Top 5 Landscape Features for Marietta GA Yards

Planning and looking for the best features to enhance your Marietta, Ga landscape? Understanding which landscape features work well together will help you design a yard that can significantly increase your home’s curb appeal and value.

toddsmariettatreeservices.com gathered the following landscape design principles and features to help you create a stunning Marietta, Georgia, yard.

Landscape Design Principles

The following landscape design principles have been utilized by designers for centuries in all art forms, like painting, construction, landscape design, etc. Consider the following design principles when developing your Marietta, Georgia, front yard landscape concept:

Balance – Symmetrical balance is used in formal landscapes, in which each side mirrors the other. Asymmetrical balance, or informal balance, differs on either side and appears relaxing and free-flowing.

Focal Point – A landscape’s focal point is often a feature close to the front door to enhance the home’s entrance.

Proportion – Landscape design proportion considers building size, yard size, tree, shrub, plant size, and planted areas vs. open space.

Simplicity – Avoid a cluttered landscape by using too many (or clashing) colors, shapes, curves, and textures.

Rhythm – A rhythm is established when landscape features are repeated with standard intervals. Trees, plants, shrubs, stones, benches, or other elements can be repeated within the design to create rhythm.

The colors, shapes, sizes, textures, and other landscape features can easily create a beautifully unified front yard space.

Popular Landscape Features

Front yard landscaping design and its features define your home’s exterior. Your front yard is the most seen part of the property, greeting your guests and visitors before reaching the door and setting the tone for the rest of the house. Consider the following popular landscape features:

1. Front Yard Garden Space

Well-designed, multi-level garden areas showcase your gardening prowess with color, and variety, and when used as borders, can highlight other landscape features, like a pathway, driveway, specimen tree, pond, etc.

Tip: Reduce watering and care requirements by planting native plant species.

2. Landscape Lighting

Landscape lighting improves your home’s safety and security. Well-placed landscape lighting can enhance trees, gardens, and other features in your yard while illuminating a hard-to-see walkway, driveway, or raised steps.

Read more about landscape lighting and its ideal palcement at toddsmariettatreeservices.com/where-to-place-landscape-lighting

3. Front Yard Water Feature

Besides creating a focal point, a water feature provides individuality to your landscape. This occurs through the feature’s size, shape, color, design, and placement. Water features give movement to an otherwise still area with rushing water.

Note: Your fountain will attract birds, butterflies, and wildlife to your front yard.

4. Landscape Trees

Specimen trees are excellent front yard focal points while providing shade, offering leafy screens, or framing a picturesque view. A large specimen tree in a vast landscape can add structure and shape to the space.

Using trees for privacy screens helps seclude you from your neighbors’ wandering eyes while providing a lush, green landscape year-round (evergreen species), shielding your property from wind, and creating a beautifully shaded scenery.

Tip: Hire a professional tree service to provide seasonal pruning and care.

5. Front Yard Walkway

Installing a stone, brick, concrete, gravel, or paved walkway gives guests and visitors a sense of invitation. It simplifies getting to your front door (or other destination), which naturally increases your property’s curb appeal.

You can add visual value to your front yard walkway by bordering it with flowering plants, shrubs, and lighting.

Tip: When installing a walkway, consider applying a slip-resistant surface to avoid slips and injuries during watering cycles and wet weather.

Visualize Your Landscape Design

You can sketch your front yard landscape design by drawing the yard’s outline, penciling in any existing features, then adding any rocks, waterways, structures, slopes, etc. Consider the following app to help you formulate the perfect Marietta, Georgia, landscape design:

iScape – With iScape, you can create an accurate front yard digital model. The app will show you what featuring your favorite trees, shrubs, and plants looks like, so you can visualize the landscape design before beginning your project. The app is user-friendly and can insert objects, move them around, and more.

Landscape Features

In this article, you discovered essential information about landscape design principles, elements, and the value it adds to your home’s curb appeal and value.

Creating a stunning landscape design can add significant value to your home while adding to your neighborhood’s beauty and biodiversity.

Missing the simple but important landscaping features can result in reducing your home’s curb appeal and potential value.

Sources:
edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/MG086
extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=C1032-3&title=drawing-a-landscape-plan-the-base-map
aces.edu/blog/topics/lawn-garden/residential-landscape-design/
canr.msu.edu/news/principles_of_landscape_design
gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/modern-design.html

Todd’s Marietta Tree Services

Marietta, GA (678) 505-0266

Originally published on: http://www.toddsmariettatreeservices.com/top-5-landscape-features-for-marietta-ga-yards/

5 Specimen Trees for Your Marietta Georgia Yard

Don’t choose the wrong species when you are looking for that captivating tree and want to stand out from your neighbors. Knowing which specimen tree to plant in your Marietta, Georgia, yard will help you stand out from your neighbors and give you an enduring conversation topic with your friends and loved ones.

toddsmariettatreeservices.com gathered the following species, planting, and growing information about 5 incredible specimen trees for your Marietta, Georgia, yard.

What is a Specimen Tree?

A specimen tree is an unusual or impressive plant grown as a point of interest in a garden, yard, or landscape. Specimen trees provide beauty with their fragrant flowers, fall color foliage, or impressive size. Consider the following specimen tree species for your Marietta, Georgia yard:

1. Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)

This incredible maple displays bright green foliage in spring and summer, then turns a stunning golden yellow and red in the fall.

Size at Maturity – This species can reach 15 to 25 feet tall with a 15 to 20-foot spread.
Soil Requirements – Japanese maples thrive when planted in well-drained, acidic soil high in organic matter.
Sun Exposure – Dappled or Afternoon Shade
Water Needs – Water this species heavily twice weekly during typical weather and increase waterings to three or four times during droughts.
Hardiness Zone – 5 through 8

2. Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)

The flowering dogwood is a small, showy, deciduous tree species. Young trees tend to be upright to rounded, and as they mature, they typically grow up to 50 percent wider than tall. The tree’s crown is typically round to flat-topped. Dogwoods are most recognized for their cross-shaped white or pink bracts.

Size at Maturity – This species can reach up to 25+ feet tall with a 25-foot spread.
Soil Requirements – Dogwoods thrive in fertile, somewhat moisture-retentive, loamy soil high in organic matter.
Sun Exposure – This species can be planted in full sun or partial shade (partial shade is best)
Water Needs – Dogwood trees require about an inch of water weekly from rain or irrigation. If rainfall is insufficient, water your tree enough to soak several inches into the soil once weekly. For newly planted dogwoods, two gallons per week are adequate except in drier, sandier soils where 6 to 8 gallons weekly may be necessary.
Hardiness Zone – 5 through 9

3. Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)

Southern magnolia is a large, broadleaf, evergreen tree noted for its attractive glossy dark green leaves and massive, extremely fragrant flowers. Magnolias are believed to be among the earliest known flowering plants, with fossils dating back over 100 million years.

Size at Maturity – This species can reach 60 to 80 feet tall with a 40-foot spread.
Soil Requirements – This species thrives in moist, well-drained, acidic soils. Unlike other tree species, it is tolerant of high moisture levels and can be planted in areas prone to wet/dry fluctuations in soil moisture.
Sun Exposure – This species can be planted in full sun or partial shade.
Water Needs – For every 1-inch of trunk diameter, water a 1-foot radius from the tree’s base.
Hardiness Zone – 6 through 10

4. Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia)

Crape myrtles are deciduous, small to medium-sized trees with a variable, moderately dense habit, often multi-stemmed form. The species’ foliage is typically dark green changing to yellows, oranges, and reds in autumn. This species is considered a specimen due to its stunning flower clusters with wrinkled petals like crepe paper.

Size at Maturity – This species can reach 15 to 25 feet tall with a 6 to 15-foot spread.
Soil Requirements – Crape Myrtles can be grown all over the USA in any soil type and will thrive in acidic to slightly acidic soil ranging from 5.0 to 6.5 pH.
Sun Exposure – Crape myrtles need full sun (6 or more hours per day) to thrive.
Water Needs – This species needs at least one inch of water per week.
Hardiness Zone – 7 through 10

5. Crabapple (Malus)

The crabapple is a beautiful, small, deciduous spring-flowering tree that is prized for its flowers, fruit, and variations in growth habit and size. Some crabapple varieties bloom heavily only every other year.

Size at Maturity – This species can reach 10 to 25 feet tall with a 10 to 25-foot spread.
Soil Requirements – Crabapples thrive in rich loam-type soil (a combination of clay, silt, and sand). Good drainage is a must for tree health, and the soil should be moist, slightly acidic, and with a 5.0 to 6.5 pH.
Sun Exposure – This species needs at least six hours of sun a day to guarantee ample blossoming and fruiting.
Water Needs – Once established, crabapples are drought tolerant and should not need supplemental watering unless the season is considerably dry.
Hardiness Zone – 3 through 8

Specimen Trees

In this article, you discovered essential species information for 5 stunning specimen trees that you can plant in your Marietta, Georgia, yard.

Planting a stunning specimen tree makes your front yard stand out from your neighbors, gives you decades of conversation, and offers a visual delight as the tree matures.

Not knowing the specimen species best for your Marietta, Georgia yard can have you being a copycat of your neighbor, or plant the wrong tree and risk it dying.

Sources:
edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST023
plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cornus-florida/
extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=C974
landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/lagerstroemia-indica
hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/crabapple/

Todd’s Marietta Tree Services

Marietta, GA (678) 505-0266

Originally published on: http://www.toddsmariettatreeservices.com/5-specimen-trees-for-your-marietta-georgia-yard/