Step one:

The first thing that you will need to do is to decide on what kind of landscaping that you want. One way to figure out what you want is to walk around different neighborhoods to see what other people have done. If you like something, file it away for later. You can also look at books or magazines to help you gather ideas on what you want your yard to look like.

Step two:

Now you will need to put down your design on paper. If you are good at drawing, you can draw the design yourself, by sketching the shapes of the flowerbeds, marking where you want trees or rocks. If you do not feel comfortable, drawing out your plans you can buy computer software that allows you to create a landscaped yard. You will want to play around with a variety of different layouts until you find one that works out the best.

Step three:

Now you will need to decide if the plans you have put onto paper will work in your yard. Take your plans outside with you and picture what you have drawn placed into your yard, does the landscape go with the house? You will want to keep your landscape design in conjunction with your housing design. For example, a formal looking house needs a formal landscape design, where an informal house can get away with a fun looking landscape design.

Step four:

When creating your landscape design you will want to think about the size of your flowerbeds. One mistake that many people make is they make the flowerbeds too small, so you can hardly plant anything in there. To find out if the beds will be too small take a piece of garden hose and lay it out as you have it written down. If it looks funny make it bigger, if you like how it looks and think it will work leave it alone.

Step six:

Now that you have gotten the design done, and are sure on what you want to do with your landscaped yard, it is time to get ready to put your plans into action. The first thing to do is to go to the hardware store and buy some marking paint. This will be used to outline where you want your flowerbeds to be placed and you can use it to outline other objects in your landscape design.

Step seven:

If there is grass where you plan to install a flowerbed you will need to remove the grass. To remove the grass you can rent a sod cutter to cut the grass out or you can dig it out with a shovel. If using a shovel dig down about one and a half inches and peel the sod back towards the center of the flowerbed. Then you can either get rid of it or flip it over and cover it with newspaper to allow the grass to die naturally.

Step eight:

If replacing plants from an existing flowerbed you will need to rip out all of the old plants so you can replace them with new ones.

Step nine:

Once the area is prepped, you are ready to put in the plants or trees that you have decided on.