The Property Manager
7 Do It Yourself Landscaping Tips
1. Layer Your Flower Beds When Planting
Layer your planting beds in 3 rows: a back row (facing north, preferably) with the tallest plants, a middle row with the next tallest, and a front row composed of your shortest plants. Use repetition, both in the planting bed and elsewhere in your yard, to provide unity.
2. Using Form and Texture to Your Advantage 
Flowers are great, but don't forget the characteristics of a plant's branching pattern and foliage. In landscape design, varying form and texture is one way to spice up a yard with diversity. Evergreen conifers, while lacking flowers altogether, nonetheless have foliage that offers a myriad of different forms and textures.
3. Install Water Features: It's Easier Than You Think
Good landscape designs are anchored by focal points. One of the hottest trends is to use water features as focal points. This is one trend with "sound" reasoning behind it: water features are not only visually appealing, but emit soothing sounds. Using pre-formed rigid plastic liners, durable pumps, flexible tubing and cheap fountains, they're also a lot easier to install than you think. Once you've experimented with ponds, you may even decide to advance to the next level: simple waterfalls.
4. Types of Flowers
Carefully matching the types of flowers you'll be growing with the space where they'll be growing is a fundamental policy to follow in do-it-yourself landscaping. Light and soil requirements should always be considered before deciding which types of flowers to buy for your yard.
5. Use Drought-Tolerant Plants
Many novices at do-it-yourself landscaping start out with high hopes in spring, only to have them dashed in summer. Why? Because the summer heat wilts all of that promising spring perkiness out of their plants! The answer? Select drought-tolerant plants to grow, instead.
6. Use Annuals to Supplement Perennial Color
Perennial flowers are wonderful for your planting beds, but they bloom for only so long. You may have perennials blooming in your bed in May, then nothing until July. Incorporating annuals into a do-it-yourself landscaping plan will "plug the gaps," giving you continuous color in the yard.
7. Make Your Life Easier With a Low-Maintenance Yard
You can follow all the above do-it-yourself landscaping tips and still not be happy with your yard. For, besides giving your yard a pleasing appearance, you must also be sensible in planning for its maintenance. Beautiful or not, you'll resent your yard if it causes you too much work. Unless you don't mind spending hours each weekend on upkeep, plan your design for low maintenance.
Patriotic Cookie Pizza
INGREDIENTS
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® Create 'n Bake® refrigerated sugar cookies
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 cups fresh raspberries
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup apple jelly, melted
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 12-inch pizza pan with cooking spray. Cut cookie dough into 1/4-inch slices; place in pan. With floured fingers, press evenly over bottom to form crust.
2. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool completely, about 25 minutes.
3. In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon peel until fluffy. Spread over baked crust. Arrange raspberries in large star shape in center. Arrange blueberries around raspberries. Drizzle or brush with melted jelly. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Store in refrigerator.