Landscaping Projects to Start Planning Before Fall
Landscaping Projects to Start Planning Before FallMake the Most of Late Summer
By the end of August, most homeowners have had a full season to see how their outdoor space is actually working. You know which areas get too hot, where water collects after a heavy rain, which parts of the yard are difficult to maintain, and whether your patio has enough room when family and friends come over.
That makes late summer one of the best times to start planning landscaping projects in Edmonton, St. Albert, and the surrounding area.
Not every project needs to be completed before the first frost. In many cases, the real advantage is using this time to assess your property, develop a landscape design, make material selections, and determine what should be completed this fall or planned for next season.
If your yard has been giving you ideas all summer, here are several landscaping projects worth starting to plan before fall arrives.
1. Patios and Outdoor Living Spaces
After spending a summer outdoors, it becomes much easier to recognize what your current patio is missing. Maybe you need more room for dining, better access from the house, a dedicated seating area, or a more comfortable place to entertain.
Planning a new patio involves more than choosing a paver or concrete finish. Its size and location should work with the way people move through the yard, existing grades, drainage, planting, lighting, and any future features you may want to add.
Starting the design process now gives you time to think about the entire space rather than making one improvement that limits your options later.
2. Retaining Walls and Grade Changes
Retaining walls can be an important structural part of a landscape, but they can also add definition and character to a yard.
If you have a slope that is difficult to maintain, an area where soil is washing away, or a grade change that limits how you use part of the property, a retaining wall may help create more functional space.
Natural stone, precast stone, and concrete can all produce very different finished looks, so this is a project where early planning is especially helpful. The right solution needs to consider both the appearance of the landscape and how the wall will function over time.
3. Drainage and Grading Improvements
A summer of thunderstorms and heavy rainfall has a way of revealing drainage problems.
Pooling water, soggy lawn, erosion, water moving toward structures, or areas that stay muddy long after a storm are all worth paying attention to before winter. Rather than treating each wet area individually, drainage should be considered as part of the overall landscape.
Depending on the property, improvements may involve grading changes, drainage systems, planting areas, hardscaping, or a combination of solutions.
Late summer is also a good opportunity to document what happens during rainfall. Photos of problem areas can be useful when discussing the property with a landscape designer.
4. Garden Beds and Planting Plans
If your garden felt sparse, difficult to maintain, or lacked colour at certain points this summer, now is a good time to take note.
A well-planned planting design considers more than what happens to be blooming when you visit the garden centre. Plant height, mature size, sunlight, soil conditions, moisture requirements, maintenance, and seasonal interest all influence how a garden will perform over time.
Late summer can also show you where the landscape could use more structure. Shrubs, ornamental grasses, perennials, and trees can be layered to create privacy, soften hardscaping, frame outdoor living areas, and provide interest throughout more of the year.
5. Privacy and Screening
Privacy is often something homeowners notice only after they have spent time using the yard.
Maybe a new development has changed the view, a seating area feels more exposed than expected, or the patio would simply be more comfortable with a little separation from neighbouring properties.
There are several ways to incorporate privacy into a landscape, including trees and shrubs, decorative screens, fencing, pergolas, and combinations of structural and planted elements.
Planning privacy as part of the overall landscape generally produces a more natural result than trying to add a barrier after everything else has been completed.
6. Outdoor Lighting
Now that the days are getting shorter, it becomes much easier to see where outdoor lighting would make a difference.
Good landscape lighting can improve visibility along walkways and steps, highlight trees and planting, add depth to the yard after dark, and make patios and gathering areas more inviting in the evening.
Lighting is especially worth considering before other construction begins. If a patio, retaining wall, planting bed, or pathway is already being redesigned, planning the lighting at the same time can make installation easier and create a more cohesive finished space.
7. A Full Landscape Renovation
Sometimes the issue is not one feature. The entire yard simply no longer works the way you want it to.
A complete landscape renovation may involve grading, patios, retaining walls, planting, sod or artificial turf, irrigation, lighting, privacy, decks, structures, and other outdoor features. When several elements are involved, planning them together becomes even more important.
A professional landscape design allows you to look at the property as a whole, establish priorities, and determine whether the work should be completed at once or phased over time.
Why Start Planning Before Fall?
Late summer gives you something that winter planning cannot: a clear picture of how you actually use your yard.
Before the season ends, take a walk around your property and consider what worked well this year and what continually frustrated you. Think about where people naturally gather, which areas rarely get used, where maintenance takes too much time, and what you wish you had every time you spend an evening outside.
Starting early also gives you more time to work through design decisions, material choices, budgets, and project scope without feeling rushed.
Some improvements may still be appropriate for fall, while others may make more sense as a future project. Either way, having a plan puts you in a much better position when it is time to build.
Start with a landscape plan
You do not need to know exactly what your finished yard should look like before contacting a landscape designer. Knowing what is not working is often enough to start the conversation.
At HML Landscape, our design and construction teams work together to create outdoor spaces that consider both how a landscape looks and how it needs to function. From patios, retaining walls, and planting to drainage, lighting, and complete landscape renovations, thoughtful planning helps bring all of those pieces together.
If this summer has given you a few ideas for your yard, now is a great time to start planning what comes next.
Contact HML Landscape to schedule a landscape design consultation and start planning your next outdoor project.
