Connect Your Home and Landscape

LANDSCAPE DESIGNER JAMES DRZEWIECKI SHARES HIS BEST TIPS FOR CREATING FLOW BETWEEN YOUR INDOOR AND OUTDOOR SPACES.

Whether you’re looking for full cohesion or a few hints of your home’s style extending out to your landscape, there are plenty of ways to connect them. Start planning for spaces you feel at home in with these five tips from Ginkgo Leaf Studio:

• Look for opportunities to match house materials with features, such as by matching gate lights to house lights. “We designed a new stone column and address fence, carefully matching the stone colors and how the mortar was applied,” James says. • “Beyond details on the home, we like to use linear groupings of plants in our designs to emphasize the lines of the home and/or the hardscapes and plant bed lines within the landscape,” James says. Look for the prominent lines of your home and emphasize them.

• Start with obvious items, like the centerlines on doors and windows and even simply the corners of

the home, James advises. After that, dig deeper into the details of the house, like built-in planters, unique windows or material changes on the façade, he says, and pay attention to the views you like most and make those spaces even more appealing.

• Choose hardy plants and make sure there are enough evergreens in the design to provide something green in the fall and winter months. “Boxwoods and Birds Nest Spruce are our staple evergreens,” James says. Favorite flowers are easy to identify, but have you considered a favorite shrub? Evergreen and often fragrant shrubs also make great windbreaks.

• “Ornamental grasses and even upright perennials can provide structure and visual interest after the plants have lost their foliage,” James points out. Plan for the seasons. Where do you want shade in the summer? Imagine linear groupings of plants covered in that fresh blanket of snow.