Landscaping is the act of shaping the world around you. It ranges from tiny actions, like digging holes in the ground and clearing out trees, to something as grand as blowing up a mountain with TNT or reshaping an island in Creative Mode. If it changes the way the world looks, it’s landscaping.
Groundskeeping
One of your earliest experiences with landscaping is clearing the area around your house. You can conduct all sorts of landscaping projects to make your region safer and more convenient.
Trees are useful, but having them close to the house is dangerous. The shade they provide allows Skeletons and Zombies to survive the sunlight, so they can attack you during the day. Clear the trees to make sure the monsters burn when the dawn comes.
Now that you’ve made the immediate area safer, it’s time to flatten out some space to prepare for farms and animal pens. You might not do any farming or animal raising until much later, but flattening the area also makes it easier for you to get around and see incoming enemies. This is a great opportunity to evaluate the area and decide what to do with irregular holes and random cave entrances. You can seal cave entrances with Doors, widen the openings into proper mines, or remove the top layer of Dirt and rock to expose the area to sunlight for easier mining. If you have any small water holes nearby, flatten the area around them for later farming, or start planting crops right away around the edges.
Moving Mountains
You can clear the area around your house quickly, but some projects require more effort. Mountainous terrain, for instance, is annoying to navigate; it tends to be full of sudden drops, sheer cliffs, and lots of climbing. This can result in complex paths as you move from place to place. Winding through the landscape is a good way to get lost, so why not change it?
Tunnel through large obstacles to reduce travel time. This is useful in exploring, as it reduces the need for excessive landmarks. If you expect to return to a certain place, such as a Village, make a more permanent roadway. Trails of landmarks are great for exploring new territory, but sometimes you want something more permanent. A roadway lets you follow an obvious path instead of playing hide-and-seek with Signs.
With hand tools and time, you can make any tunnel you want. Pickaxes and Shovels are fine for most situations, but if you want to go through a really large obstacle, like a mountain, there are other options. Try blasting through heavy blocks with TNT—it lets you blow stuff up! Hissing like a Creeper is optional but highly recommended.
Getting Gunpowder can be dangerous, as it involves killing Creepers before they explode. Once you get a good Sword (Iron or Diamond), killing Creepers becomes much easier, and you get Gunpowder more frequently. If you have Gunpowder stockpiled in a Chest, why not put it to use?
Gunpowder forms an explosive block called TNT when mixed with Sand. You can place TNT like normal blocks, and then ignite it to produce violent explosions. Place a string of TNT blocks to make a chain reaction and blow large craters into the landscape, or place them one at a time to gradually blow through walls. No mountain can stand up to high explosives!