For homeowners who enjoy a bit of gardening, landscaping can be one of the most exciting parts of building a custom home.

When you buy a pre-built home, the landscaping is usually already well established, and often it doesn’t truly fit your style. Achieving the exterior look that you want may require additional time and money to remove existing plants and replace them with trees, bushes, and flowers that better suit your taste.

However, if you design your own custom home, you have the freedom to choose landscaping that fits your style—from formal and polished to casual and natural-feeling—and will stay beautiful for years to come. Better yet, you can choose the exact plants that will highlight your new home the best.

Landscaping in New England

Gardening in this region of the country offers plenty of opportunities, as well as a few challenges. Although your landscaping will probably receive plenty of rain and benefit from healthy, nutrient-rich soil, you might find that certain plants struggle from a shortage of sunny days. Meanwhile, deer and harmful insects often decimate certain plants. That’s why it’s important to select plants carefully, to ensure they are well suited for New England and for our unique climate.

Landscaping Ideas

Think about the types of plants that would highlight your custom home the best. While working through the design process, you might want to keep these ideas in mind:

Stick with native plants. By prioritizing plants that are native to New England, you’ll ensure that your landscaping is easy to care for, requires minimal watering, and will look beautiful for many years. Various pine trees are popular around here to use as privacy. If you live in a forested area, you can plant raspberry, blackberry, blueberry and other bushes around your forest line. Include some lemon grass and peppermint and not only will they provide food, but also keep the mosquitoes away, naturally. And best of all, you never have to maintain them.

Don’t plant near the house. Many homeowners love to plant bushes, trees or shrubs right up close to the exterior walls of their house. It’s okay to have small plants, like flowers, close to the house. But bushes, shrubs, trees, and even wood chips, will all attract carpenter ants, wood bees and termites, and invite them right into your home.

Go maintenance free and help save pollinators. Consider planting wild flowers throughout your lawn rather than grass. Not only will it cut down on the amount of time and energy you have to spend on caring for your lawn, but it will look beautiful, adding curb appeal, and it will help our pollinating friends. Also, if you plant creeping thyme instead of grass, you’ll never have to mow your lawn. Ever. Another good idea are permaculture gardens which, once set up, are relatively maintenance free and provide an abundance of food.

Incorporate herbs. As the soil warms up during the summer months, consider adding a few herbs to your landscaping. Not only will you enjoy their beautiful flowers and textures, but you’ll also have a chance to add garden-fresh herbs to your cooking and baking. Dill, basil, chives, parsley, and fennel create eye-catching borders for flower beds while attracting beneficial insects (which deter many harmful insects). Thyme provides expansive ground cover, while rosemary and lavender do well in moist soil or in terra cotta containers.

Get Started

With a bit of planning, you can ensure that your landscaping looks lush and beautiful in the summer—and throughout the rest of the year. Landscaping for a custom home shouldn’t be a mere afterthought. The right combination of trees, , bushes, flowers and, maybe food too, will complement the beauty of your new custom home and make it feel truly unique.