Outdoor Christmas Yard Decorations

Computerized outdoor Christmas yard decorations are taking on in a big way all over the country. With the help of electronic and computerized decorations and local communities, a lot of cities are becoming large tourist attractions just like Christmas On The Pecos in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

When decorating for Christmas or any other holiday, having close access to plenty of electricity is a welcome convenience. At the same time, not having enough can also be a setback of not being able to decorate the way you want to. While most modern houses have plenty of outlets on the walls of the home, very few have electricity in the yard. Some Christmas yard decorations and displays can use a lot of electricity and outlets. Having access right where you need it is so much better than having extension cords stretched out all over the yard. So having electrical outlets installed throughout the landscaping is a great idea.

The amount of power you’ll need will obviously depend on the extent of your decorating displays. Over planning for too much is always better than not enough. Have your electricians create the right size power supply and network for your decorations. And then have them place outlets where you know you’ll have Christmas yard decorations.

Nothing is worse to a landscaping project than the visibility of utilities. Along with other utilities like transformers and meters, outlets can’t be avoided and so we have to find some creative ways of hiding them or blending them with the landscaping. One of the easiest ways to hide outlets is to place them in planting beds nearest to the areas where you’ll have outdoor Christmas decorations. There are also weatherproof outlet boxes that can be set directly into lawns and flowerbeds as well as fake rocks.

Christmas lights and outdoor decorations have been around and used for quite a long time. It’s interesting and entertaining to see how far they’ve come. Click here to read about the history and origin of using christmas lights and outdoor decorations.

Xeriscaping Ideas

As part of the movement for green living, the principles of xeriscaping are finally being considered for most design styles and not just for desert southwest landscapes. While a lot of folks still think that xeriscape is a design style confined to desert and southwest landscaping, many more are starting to understand that it is a method that can be applied to all design styles rather than a style itself. Still, chances are if you're searching for xeric information, you're probably looking for landscaping ideas of a Santa Fe, Arizona, Southwest, or desert nature.

Xeriscape Design Ideas

Before I point you in the direction of some great xeriscaping ideas resources, skim over xeriscaping principles to get an understanding of the methods and benefits of drought tolerant and low water use landscaping. You'll find that most of it is just plain common sense.

As I said before, chances are that you're looking for something of a Santa Fe or Arizona style. Ans seeing how these are some of the most common styles in our area, we have some good ideas resources to share with you.

Dry Riverbed Xeriscaping Ideas is an informative post with pictures of fake dry riverbeds used for design and drainage purposes in drought tolerant landscaping.

Xeriscaping Pictures And Plans is a new directory of links, pictures, and plans for low water use landscape design. Many of the links and resources are from very talented designers all over the country.

Xeriscape Design Ideas is a list of some of my own design and plans.

Southwest Landscaping Ideas is a collection of design ideas and links to some beautiful desert Southwest Santa Fe style designs, plans, and pictures that I could find.

Also see Xeriscaping for an updated and more detailed version of this post along with some other important xeriscape design resources.

While you may be tempted to overlook the principles and go directly to all the pictures and ideas, just take a moment to skim over them. It will help you understand Xeriscaping better so you can apply it to any design style and idea you choose.

Landscaping Videos

Videos are the present and future of tutorials and ideas. Being able to see a project or idea created is so much better for comprehension than someone trying to tell you or explain the steps or theory of the project.

There are videos available that will teach you how to do practically anything. And how to do your own landscaping projects and garden design are no exception. You can find video tutorials on landscaping all over the internet. The only problem is that in order to find the good ones, you have to wade through hundreds of useless videos.

So in order to help the do it yourselfer find good tutorial videos on landscaping and garden design, the landscape design site created Landscaping Videos.com . Currently there are over 100 video landscaping ideas organized in categories to help you find specific project details related to landscaping and garden design.

For even more, see landscaping ideas for the latest blog post that will show you several resources for gathering landscaping ideas and how to use them in your own yard and property.

Patios, Courtyards, And Small Gardens

Designing patios, courtyards, and small gardens is just the same as most any other landscaping except for scale and materials. If you don't have a vision, you'll need pictures and ideas to help you come up with your own plans. Once again, we've got you covered.

We just added a whole new section to our landscaping pictures directory. To start, see patio designs and ideas for a complete collection of patio pictures and ideas that are sure to inspire you.

While there's a fine line between patios and courtyards designs, we felt a need to create two separate directories to do them both justice. See courtyard ideas for a collection of enclosed courtyard pictures and ideas.

Our site has always been big on small garden design ideas. And while any of the other directories mentioned here would be considered as small gardens, there still needs to be some individual principles and guidelines to follow. See small garden design ideas for principles, theory, and ideas for creating small gardens.

Pre Planned Gardens Design Plans

While I can't quite put my finger on the recent popularity of the professionally designed ready made garden plans and landscaping designs, I would have to lean more toward the state of the economy and the fact that more folks are finding it necessary to do their landscaping and gardens design themselves.

And in response to the new popularity of these plans and designs, there are more of them available and in much better quality. And in response to this, I have begun to prescribe pre designed garden planting plans to some of my consulting clients as a way to create planting schemes without having to do a lot of research or paying a landscape designer like myself to come up with design ideas for them. If you're planning on doing your landscaping yourself, it's another option worth looking into.

Patio Design Ideas

There are over 750 new pictures added to the landscaping pictures gallery on the landscape design site. And one of the most popular new directories is the patio design ideas directory. However, I'm not really surprised as folks are finding more refuge in outdoor rooms, patios, and small gardens that are extensions of the home. If you're planning to build a new patio, you'll find some great ideas there.

Landscaping Videos And Ideas

I'm very proud of the new videos site. I believe it is to become a very useful asset to the do it yourself landscaping and gardening community. See landscaping ideas and videos to check out all the videos, pictures, and plans that are there to get ideas from all for free.