I love looking through seed and plant catalogs. I get great ideas for what to add to my flower beds and new things to try in the vegetable garden. But not very many of them give me ideas of how to arrange the plants and where to add paths, patios, walls and other hardscape to make my yard look like a showplace.

For that, I turn to the internet. I found some good videos on You Tube with examples that should get the creative juices flowing.

If you’re into Japanese gardens, view this 10-minute video showing before and after shots of gardens. A company in the Washington, DC, area turns dusty, weedy corners into beautiful, serene landscapes.

Here’s another before and after collage from a company in Denver. Note that the grass in some of the photos isn’t mowed short. I like the look, but not everyone does. They also use hardscape to enhance the look of yards and cut back on maintenance.

This video explains why various hardscape elements were added to a particular yard. A six foot fence often doesn’t always give as much privacy as we’d like and shrubbery can provide additional privacy while enhancing the landscape and providing cover and food for wildlife.

When I started re-landscaping my yard, this yard is what I had in mind. I’m not there yet, but every spring I add more plants and someday it’ll look as good as this yard.

In this video, note the use of groundcovers and succulents to fill in the blank spaces. They really soften the edges of hardscape and make a yard look complete. In our arid climate, it’s hard to get the look of abundant plants and flowers. Groundcovers and succulents help fill in the gaps.

Here are a few more before and after photos. A few of the projects shown in this video are more than the average gardener would want to take on. The rest are projects that an enthusiastic gardener could accomplish.

Here’s a tip about privacy fences for Boise residents. A Boise code enforcement officer told me that while the limit on fence height in the city is six feet, there’s no code against using eight foot high posts between sections of fence. At the eight foot height, a homeowner can string wire or whatever and hang anything from the wire to gain privacy. See the photo at the right for an example of what one homeowner did to increase privacy.

Both the Osher Institute and Boise Community Education have garden and wildlife related classes this spring. Check out their online catalogs.

If you have particular questions about gardening you’d like to see addressed in this column, send them to highprairielandscapedesign@yahoo.com.