It’s still October on the calendar. And it means that there is a plenty of time to improve your backyard and implement the hardscape fall plan into action. Most often homeowners believe spring to be the perfect season for the hardscape renovations. This is explained by the ample of time for the project completion. In reality, however, hardscape improvements don’t take much time and can be completed even in less than a month. Here are the reasons and tips on how to complete your hardscape in fall this year.
Plants and flowers
Yes, common sense and traditional resources say that spring is the best time for planting. The main idea of doing so is to have those blossoming bushes fill the backyard with a nice smell in the late summer or fall season. However, professional gardeners say that it might be a race against the clock. More and more often spring comes later than expected, meaning that the cold temperature stays up until the beginning of May. As a result, something that was planned to be planted in April will have to be postponed, and so the perfect blossom may not even happen that year. If you decide to create your hardscape in fall design, you will be guaranteed to receive a nice-looking backyard already in spring. Moreover, you don’t have to worry that summer heat waves will be too much for the growing flowers, and you have wasted your time and hard earned money on wilted results.
Below we prepared a couple of tips on what can and should be planted to design the hardscape in fall:
- All trees, shrubs (such as dogwood, spirea, or blueberries) and vines (for instance, silver lace vine, purple grape, or virginia creeper) will easily get through the winter and gladden your eyes in spring. Same goes for perennials, grasses, and ground covers
- In terms of flowers, you can opt for crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, irises, snowdrops, and tulips. They all will blossom throughout spring and make your hardscape appealing.
- You can also add some annuals and colorful perennials in fall, for instance, pansies, violas, mums, asters, broadleaf plants like euonymus, azaleas, or lonicera.
- Don’t neglect the opportunity to start a veggie garden in autumn. You can opt for the cool season veggies, such as Brussels and cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, leeks, onions, radish, and carrots. By planting those vegetables in fall you are guaranteed to have them during the whole winter season.
Masonry
One of the greatest advantages of doing masonry work in fall is the absence of summer heat since this type of work is always labor-intensive and strenuous. Besides that, it’s much easier to raise the ground level of the backyard or manipulate with its levels since the soil is still moisturized and soft (if compared to the soil right after the winter).
As masonry professionals say: “Doing stonework in the autumn is a perfect example of working smarter and not harder.” Moreover, spring and early summer are the busiest times for masonry workers so their rates go much higher. By ordering such a service in the low season you can save a lot and even ask for additional discounts. Meanwhile, we also encourage you to cooperate with an expert to ensure that you choose the right kind of stone for your climate and backyard design.
Lighting
Perfect lighting is one of the fundamental elements of a perfect patio and backyard in general. With the proper lighting, you can highlight the benefits of your hardscape and focus attention on its best elements.
Remember that you cannot create the right lighting in your home backyard until the daylight is still on. So even the most professional lighting experts know, that during the fall period they have much more working hours since the sun goes down sooner. This means that you won’t have to overpay for the overtime or too-late working hours to your hardscape expert and lighting designer; the sun hides at about 7 pm in the fall period. This gives you much more opportunities to experiment with the possible options before you install backyard lights permanently.
Besides the benefits of planning your hardscape in fall, we’d also like to recollect the five basic points of making the perfect hardscape design.
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Functionality
Think carefully of what you want to achieve with your hardscape: a stone garden, a comfortable space for kids, an installation with perpetual flowers, or maybe just a space for a grill? The main function of the garden will predispose its appearance, its filling, and its maintenance. If it’s tough to visualize, then just use chairs or hoses to plan everything right on the spot.
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Budget
Determine your project budget right from the start. Remember that there is little time for renovation of your hardscape in fall. Once you tell the budget to a designer, you will be able to get down to business instantly.
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Topography
Topography will help understand how and where rainwater will flow. The slopeness of the yard will also impact the sprinkler system required and the way you will have to reshape your hardscape. Think of the topography beforehand to avoid many complications with it later.
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Privacy and sun
Both overlooking neighbors and burning sun can destroy any mood while you’re relaxing in the backyard. The excessive sun will also be of negative influence on the plants and grass. Carefully think of the ways you can add shade and privacy to your backyard. Once you conduct the research of the sunlight presence on your backyard, you will be able to plan your plant disposition as well.
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Style
The style also determines any backyard work that you do. Natural, classic, French chic, or Icelandic simplicity – all these styles require particular furniture and hardscape layout. With a perfect visualization in your head, you will be able to discuss the project with your designer to match all hardscape and backyard elements together in a single ensemble.
