swings, children's lodges.
Style direction. The choice of style depends on personal preferences and opportunities. The site near the house should please every time, as soon as you approach it, returning from work, from a trip or just go out to admire the flowers in the early morning. Choose a style of landscape design, which responds to your soul, and the possibilities of implementation will certainly be found.
- Regular style of English gardens requires impeccable taste, constant care for lawns, plants, significant investments - for paving, ornamental flowerpots, sculptures, seedlings, garden equipment;
- The elegant light Mediterranean style implies a combination of stone - marble chips, sea pebbles, wooden elements (arches, pergolas, terraces) and climbing plants.
By adding any style to evergreen coniferous plants, you can achieve the expressiveness of the landscape at any time of the year.
- Japanese style is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Clear forms are achieved by the right selection of plants, thoughtful, verified layout, additional decoration with stones, wooden accessories.
- Landscape design in the style of "wild nature" is minimal expensive and easily adapts to the existing terrain. This is the best option, if you come to a country house only for the weekend, do not have the opportunity to regularly look after plants.
- The village style is simple in realization, it is close in spirit to the "wild" nature, but it is supplemented by original elements of a cart-type tree or wheels from it, clay pots, weaving from willows, decorative simple unpretentious plants - nasturtium, sunflower, mallow.
Landscape design of the site around the country house in style should be combined with the house and outbuildings.
Tracks and platforms
The paths connect the house with functional zones, allow you to move around the site in wet weather without problems, form the internal geometry of the territory. The coverage of the tracks depends on the chosen garden style.
Regular style requires dense, even, uniform paving, Mediterranean - more liberal, - there are acceptable combinations of different materials - stone, wood, pebbles, mosaic finish. In the rustic, natural, landscape styles, paths sprinkled with pine bark, lined with wooden circles or simply lawn paths are possible.
Paths and paved areas decorate the landscape, facilitate the care of the garden, movement on it. Having manifested a fantasy in the design of tracks with his own hands, it's really possible to get a spectacular cover with minimal investments.
Fencing
A very important, most costly element of the landscape design of a country house depends primarily on the purpose - whether the fence is designed to protect against unauthorized entry or divides the surrounding areas purely symbolically.
After determining the destination, you need to take into account the stylistic orientation of the house and, accordingly, of the entire plot. Brick and stone fences with forged elements perfectly complement the country cottage in the English style with a regular garden. A wicker fence made of willow will perfectly decorate and protect a country cottage in a rustic style with a "wild" landscape, and a fence of proflist "will kill" the most exquisite patio near the house.
Is there no way to choose a fence that fits stylistically to the chosen landscape design? Decorate the fence with vertical landscaping, wooden structures (grids, screens), bushes, trees.
Watering system
70% of care for plants - watering works. Of course, you can confine yourself to an ordinary garden watering can, but you really need to estimate the amount of time and physical costs with this method.
The modern market for garden and garden products offers a huge number of watering plants, from simple hoses with attachments to powerful automatic systems that allow you to completely avoid manual labor, control the humidity of large plantations.
When designing a plantation near the house, be sure to evaluate the possibilities of watering, if this is not done in advance, then it will be very sad to see how exotic expensive copies of flowers, bushes or trees wither under the scorching sun.
Power supply and lighting. Maintenance, decoration of the territory requires electrical equipment - a pumping station, a pump system for a pond, a pool, a stream. It is possible to use an electric lawn mower and, of course, coverage of the territory. The entire electrical system is installed taking into account the operation in humid atmospheric conditions. Well, if the technical connection is separate from the decorative illumination.
An advance solution of the technical problems of electricity and water supply will save you from heavy manual labor in the landscape design of the site with your own hands, will free up time for pleasant rest and real creativity.
Selection of plants
- This is the most important stage in the landscape design of the countryside of any stylistic orientation. Plants must correspond to the climatic zone in which the house is located. No matter how you wrap a date palm for the winter, it will not overwinter in the suburbs. Most beginner gardeners admit this mistake, trying to "temper" the southerners in the middle of the winter. The result is obvious, but attempts to expose subtropical inhabitants to winter mutation do not stop.
- Corresponding humidity. Swampy, coastal plants can not grow on dry, stony soil, and succulents will "shrink," rot near the pond. The requirements of plants to a certain moisture content are vital for them.
- Lighting. Plants of sunny places will be stretched in the shade and cease to bloom abundantly. Shade-tolerant species will "burn" in the hot sun, they will not develop at full strength, they "get bored" from the heat. Planting seedlings, flower seedlings depending on the illumination of the place will enable each plant to manifest itself in all its glory.
Do not hurry. You planted a seedling, but he "froze", does not grow? Do not touch it, do not dig it up, do not change it. Any plant needs to "settle" in a new place, strengthen, take root well. The herbaceous plant will need several days, the leafy tree seedlings - a year, and the coniferous tree - 2-3 years.
The basic vegetative landscape design of the site is laid by large tall trees. Shrubs fill the "matrix" of large trees, decorate flowers, decorate it. The site without large-sized figures looks flat, incomplete. If the trees have not grown yet, there is a simple way to add more garden volume to the vertical landscaping - walled, on arches and pergolas, with the help of climbing plants (girlish, hop, different clematis).
For a better microclimate on the site, in order to less damage to plants by pests, diseases, it is necessary to avoid planting monocultures, and to practice mixed planting. High, winter-hardy plant species are preferably planted from the northern, north-western sides of the site, and gentle warmth-sun-loving plant species from the eastern and southern sides.
To reduce the number of works on planting, transplanting plants to flower beds and grasshoppers, it is better to plant winter-resistant perennials, the intervals between them should be filled with bright annual flowers. The principle of landing on the rabbits - tall plants to a remote part, lower in the center, very small curbs along the edge of the flowerbed.
The combination of colors on the terms of flowering, the color scheme are infinitely diverse. A couple of years of experiments on landscape design with their own hands will help you find your favorite options. Do not be afraid to experiment, the main thing is to do this with a love of plants, and they will certainly thank.
With the landscape design of the country house site there is one more golden rule. Do not grab for all the directions of work at once, do not try to cover the entire site at the same time in one season, if you do not have the opportunity to hire a gardener's team. Even if the territory is small, the volume of work is enormous. Work gradually, consistently in accordance with the project.
First create a small flower bed near the entrance, keep it in perfect condition. It turns out? Then continue on, lay the alpine hill with your own hands, bring it to perfection. Do not depart from the master plan, gradually, step by step, master the whole site.
Garden furniture and accessories
Wicker armchairs, a table on a paved cozy area in the shade of trees, a wooden bench between rose bushes, a comfortable lounger near a pond with an alpine slide will complement the overall landscape design of the site, make them more comfortable to enjoy.
Figures of small animals - hedgehogs, mice, snails - fairy-tale characters - gnomes, fairies, - will give the garden a fleur of mystery, romance, inner fullness. It is important that they naturally, unobtrusively fit in the overall atmosphere, or even better, that each figure had its own personal appearance story in your garden.
Stories attract attention. This fills the garden with a special spirit of life, hidden from prying eyes. Turning the landscape design of a large country house with their own hands into an uninterrupted creative process, is this possible? Yes. Just take your time-.
