Maybe you have dreams for a splashy big landscaping renovation, but you’d like to just dip your toe in first.
Simple landscaping ideas can make a big difference, powering up some curb appeal, setting the scene for family fun, or creating a peaceful hangout for your private backyard haven. (That last phrase sounds so great, let’s repeat it: private backyard haven. Sigh.)
We had you there, right?
Check out these small landscaping projects with big impact:
1. Craving Pavers? Go Smaller with a Walkway
Paver patios and driveways can leave you seeing dollar signs and upheaval.
How about a walkway?
Small landscaping ideas like a new walkway really boost curb appeal.
If your front walkway came with your house, it’s probably pretty basic. Or maybe it’s even cracked over time and needs a facelift.
Either way, a creative landscape designer can help you make big walkway impact in a small space. Maybe flare it out a bit, add some curves. Make it wider. Add some oomph.
Maybe you’ll add that paver driveway later or upgrade your irrigation.
At Ground Source, we install PVC conduit under your paver walkway at installation to make adding irrigation or landscape lighting easier later.
That way, we won’t have to tear up those pretty pavers to do work underneath them.
Meanwhile, you have a new stroll to your porch that makes you proud.
2. Add Some Tropical Punch to Your Pool
Maybe your curb appeal is great, it’s your pool appeal that’s lacking some love.
Bring in a tropical jungle to make that big hole filled with water seem like a vacation resort.
A parade of pool plantings to dress up the space is simple landscape design, but it’ll knock your flip flops off.
Who are the stars of the show?
Crotons
A spectacular tropical plant with no leaf drop, crotons are a Florida pool
favorite.
They thrive in the heat, add stunning tropical color, and grow an impressive six feet tall.
Bromeliads
Their exotic look brings a vacation vibe year round. They also appreciate humidity, so they’ll be great pool hang-out buddies.
Bromeliads come in a rainbow of really vibrant colors. Think bright pink, red, purple, yellow.
They come in multiple sizes, too, perfect as poolside focal points or in groups of colorful ground covers.
Xanadu Philodendron
Talk about impactful landscape design.
This is a knockout, with huge shiny, leathery leaves, each with more than a dozen distinct lobes. Use it for texture in shady pool areas — it’s not a fan of full sun.
3. Turf Renovations
Sure, a whole new sod lawn rolls out like a luxurious green carpet that’s hard to beat, but not every lawn needs replacing.
Some just need a boost.
Aeration and topdressing deliver a healthy one-two punch for your grass, reviving compacted, struggling lawns.
Lawn aeration uses a cool machine to pull out tiny cores of soil from your lawn, allowing water and oxygen to get to the roots again.
Aerating sod also helps break down thatch, a layer of dead grass that sits between the grass blades and the soil. When it gets too thick, thatch blocks air, water, and fertilizer from reaching your lawn’s roots.
After lawn aeration, topdressing is important food for your soil, a nutrient-rich layer of soil blended with compost and other organics.
All those little holes from lawn aeration help the topdressing materials nestle nicely down into the soil.
As the material settles, the nutrients release into the soil and do their thing — creating a strong foundation for a healthy and lush lawn.
Bam! Small landscaping project, big impact.
4. Add a Wood Burning Fire Pit
Sure, a natural gas fire pit lights easily and quickly but the price to run a gas line with permitting can be expensive.
Opt for a wood-burning firepit instead. All of the fun with less expense and hassle.
Add some comfy seating, a few potted plants, some festive string lights, a pile of marshmallows, and you’ve got a party.
Simple landscaping ideas can be a ton of fun.
5. New Foundation Plants for Simple Landscape Design
You want to pull into your driveway and really love your landscaping. But you’re not quite there. It needs…something.
New foundation plantings can make all the difference.
A basic row of plants just doesn’t cut it for foundation planting beds.
Even a simple landscape design can make a huge impact if foundation plants are arranged in three layers — largest plants in back, medium in the middle and shorter plants or ground covers in front.
Go simple and layer larger viburnums, loropetalum, and azalea hedges.
Or be more adventurous with podocarpus, boxwoods, dwarf Walter's viburnum, Asiatic jasmine, and finish it out with a mondo grass ground cover.
Small landscaping projects like a foundation planting re-do can have you smiling in the driveway again.
6. Spruce Up with a New Surface
Maybe your porch needs a facelift, but you’re not up for a whole big thing.
Can you just have new porch pavers installed over the old concrete? And bypass the whole jackhammering mess?
If the surface you want to cover is just for foot traffic, like a patio, pool deck, steps or porch, consider using remodel pavers. It’s a small landscaping project with big results.
These thinner pavers are half the thickness of standard pavers — 30 millimeters instead of 60.
That means they don’t raise the height as much. They can still cause tripping hazards, though, so plan carefully.
You have to be sure the concrete beneath is in good condition, not badly cracked or crumbling.
Pro installation will make sure there’s proper slope for drainage.
7. Small Landscape Project: Add Some Edging
Landscape edging doesn’t get enough credit.
Professionally installed edging around all your landscape beds adds that pristine and tidy finishing touch. You might not know exactly what’s making the difference, you just know those tidy curving beds look great. That’s edging.
Bonus: it makes maintenance a lot easier, too.
Ground Source crews can install block border stones manufactured by paver companies like Belgard, cut to make attractive curves that make a huge impact for curb appeal.
They’re all separate pieces, so if the ground shifts or roots get bigger, you can put the edging blocks back together.
Classic black aluminum edging is a great addition to your landscaping, too. It works well and is less expensive than stone.
It’s that perfect simple landscape design for when you want that extra, you know, edge.
8. Create a Wildlife Garden with Native Plants
Remember that private backyard haven? Don’t worry, we didn’t forget. Here it is, brought to life with a pretty simple landscaping idea:
Add a garden of appealing native plants and you not only do your winged and feathered friends a favor, you’ll set yourself up for hours of enjoyment, too.
Birds and butterflies love native plants. Plants native to Florida not only provide better food and cover for them than non-native plants, but they need less water and fertilizer and are more resistant to pests and diseases.
Lots of birds love the berries and fruits of native plants like hollies, American Beautyberry, and Red Mulberry.
Coral Honeysuckle, Wild Columbine, and Cardinal Flower provide nectar some birds love.
After your flowers have bloomed, leave the seed heads for your feathered friends.
Butterflies love Florida. There are more than 200 species here, including some not found anywhere else in the world.
Invite them over. Native milkweed, coontie and Walter’s viburnum will get the party started.
Need Simple But Impactful Landscape Design? Trust Ground Source
Not every landscaping project has to be huge. Sometimes you just need a little something to tide you over.
Landscape design and installation in Central Florida can go either way. Go all out when you’re ready, settle for some small landscaping projects that make a pretty big difference until then.
We’re landscape design experts, but our skills don’t stop there. We’re with you every step of the way as you plan your perfect outdoor space.
Sod, irrigation, landscape design: Let us transform your yard to a place you spend every spare minute.
Are you ready to enjoy the vibrant, impressive yard you've always wanted? Request a quote today! We’ll help you review your options and then transform your property.
Image Source | Croton, Philodendron, Bromeliad