Neil Sperry: Create your own stunning vistas with these landscaping ideas

You’ve probably been in a house that has a stunning setting — overhanging a ravine or positioned to look into a forest or hillside. Landscaping is, after all, an aesthetic art form. It’s all about maximizing or creating beauty in our surroundings.

Let’s examine a few places you’ll want to create good lines of sight in your plantings.

Front yard. Your entryway is what most people will look for. Your goal should be to use the largest shrubs off to the sides, then step down to the smallest types near the walk and front door. Plant them in odd-numbered groupings for a more natural look, and let them guide people’s eyes just like the sides of a valley lead to the stream. Position shade trees to the left or right of center and slightly in front of or behind the yard’s midpoint. Don’t let their trunks block sight of the front door, and take care that they don’t line up with other trees, with the corners of your house or with any other features. They need to look like they were planted by nature.

Back yard. You get opposite perspectives when you compare the front and back landscapes. In the former, you’re looking across the landscape at the entryway into your house. You’re already inside your house when you look at the backyard landscape.

Develop a focal point toward the back of your rear garden. It could be a fountain or statue, or it might be the pool house or gazebo. All that you plan and plant must focus attention its way. Do all that you can to keep it open and visible. Keep tall trees and rows of shrubs off to the sides and let stepping stones lead in its general direction. Use large, decorative patio pots to the left and right of your line of sight, and use color beds as added sidelights. Hang baskets filled with trailing tropicals from the eaves to frame the view vertically. Let groundcovers and turfgrass act as the carpet between your viewing station (the patio, window or doorway) and the focal point.

Garden "rooms." You normally can’t see from bedroom to kitchen and then out into the garage from any one spot in your house, and most landscapes should follow that lead. Unless you have a tiny home garden, create special rooms in your landscape. It could be a secluded patio or spa, or it might be a cut-flower or herb garden that you’ve tucked into a little-used corner.

Window boxes and small garden nooks. These highlights are meant to be observed close up. While they’re European and New England mainstays, window boxes should be used only in shaded spots in the Southwest. Use small tropical plants, and keep them in pots. Plunge the pots down into potting soil in the boxes so they’ll look like they’re growing there. Lift the plants and their pots and rotate them every seven to 15 days to keep them growing symmetrically. It also will prevent them from sprouting roots into the soil mix. Move them indoors when the temperature is expected to drop below 40 degrees.

If you have a few square feet off your master bath or bedroom, consider building a small, private garden. Build whatever screen you need so that this area will be visible only to you and your family. A pair of outdoor speakers will let you enjoy music from your stereo system, and gentle landscape lighting can make it a pleasant vision through the doorway or window at night.