Landscape Designs for Every Season
Even though native plants, durable natural stone, and innovative hardscaping features that combine fire and water play an important role in the work Breaking Ground does for homeowners in the Omaha area, one of the most important tools of our trade is one of the least-heralded. Every project we do, whether it’s a retaining wall, a patio, or making your yard more accessible, begins with a conversation that helps us understand your wishes, and gives you a more expansive sense of what’s possible. Those small conversations lead to big things — one of the most important of which is an outdoor space you can enjoy year round.
Planting for the Seasons
Imagine going to a fireworks display that unfolded in reverse, a massive salvo of color followed by sporadic pops afterward. Disappointing, no? We don’t suggest gardening that way, either. Pacing matters.
Planting for Spring Through Autumn
In a sense, it helps to think of the time from late March to late October not as a series of discrete seasons but as acts of a play. Nature is weaving a narrative before our eyes, and the way we approach Omaha landscape design can help move the story along. That means choosing plants that are varied in their kinds, sizes, shapes, and especially the times at which they flower. The biodiversity will make for a stronger landscape, and the visually compelling “show” as spring lilacs give way to summer hydrangea, which yields the stage to autumn’s blaze of glory, will hold your interest throughout the warmer months.
Planning and Planting for Winter
The curtain hasn’t fallen on our play just because the temperature has dropped. While winter is an often-neglected season for landscaping, the monochrome nature of the season brings its own landscape design opportunities. Color — the bold hues of evergreens, or splashes of red added by the berries of Winterberry Holly — stands out against brown grass and soft white snow alike. As our friends at the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s Maxwell Arboretum remind us, this is also a time of year for contrast, form, texture, and pattern. The characteristic exfoliating bark of a river birch can add a dramatic touch, and manmade structures like sculptures and bird feeders stand out long after the last leaf has been raked. Let your imagination be your guide!
Considering the Big Picture
We take pride in our landscaping work. However, we’re also well aware that the planned, planted, and built environment we create for you will only be one part of the bigger picture. Part of our initial conversations will involve how you’re using your yard now, but also the uses to which you’d like to put it in the future. If you want an expanse where your kids can play, or an area for entertaining friends and family, those uses will be given careful consideration. Just as often, enjoying your landscape year round means planning areas with different focal points and purposes.
Working With Breaking Ground
Those initial conversations will be followed up by others as we keep you informed of our progress, make minor changes as your vision for your landscaping evolves, and maintain your space. But the most important part of our work are those other conversations — intimate gatherings enjoyed on sunny summer mornings, quiet talks around the fire pit on a crisp autumn night — that you’ll enjoy long after our work is done. We invite you to begin the process by contacting us for an on-site walkthrough during which you can meet our team and discuss the particulars of your project.