Rural Landscaping Ideas

Whether you have a large, country lot or just admire the down home aesthetic, rural landscaping is a great way to give your home a warm, natural and friendly look. Rural landscaping gives a rough and unpolished look to the property, combining carefully sculpted gardens and patches of wildness to create a distinctive and welcoming scene.

Wine Barrels

Use rustic materials to give your home a rural feel. Wine barrels make great planters. Use them in-tact with flowers planted in one end or cut them in half horizontally for two large pot-shaped planters. For even more growing space, cut a wine barrel vertically to get two long planter troughs. Embed them in the ground for stability, or build a cradle out of bricks or wood to hold the planters in place.

Rustic Wood

Rustic wooden furniture, building and hardscape add a lot to a rural scenario. Build or buy benches out of rough-hewn cedar for an authentic and durable piece of outdoor country furniture. Add wooden rocking chairs and porch swings to your porch or patio to provide a gathering space with a rural feel. Build a gazebo out of wood painted in bright, pleasant colors as an enjoyable backyard feature. Finally, surround your house by a rustic wooden outline, such as a split rail fence. For a more cottage feel, use a low, delicate picket fence.

Wild Landscaping

If you live in an authentic rural lot, you may have several acres of land to maintain. Don't make the mistake of planting grass over most of the space like you would do in a suburban lot. Instead, use native trees and shrubs already growing in the area, combined with new trees, to reduce the work you have to do and preserve a wilderness feel in your landscape. If you like a more orderly look, plant a hedge row. Plant a row of tall, evergreen trees combined with a variety of low shrubs and flowers to serve as a windbreak, barrier and miniature wildlife preserve on your property.