Landscaping Ideas for a Manufactured Home

Landscaping can make your manufactured home look customized. A good landscape design can make an ordinary manufactured home look customized rather than commonplace. The trick, as with all landscaping projects, is to plan ahead as much as possible. Drive around and find landscape designs that excite you. Consult a professional if possible, and sketch out your ideas on paper. Even if you think you can't draw, that last step will save you time and money down the road. Does this Spark an idea? Other People Are Reading How to Add a Porch to a Manufactured Home Landscaping Idea on a Limited Budget Drainage The first thing to consider when landscaping a manufactured home is drainage, according to M&T Bank's modular home website. To keep moisture away from the home's foundation, make sure the land--including the driveway--is graded away from the house. To keep irrigation water away from the foundation, only choose plants requiring minimal amounts of water for foundation plantings. Hardscaping The most permanent part of any landscape design is hardscaping--"hard" elements like brick pathways, stone walls, and fences. Because hardscaping is usually more expensive and is the foundation for the rest of the landscape, it pays to develop a hardscaping plan right away. As HGTV's website points out, even if you can't implement all hardscaping before plants are added, knowing where the hardscaping will eventually go saves you the time, effort, and money of rearranging your landscaping later. Lighting Although lighting is part of hardscaping, take special care to consider it. Exterior lighting is a safety issue, as well as an aesthetic one. Solar lighting is often the least expensive way to add light to the landscaping, but may not be effective in areas where sunlight isn't prevalent all year long. Softscaping Plants are the "soft" part of landscaping. To save effort later, plan their positions carefully, advises Landscape America. A common mistake is to not consider the mature size of a tree, shrub, or plant. For example, a young rhododendron bush may fit under a window now, but in a few years' time it will block sunlight from coming through the window and will require constant pruning in order to keep it to a reasonable size for the location. Other areas to be especially careful about are downspouts and the foundation. In addition, deciduous plants, or those that drop many blooms or fruits, require more clean up time if planted near decks, patios, pools, walkways, or driveways. Problem Spots If there are areas of your manufactured home you find unattractive, come up with special plans to conceal those with landscaping. For example, if you have a heat pump at the front of the home, you might be able to conceal it behind a grassy berm or a grouping of tall plants. Source: http://www.ehow.com/list_6957211_landscaping-ideas-manufactured-home.html