While it may not be top of mind at the moment, your backyard’s vegetation deserves some of your attention this time of year. It’s an ideal time to start planning your spring and summer plant installation and landscaping for 2019. Winter provides you with time to research landscape looks that you love, with specific plants, trees, and flowers that you’ll want to consider for your own home and yard. Here are some ideas to enhance your Highland Park, IL, backyard with properly installed plants and landscaping services.
Evaluate the Landscape
One of the best ways to familiarize yourself with where you need to have plants added and which spots need to be freshened up is to take a picture of the backyard. This can produce a clearer overall look at the true topography. It may seem counterintuitive, but assessing the yard while the leaves are off the trees and the flowers are dormant can give a great sense of where the yard slopes, or where the shrubs may be too close together. This can allow you to set a plan for thinning backyard shrubbery in the spring, while designing a plan for bare spots that need to be filled.
Related: Lawn Care: How to Know Which Services You Need in Wilmette, IL
Choosing Plants That Will Thrive
With cold winters and warm summers, not to mention the lake effect, choosing plants that will thrive in your backyard landscape is critical. You will want plants that are native to the Midwestern climate so that you don’t have to worry about special or extreme care to make them grow. Another benefit to native plants is that they attract beneficial insects and birds, along with colorful butterflies. There are many flowers that provide carefree blooms and homes for insects and butterflies that will pollinate your landscape.
Peeking out the window to see hummingbirds zipping from one flower and bush to another is sure way to bring a smile to your face. And if you love identifying bird species, flowering plants is a surefire method for attracting them. Well-chosen grasses and shrubs can fill your landscape with everything from bees essential to pollination to sparrows and goldfinches that are seeking seeds and insects.
Perennial and Annual Plants
A well-planned landscape integrates both perennial and annual flowers and plants to ensure blooms throughout the seasons. Low maintenance perennials like hostas, blanket flower, and peonies bring both colorful florals and green foliage to your yard. Daylilies are drought tolerant and require almost no care to thrive in a Highland Park, IL, landscape. Bright red and orange poppies, once established, continue to add pops of color all summer long. The blue-green foliage of switchgrass in the summer turns to gold and red for the fall.
Related: Landscaping Services: When Do You Need Paver Maintenance in Lake Forest, IL?
Annuals can be used to fill in gaps or to provide a pop of color where needed. These need to be planted every spring as they do not survive the winter weather. Caladiums and coleus have bright green leaves with dark red centers that thrive in shady areas. Cosmos has a bold red bloom and reseeds itself to bring more flowers to your backyard, and geraniums are a signature summer flower in shades from white to deep red and hot pink.
A professional landscape specialist can take all of the guesswork out of planning and installing plants for your backyard. Your only job will be to smile and accept all of the compliments you’ll be hearing from your neighbors.
