The average homeowner today buys his house from a building contractor. The house is already placed on a rectangular lot and the contractor usually does the rough grading of the lot and perhaps sods the front.

If a few details can be considered before the house is begun, it will help to create a more pleasant property. The most important are the shape of the lot, the direction that the house faces on it, the grade relationship between the house and the street, and the location of trees, if any.

Choosing the Lot

A corner lot may be considered a position of importance, yet it leaves most of the property exposed to one street or the other with little opportunity for privacy. There is also more lawn to cut, for the benefit of the neighbors. The same applies to a lot that is wide in the front and narrower in the back. From a garden point of view, it is better to have a lot that is narrow in front and wider or irregular in shape in the rear.

Dividing the Property

If you want to make the most attractive and beneficial use of your grounds, you’ll want to make sure you plan your landscaping very well. Most people take the idea of pathways, coverage, foliage and so forth for granted, having no idea how much thought and planning it requires to get it just right. Properly planning ahead is the key to having a great looking landscape.

You’ll want to consider several elements in your design, including access (walkways), lighting (if any), coverage, and color. One of the most often overlooked plants are trees, as they are not only to be incorporated in the beginning, but must be accommodated over time as they grow and take up more space and ad more beauty to the landscape.

Remember that trees have an annual cycle of growth, leaf shedding, flowering, and so forth. Some trees do this more than others, with evergreens shedding almost all year round and larger-leafed trees shedding all at once. Be aware of this and how it will affect your landscape’s overall look.

Reading, studying and planning your garden and landscape activities are good ways of occupying oneself during the month February for the Northern gardener. The average home gardener devotes far too little attention to planning, that is, seriously thought out and studied arrangements.

Too much planning is of the spur-of-the-moment type given just before seeds are sown or plants set out. This seldom proves satisfactory and undoubtedly accounts for the fact that there is much more good horticulture practiced than good garden art. Gardens and plantings of any sort should be studied on paper where various arrangements can be worked out without involving any actual planting.

Groups of plants can be moved about effortlessly on paper until what seems like the most harmonious scheme has been developed. This is the way truly artistic gardens are obtained; it also is the most economical way to get results. You can determine on paper just how many plants will be needed and the space they will take.