When building a custom home, the landscaping will play a big part in shaping the home’s curb appeal.
As you drive toward a sprawling stone mansion, your eyes should naturally move from the three large oak trees that shade the front lawn to the soft flowering shrubs and sculpted flower beds that frame the front entrance.
Follow the flagstone front path around to the side and you will wander past curved perennial gardens to a patio and outdoor fireplace area.
When landscaping your dream home, the sky can be the limit. This is in sharp contrast to the type of landscaping often found in moderately priced homes, where three or four bushes, two small trees and sections of grass often are all you’ll find in the yard.
While buyers of production homes might spend $1,000 to $3,000 to upgrade their landscaping, many custom buyers spend $25,000 to $100,000. Most of that goes toward patios, walkways, seating walls, retaining walls and other “hardscapes.”
Of the total, $10,000 to $15,000 is spent on groups of trees, shrubs and perennials, said George Scigousky of C. George Builders in Glen Ellyn.
As you plan your custom home, take some time to consider how the landscaping will shape your house and how you interact with it. This will help ensure that the sizable expense will be worth the effort.
There are a several approaches to landscaping a custom home. Some buyers work directly through the builder to select trees, shrubs, sidewalk and patio materials, flowers and other garden accents. The builder might have a landscape architect or designer on staff or hire an outside firm.
Others buyers prefer to hire their own landscape architect or designer to plan and oversee the project. That specialist firm works with the builder to coordinate the planning, design, construction and planting.
Regardless of who oversees the work, buyers should be involved throughout the process.
Very different designs will suit those who like to sit on the patio and gaze at flowering shrubs, large evergreens and bursts of color, and those who prefer a large lawn and play area for their children.
An important consideration is the scale of the plantings in relation to the size and shape of the house.
Three-foot shrubs will look fine around smaller homes, but a big custom home should have larger plantings that balance with the size of the house. Two- or three-story houses will tower over tiny plantings.
The style of the house also plays a part in determining the overall landscaping design. It might affect the types of plant material used, the shape of the bushes and the colors of the perennials you select.
“What we try to do is take a look at the architecture and play off elements of it,” said Steve Welter, a landscape architect with Martin Design Partnership in Batavia. “If the style of house is more formal and symmetrical with a door in the center, you would have a sidewalk that is more linear. You might end up with low rows of boxwoods on each side.”
While landscaping often is viewed as a separate project, it should be designed to blend with the house, not stick out like an afterthought. One way to accomplish this is to use compatible materials in the house and the landscaping.
“If there’s stone used in the exterior of the house . . . maybe we add a stone walkway,” Welter said. “We also might tie into columns on the house or the design of the light fixtures.”
This continuity and flow of materials will create natural movement toward the house and through the yard. Landscapers often try to place objects around the yard to draw people from one point to another.
“When someone comes to visit you want to lead them from the driveway to the front door with a small bench, a piece of art or a group of bright flowers,” Welter said. “You always try to create a progression of space.”
That progression can be important in older neighborhoods, where large new homes can seem out of place if not properly designed. Teardowns can be a real challenge. The builder must make decisions about how to design the house on the lot, given the mature trees and other factors.
“We do an awful lot to try to blend in the house so it fits with the neighborhood,” Scigousky said. “The buyers like the feel of an old neighborhood and the trees play a big part in that.”
Buyers should talk with the builder early in the process to discuss any favored plantings. The large oak tree that shades the driveway might add some charm to the new house, for example. And the clusters of lilac bushes that form a soft boundary along the side yard will add a nice burst of fragrance when spring rolls around.
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Allison E. Beatty is a Chicago-area freelance writer. If you have questions or information to share regarding new home buyers’ product and design choices, write to Choices c/o Chicago Tribune, New Homes Section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611. Or, email: allison@renovatorsplace.com.
