Your home's entrances should provide easy access through your yard and landscape. First impressions count for a lot, so aesthetic appeal surrounding your landscaping plans and entryways is important. It's best to begin with the highest traffic access areas such as from your house to your driveway. Next, assess the paths and walkways to and from all access areas of your home. The plants that surround these spots should guide a visitors eye towards your entryways or exits. Side entrances that are used as much or more than your front door, should also be considered. Shrubs, flowers, pathways, border beds, and lighting can be used.

If planting for height, build up towards your house. Start lower and gradually increase the height of your plants as they get closer to the house so as to direct attention to the entrance. Pay close attention here because garden beds bordering a sidewalk or pathway can draw attention away from your entrance. The best I can explain it is that the beginning of your walkway is a starting point leading your entry as an opening leading you towards the door.

Safety and invitation should both be considered for your entry. Some moderately good lighting and visibility can help ensure safety at night when walking from your parking area into your home. If you have a mudroom, laundry room, or utility room that is next to your front or rear entry, plan for making it look good as well as functional for traffic flow.  

How do you guide and lead folks to your access and entryway areas? Most professional landscaping contractors basically follow the same pattern here. Sidewalks, privacy fences, border gardens, edging, walls, trellises, screens, and also rails are more choices. You can use planters to highlight entryways to certain areas. Raised plant beds, screening, and fencing can also be helpful for hiding places with utilities from sight.

When planting to define and accent access and entry areas, space them with the mature size and spread of the plants in mind. This is often overlooked in landscaping. Since paths, walkways, and other access areas will usually lead to or near your house, plants should be planted with enough distance from your foundation so that you can maintain both the plantings and home. Plants should be planted far enough from your house and other buildings so that you can take care of them once they are mature size. Shrubs and hedges given time to grow provide a natural boundary and screen, while fencing offers immediacy once installed.

Every home that has children should have a designated place outside for the them to play in. Making an outdoor play area for your kids has a lot of advantages: the children are happy, parents are happy because the kids are safe, and the rest of the garden can grow without the threat of little feet trampling through it. In fact, you may find that if you provide a very attractive spot, all the neighborhood kids will end up at your place, which can be a mixed blessing. It's generally quite simple to design a garden plan with at least a small amount of play area for the younger folks in the family.

For very small children, the area needs to be close to the house so the children can be closely supervised, but not feel too restrained. An area that can be seen from the kitchen window is ideal. Many manmade toys - swings, slides, climbing frames and so on - are available for such an area, but young children love to think out their own games and will enjoy being inventive with natural materials. A basic sandbox will keep small children happy for hours. Equip the sandbox with some natural materials like stones and shells. (Later, you can turn the sandbox into a raised garden.) Small trees with strong branches close to the ground and old logs works good as climbing frames.

Older children like to play a little further away from the house but still need an area that feels safe in the front yard or backyard landscaping where they can enjoy playing. Older children love to use their imagination, so don't provide them with a treehouse immediately. Start simply, perhaps with some timber steps nailed to a tall tree or a rope ladder for climbing into the branches. Then the tree can become anything that comes to the imagination. A plane, boat, castle, house, or almost anything.

An area of grass can be a good addition for playing as it is soft enough to fall down on. If this idea doesn't quite go with the rest of your landscaping, give bark chunks or chips a try as a cushion under play equipment.

A concrete slab will also serve a purpose as the kids get older. Learning to ride a bike, rollerblade, play jacks, jump rope, and many other childhood games will happen right here. And those other skills may even include gardening, if you give them a small, sunny place of their very own.