Landscape Do’s and Dont’s
02 Mar 2011
Try these tips to create a happy, inviting landscape.
By Carol O’Meara Keeping a lovely house with an immaculate interior may be where your skills lie. But if guests are dismayed by your overgrown yard, savvy décor alone may not impress them. If it’s time for a landscape face-lift, here are some tips from the pros.
- Deciduous shrubs and ornamental grasses help define borders and create a warm and inviting landscape. Photo courtesy 1st Green Lawns
Get a Plan
“Devise a landscape plan—all other things relate to it. Don’t go planting everywhere without an idea of what it will look like,” says Paul Hartman, owner of Changing Landscapes Inc. in Longmont (changinglandscapes.com). “A pro knows how plants work in a landscape.” If you want to devise your own plan, see “Time for Winterscapes” in the winter 2010 issue archives at homeandgardenmag.com. It describes how to create a landscape plan with suggestions from a local landscape architect. Your plan should take into consideration your garden’s conditions, including light, soil, moisture, exposure, minimum and maximum temperatures, wind, contours, microclimates and existing vegetation.First Impressions
- Plant grasses where they’ll catch low sun rays in fall, so their colors will be backlit at season’s end. In winter, wrap twine around their bases to keep them standing tall. Photo courtesy 1st Green Lawns
- Creating zones for specific activities, such as an area for entertaining and another for children’s recreation, maximizes your yard’s functionality. Photo courtesy Outdoor Craftsmen
Size Matters
“Too many times I’ve seen trees or shrubs that get too big for where the homeowner put them, because they didn’t pay attention to how big they’d grow,” Hartman says. A blue spruce that’s cute when it’s little blocks windows and views when grown. A trumpet vine can swallow fences whole. Read—and believe—plant tags, which list how big the plant will get, as well as its growing requirements. Choose plants that reflect your style. Do you lean toward more formal, informal or naturalistic gardens? Pick plants that help you express your preferred style. And don’t forget maintenance concerns. Do you want to deadhead and water on a regular basis, or would native plants that need less tending suit you better?Be Water Wise
Always keep irrigation in mind. “We have a very different climatic experience here, a high desert with low humidity. That makes it difficult for gardens to flourish,” says Scott Deemer, owner of Outdoor Craftsmen in Erie (outdoorcraftsmen.com). “Good irrigation is key to it all, whether you want an English or a xeric garden.”
- Replacing concrete with flagstone and adding washes of colorful, textured plants took this path from drab to fab. Photo courtesy L.I.D. Landscapes
Gather the Groups
- Repeating groupings of similar plants, like black-eyed Susans and ornamental grasses, imparts enticing visual appeal and keeps consistency in the landscape. Photos courtesy 1st Green Lawns
- Mixing textures is an easy way to create a dynamic and original landscape. In this planting, the weight and mass of the peony flowers and the solid shapes of the iris flowers anchor the lighter mix of textures. Photo by Tracy Disabato-Aust
Be Budget Conscious
Again, it all comes back to a landscape plan. “A good landscape plan is crucial,” Krug says. “It creates a map for what you do. Break out the plan step by step for your budget, and decide where you can hire a pro or do it yourself. We’re often asked to prepare soil, set up irrigation and lay sod, and then the homeowner does the plantings. Everybody’s conscious of where their money goes, but you don’t have to do everything by yourself.”
Carol O’Meara is a local gardening expert. Find her blog at gardeningafterfive.wordpress.com
