Landscaping your site is the design of the outdoor environment using nature.
This includes trees, shrubs, flowers, potted plants, water bodies like fountains and pools, rocks/stones, you name it.
We live in a tropical environment where the sun deals with us, but we are not helping ourselves when we clear out landscaping elements from our compounds.
I know we like concrete floors, bitumen (coal tar) floors, or interlocking, it’s very easy to sweep and maintain cleanliness.
But ever wondered why you don’t feel that kind of fresh mist-like air like we do in the villages?
They have trees and shrubs and carpet grasses.
Don’t you just love the feeling of a well-mowed lawn under your feet?
The foreigners we admire, love landscaping. Check out the mansions we admire, for instance, the Kardashian houses.
Read also The Nigerian Abroad: Building Your Dream Home Without Tears.
Do you see all those lush greenery plus water bodies?
They use those hard surfaces for only walkways and driveways, NOT THE WHOLE PLOT OF LAND.
Are you feeling lazy about the prospect of cutting the grass when they grow up? Maybe when you see how they look afterward, you’ll be encouraged.
I know some plots are too small for natural trees to avoid roots affecting your building foundation, try ornamental trees and shrubs.
Try carpet grass, even if it is artificial grass.
In a tight plot of land, use prefabricated concrete slabs for your walkways instead of coating everywhere with concrete mix.
This reduces solar glare. Those grasses absorb a lot of sunlight and give us cool air.
Even for your car parking spaces. Cars parked on spatial greenery have less heat than the ones parked on bare concrete.
READ ALSO: Laterite and Clay: Your best block wall for Sustainability.
One of the things I enjoyed when I visited Calabar for my case study (I was working on a Performing Art theatre for my final year project), was the trees shading the walkways along the road.
Mehn! I loved it. I could trek any distance under that shade.
Want to landscape your site? Reach us here.
I hope you are getting this down.