How Landscape Design Can Reinforce Security for Your Reno, NV, Home

A well-planned landscape design doesn’t have to be limited to improving the look and feel of your Reno, NV, home’s exterior. It can also incorporate ways to keep your property safer, from a proper landscape lighting plan that will make you feel confident in your surroundings at night to plantings and structures that will increase your privacy.

Use Plants as a Living Screen

Living walls comprised of slim evergreens provide not only privacy, but also reinforce the beauty of nature. Evergreens are only one choice of many. You might decide that flowering trees staggered along one boundary of your yard will give the sense of peace and quiet that you crave, without closing out all of the occasional breeze and glimpses of the property beyond.

Hedges trimmed into a tidy row can bring a more formal feel to a privacy border, while free-flowing shrubs planted around a patio or outdoor area can increase privacy without seeming closed off. Also consider using tall trellises supporting a profusion of blooming vines as a living screen.

Related: Sustainable Landscape Architecture in the Reno, NV, Steppe Climate

Bright and Attractive Lighting

You may find that your original plan for outdoor lighting did not fully account for security. Perhaps initially unnoticed dark corners and blind spots have become evident after living in the home for a while.

When you exit your vehicle to enter your home, spotlights and wash lighting can illuminate those corners and curves where it might be a little too dark to see well. Lit sidewalks and steps and driveways make it easier for visitors to move through the landscape without fear of tripping, stumbling, or falling because of unseen obstacles. Increased lighting on porches and in entryways makes it clear who is at the door when an unexpected person arrives.

Proper Maintenance

While proper landscape maintenance certainly increases the appeal and look of a landscape, it also improves the security. Overgrown trees and shrubs can be the perfect hiding place for an intruder. This also hinders your view out of the windows to see who might be lurking nearby. Keep these plants trimmed and the trees clear of dead and overgrown branches.

Security Gates

Attractive gates flanked by stone walls or even stone columns interspersed with wood or iron rails is a more extensive security measure for your home. The walls can cover as much of your property as you wish to keep unwanted visitors at bay. And these walls don’t have to be tall or solid—there are many gorgeous stone choices today to construct walls that are special. You can also have it set up so that your entrance is “smart.” Gates can be opened and closed from your smartphone without you ever having to leave the comfort of your car.

Related: The Relationship Between Indoor and Outdoor Spaces in Landscape Architecture

Security Cameras

Modern security cameras are so small and unobtrusive that they’ll likely go unnoticed by anyone but you. You will have the immediate ability to survey your landscape and home from an app, ensuring that nothing is threatening the security of your residence and family.

A landscape designer can assess all of the features that will bring security to your Reno, NV, home, helping you to choose the ones that will work best for your unique property. You want your family and friends to feel safe, and your landscape professional can make your requests come to life.