GARDEN DESIGN: Drawing Your Plan

Got a great view? Play it up. A not-so-great view? Put a mirror up instead!

Now that you have a BASIC LANDSCAPE LAYOUT graphed out from last time, you should know where permanent features and plants will be staying.  Time to make final decisions on what goes where for your new do/redo.

HIT: if you know the why, where, and what, PICKING PLANTS should be fun instead of overwhelming

1)  Think about the why of it to determine the where.  Clients tell me they want their summer kitchen in gazebo at the back of the property…..WHY?  Schlepping out to the back forty every time you want burgers isn’t practical. Locate things so they are the most convenient and work for you, not you for them.

2) Pick the right tool for the task.  Is the view from the guy behind you’s 2nd story gameroom YOUR family room?  Shade trees at the fence may seem the best solution, but how long it will take them to grow?  A pergola covered with fast-growing evergreen vines above the windows may be just right to block the view.  Make notes on your decisions.

3) Will it work?  Lay out your proposed new beds, patios, etc. not only on paper, but in your landscape.  Use a water hose, strings, or spray paint to mark things out and live with your new design for a few weeks, if possible.  Bed edges shouldn’t look like a drunk guy designed it – even if he DID.  Lawn areas need to be trial-run to ensure the mower will make the curves okay, too.  How about watering?  Can you get a wheel barrow to an area easily?  Think about maintenance as well as use.

Make your plan simple and easy to read.

Move all this onto a clean piece of graph paper that will be your final plan. Note existing materials and the new stuff, including sizes of items – including plants’ names, or at least sizes and types (15′ TREE vs. 3′ EVERGREEN SHRUB) –  even if you don’t know WHICH plants yet. To make wise plant choices, start by showing your plan to your local independent nurseryman. If you have a plant list or photos, those should go, too. (Remember, you taped those samples to the edge of your bubble diagram a few weeks ago?)  Contact your county extension office and Master Gardener groups. They’ll have lists of appropriate plant materials for your area and often give free classes. (By FREE I mean your tax dollars already paid for them!) I’m also a fan of native plant societies found in most states. They’re a great resource, with online plant lists and often with free classes and plant sales. Garden clubs, the Herb Society, community colleges, and many other groups offer free or inexpensive horticultural education classes, too.  And libraries and independent bookstores often have books and magazines featuring plants perfect for your area.

The best way to get a beautiful landscape? PLAN for it!

Okay, don’t get frustrated.  I’ve spent the last 20+ years doing this, so don’t expect to become an expert overnight.  You don’t have to know it all; you just have to know where to get help. And one of the spots you can get it is HERE.  Just send me a note and I’ll try to direct you down the right path.  Or even help you create the right one!

Landscape Design-WHERE DO I BEGIN?

We just bought a house and the “landscape” consists of a few trees and a weird assortment of shrubs here and there.  Where should we start?

HIT: plan before you buy to save bucks and backs!

All of us long for a yard out of Southern Living or Architectural Digest.  In reality, most of us inherit something between The Jungle Book and Grapes of Wrath, so let’s do an overview of how to start a home landscape plan.

Don't make a trip to the nursery without a list of what you need....THINK ABOUT IT 1st!

DESIGN PROCESS  Unless you already know the principles of design or have a plan in your hand, visiting the nursery with your pocketbook instead of your notebook is an exercise in frustration. Even if you have the luxury of a local, independent nursery with appropriate plant materials for your area AND great advice on how to use them, hold off on going there.  Nurseries sell gazing balls, not crystal ones. The answers to “how many” and “which kind” can’t be answered by anyone till you know what the purpose of each plant will be in your landscape.

• 1st STEP     Section your home’s landscape into three parts: PUBLIC (street side, or accessible to passersby), PRIVATE (often the backyard, but any area invited guests will see), and SERVICE (where you keep things you need but don’t want others to see).  Sometimes necessity dictates locating service items in the public or private areas, but don’t add to a utility box’s obviousness by planting geraniums around it!
• 2ND STEP     Look honestly at each of these spaces and note anything you can move to better segregate items into their designated areas.  Will bringing the fence three feet forward hide the trash can?  Is the 1′ turquoise tile birdbath from your mother-in-law a good fit in front of your 3-story Cape Cod home or better in the rose garden out back? Take into consideration style, size/scale, and purpose to decide where items should be placed, or if they should be in your landscape at all.  You’ll be surprised the immediate difference a few small changes will make.
  

  MYTH: never enough chotchkies. Know when to say NO!

• 3RD STEP     Take a personal inventory of what you need to make your landscape more usable year round.  Do you need sit-down dining for 10 or will a couple of comfortable chairs and a side table be sufficient?  How about something to bring in wildlife, or keep it away?  Would you like a beautiful view out of specific windows or to erase the vision of your neighbor’s car on blocks?  Write your wish list down and rate them as to what’s most important.
  

  Considering seating? Cushioned chairs are more comfortable - but often more MAINTENANCE - than a bench.

We’ll go over the steps to drawing up a landscape plan that fits any budget, but feel free to COMMENT or SEND PHOTOS with specific questions about your home landscape plan in the meantime. And if you’re in the Houston area, come see me at the SUGAR LAND HOME AND GARDEN SHOW on Saturday, January 21st where I’ll show you how to revive your DROUGHT-STRICKEN yard!

“Low-maintenance garden”… an oxymoron?

We just bought a vacation home and need ideas on what types of low-maintenance flowers, bushes, landscaping we can plant. There is no watering system, so the yard and beds must thrive on natural rainfall except for our quarterly visits. Also, how do you prevent ‘stick-tites’ or kill existing ones?  Jeri in Missouri

tools for a low-maintenance landscape

Maintenance problems in the landscape are often the result of lack of planning.  You are ahead of the game spending time looking at how you will use your vacation home before you spend $$$.  Here are some principles that apply to anyone wanting to relax in their garden instead of just making it another entry on the to-do list.

1. MAKE A REAL CHOICE:  How will you use the space?  Think about your property like you do your home, designating areas for specific activities.  Do you need a dining room, or just an eat-in kitchen?   If a playroom’s on your list, do you need a spot for horseshoes or a soft-ball field?  How about a living area?  How many will you need to seat?  Do these spaces connect to one another?  Be realistic and consider your lifestyle, year-round outdoor conditions and how many people will usually be in the spaces.
   

   HIT: create a 1 year, 5 year and forever plan for your landscape

2. MAKE A REAL PLAN:  Using graph paper, lay out the property showing existing plants that will remain.  Note topographic highlights of your yard, including low spots and berms, great views and not-so-great, then add in your wish list of garden rooms and where they’ll best fit into your landscape and your life.  Don’t forget to leave space for utility items, such as trashcans/recycling bins and lawn equipment.  (cherie’s tip: Make spaces convenient to one another and to your home or you won’t use them!)
   

   plan for success in your landscape

3. MAKE YOUR PLAN REAL:  How will you maintain the property?  Even if it’s your primary residence, a busy schedule might require your landscape still be low-maintenance.  If you can’t constantly keep your eye on it, consider hiring someone to do that for you.  If that’s not feasible, maybe “naturalizing” the property with only the designated spaces as maintained areas will better suit your lifestyle.  Add paths to get from one “room” to the next, but pick not only your plant materials but also your hardscape materials intentionally to avoid high maintenance.  A path or patio can be of many different materials, from bark mulch to lawn to pavers to concrete. Mulch and grass will require weekly or monthly maintenance; pavers and concrete will not.  When it comes to plant materials, look around you at what is native.  Contact the local agricultural extension  or state-wide native plant society for a list of appropriate plants, then keep them mulched well.  Use rainwater efficiently by grouping like-minded plants with low-water plants in the high spots and more-water plants in the low spots.  Check to see if a rain-water harvesting system would work in your area, too.
   

   MYTH: NO-maintenance landscapes

As far as getting rid of grass-burs or stick-tights or any other pest plant, organic methods abound with some more effective than others.  Several websites offer proven ways including the old-fashioned way:  hand-pulling.  But weeds are opportunists.   Bare spots, dry spots and wet spots are all accidents waiting to weed.  If this is a turf area, you might look at installing a native grass and allow it to grow to mature height, crowding and shading out warm-season weeds.

Whether part-time, full-time or all-time, your home’s landscape can be a labor and cost intensive proposition.  Even a little cabin in the woods begs for extra planning on the front end to ensure a low-maintenance garden, giving you the time to vacation wherever you are.

Pool problems: my head is swimming trying to decide WHAT to put behind my pool!

Charlene from Texas writes: “Hey, we have a spot behind the pool that gets only a few hours of LATE afternoon, intense sunlight.  Any suggestions?  We have nandina on one side and lorapetalums on the other with wax myrtles behind all. I’d love abelia but hubby thinks that won’t get enough sun.  Thanks!”

When a plant is listed as FULL SUN, it assumes most of the day it will get direct sun.  PARTIAL SHADE lovers – especially those that are grown for the bloom –  need sun for at least a few hours a day.  However, using a shade plant in a spot where afternoon reflective sun might hit it from the pool can be an issue.  Another consideration using a flowering shrub near a pool is WHAT pollinates it?  If the answer is butterflies or moths or hummingbirds, great.  But what if it is a BEE plant?  Will that become an issue with bare feet running around the area?

HIT:

datura (Datura wrightii), also known as Jimsonweed, is a Texas native that sparkles at night pollinated by hawkmoths (www.cheriecolburn.com)

Certainly for Texas, glossy abelia (Abelia grandiflora) would be an option if you have ample room for its size (8′ ht.X5′w, except for more compact selections, such as ‘Golden Glow’ or ‘Francis Mason’).  But also consider a native shrub to make your hedge.  Abelias hale from China (and I don’t mean the one just out of Beaumont, TX!), so they may require a bit of extra care.  Check out  http://npsot.org/  to find the right shrub for the spot.  A few of the things to look at include: 1) mature size, 2) evergreen or deciduous, 3) pollination source, 4) when/if/time of day it has showy blooms and what color are they, 5) poisonous parts, especially if young children or pets might be in the area, and 6) soil type/water needs.  Also, don’t be afraid to use variety, just like nature does.

MYTH:    Although LOTS of flowering plants thrive in the summertime heat, not all require full sun.  Watch your location during different points of the day and chart the sun’s progression.

bee in shade and water-loving crinum lily (Crinum americanum) http://www.cheriecolburn.com

 Seasonal changes make a difference, too, so watch to see if the sun peeks through a shady spot.  (Overhead trees might also lose their leaves giving a nice winter suntan and a needed respite from blazing summer sun.)  Make your plant selections wisely and the likelihood of having to move or re-move it later on will virtually melt away.