Make your neighbors jealous or just improve your backyard, either way, it'll wow anyone who gets a view of your newly outstanding garden. 

1. Planning your garden is like painting on a canvas. Just as your high school art teacher told you-have a key point of interest and add some sub-points to make your beautiful scenery even more interesting. You visualize it in your head, draw sketches and fill in all the specifics you've been dreaming about. Continue to revisit the drawing until the picture you have in mind is what you have on paper.

2. Not feeling very artistic? If you’re a more ‘concrete’ person, try laying out garden hoses or heavy string in your yard to get a feel for how and where you want to divide up your space. Remember to think balance, not symmetry. Some people think that they have to plant trees and flowers in straight, boring rows. Tip: pick an odd number when planting trees or flowers. With flowers, plant several of the same plants in groups to make a large color splash. Better to have a few, well-chosen, bold splashes of color than to have tiny spots of color spread all over a large area.

3. If you’re having a hard time thinking of what your chief point of interest can be, close your eyes and think about what you like most about your yard. Is there a tall, solo pine tree, a grouping of birch trees, a rocky ledge, an old weathered fence or something else that catches your eye? If you can’t find something of interest that’s already in place, think about adding something that you admire from a picture in a magazine or something that caught your eye when you were driving through a beautiful neighborhood. Tip: do NOT copy something that your next-door neighbor is doing. They won’t appreciate it and it won’t look nearly as special if both of you are going for the same effect. 

4. Still can’t think of a chief point of interest? What about creating a spot for a waterfall? Not a pond – that’s old news! With a re-cycling waterfall, you don’t have to worry about standing pond water or algae. Just pick some interesting rocks or boulders of varying sizes, arrange them to cascade down a slope, add plants and water. Viola! Or, how about a rock path winding through your yard? Or a rock wall of native stone to create interest?

5. If you choose a tree or group of trees to be your main point of interest, don’t center them in your yard. It’s far more interesting to place them a bit off-center. Don’t choose a huge, overpowering tree; the tree should have a good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, seedpods, flowers or fruit. Tip: While the poplar is a striking tree and a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing with bare branches in early fall. The poplar makes a better choice for a backyard tree or when creating a dividing space between your yard and your neighbors. Good choices for trees are the mountain ash with bright berries, the brilliant leaves of the sugar maple or the bark of the white birch, which all add interest to your total landscape. 

6. It is always best to choose trees and shrubs that thrive in your local climate. It’s tempting to choose something exotic out of a catalog but you’ll be unhappy if the tree you choose is not right for your climate. Trees are a big investment, choose wisely.

7. Planting the garden can be a daunting task. To make this a bit easier, I suggest picking up a gardening kit. They come with all the tools you'll need to tend to the garden of your dreams. In order to keep your plants happy and healthy, try using an irrigation system. Some even come with set timers that will automatically water your plants. 

8. And for a final flair, add colorful tags to your plants. It will both create interest and add color to your landscape, as well as allowing you to label each plant. When planting the garden, it can become hard to keep track of which plant is what. By using colorful tags, identifying your plants become a breeze!