Revising An Earlier Design
by Teresa Firelight
Mediterranean Homes were first released on Dec 18, 2023. Of course, I immediately ran and got one, as did hundreds of other residents. Then I tried to landscape it, and I found the task challenging. Two weeks later I published my first article of this series about Landscaping Mediterranean Homes. I hoped it would help others who also found it challenging to landscape this theme. Below are pictures of the front and back from my original landscaping.
Two months have gone by, and I have learned a great deal more about landscaping this theme. One thing I learned came as an input from a reader, who recommended Konoha’s Natoma Grass. She sent me a screen shot and the grass looked nice, so I bought the fatpack. I tried it at my yard and was very pleased with the effect.
Other things I “learned” by thinking about it and deciding to try something. For example, a neighbor added a large colorful pool to their back yard, putting it near my back yard. I am sure it looked lovely from their place, but the back side of the build was not attractive, and the colors clashed with my theme and color scheme. It felt very “in your face” to me, and I wanted to block it. So, I started sticking large trees in the corner until I found one that masked their build and looked nice with my build. I ended up with a willow tree from Titans (pictured below).
The “Less is more” strategy I originally deployed ended up leaving me with “not enough.” It looked too plain to me, especially after I swapped out my ground cover for the Konoha one.
I had decorated one corner of my yard out of necessity. I decided to decorate the other as well. I wanted a small tree that looked similar to the Acatia trees that the moles used. I searched around a bit, then decided on the Konoha “Jacaranda Kayla.” I used it as the “centerpiece” for that corner arrangement and surrounded it with a bit of HPMD’s “Sweet Garden Grass 09.” The grass was a bit too tall for that corner, so I edited it to be shorter. That looked good, but it did not fill out the corner fence. So, I added some bushes from TM Creation’s “M23 Tropical bush.” The effect turned out nice and is pictured below.
For the most part, I was pleased with my original back yard and did not feel the need to change anything else back there. However, my front yard was quite another story. It was just WAY too plain.
I still liked my concept of asymmetric symmetry, but I wanted to dress it up a bit. I liked the edges with the flowers and did not change them at all. (They are pictured in article 1 of this series.)
I also kept the original walkway, but I got rid of the original potted plants. I replaced them with ones that were taller but still had good LOD and were still visible from a distance. Mostly I used Kazza plants for this. I also used Fundati’s Creosote Bush on both sides of the walkway to fill in the space where previous potted plants had been.
The patio walkway looked way too plain. So, I put in some of the same benches and potted plants that I used in the back. This included the potted Hedgebush from the Newbrooke content creation pack and VALENSKA’s “Just another bench.” That helped, but it was still too empty, so I decided to put a fountain there as a “centerpiece.”
It took a bit of effort to get a fountain that I liked. I wanted it to be square to match the patio shape, and I wanted the textures to match as well. After a bit of a search, I found one at Simply Shelby called the “Lantern Fountain.” It was a bit too small for this patio, so I so made it larger. Then I retextured it, using the concrete and broken tile textures from the Mediterranean home’s Content Creation pack.
By the time I finished modifying the original, I really liked the fountain. It is pictured below.
In closing I would like to say that good landscapes evolve. Don’t be afraid to enhance or modify your original landscaping. Let it grow over time into something you love even more than the original.
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