How do you plan an economical but good backyard landscape?

You’re gonna wanna go with xeriscaping. There’s a lot of succulents and rocks. And then asking around to see if people will give you clippings. Or just taking a clipping from a large public venue. Shhhh.

Find out what zone you live in, you can do this by searching your location on line, this will narrow the amount of plants you can have. Then you have to decide how you want your yard to be layed out and you want to figure out what heights of plants you need. A very economical way to obtain plants is by asking a friend or family member if they have any plants they need to split and separate. My mother always has tons of different bulbs and plants that she donates to the church for their spring yard sale because she is alway spliting and separating the different plants because they multiply.

Fluther at your service.

Send us a picture of the property (include the house and the nearest neighbors), give us your zone, your budget and your physical strength, the amount of sun and shade, the prevailing winds (and your exposure to it) and the general look of the area.

I love to help people plan landscapes

Your local nursery/garden center would be a good place to get info on native plants and such. And we’ll be happy to help you do some planning, so be sure to follow @gailcalled‘s advice, too!

I’ll get the pix! Love the idea of a Fluther serviced landscape! Sounds fun—now going hunting for my camera somewhere in the mountain of boxes I currently harbor—-

First of all, start composting. You can use a composter or just dump your herbacious material in a convenient corner of the plot.

Do you have a fence? Are there any trees or grass or anything there yet, or did you really mean it when you said there was nothing. Just dirt?

I’d have a balance of trees and shrubs and grasses and flowering things. I’d walk around the neighborhood to see what looks good to you. You might want to invest in a few issues of Home and Garden or some other magazine to get ideas. You can also borrow books from the library that will help.