Good landscape design is much like any other kind of cosmetics: You don’t notice it until it’s not there. You spin through Highland Park, past one beautifully coiffed residence after another, and you rarely bat an eye. But you invariably notice the one home with a sloppy or misconceived landscape.
From my experience in the business, a lot of homeowners simply don’t care or don’t know the difference. But an even larger percentage is simply unaware of how to achieve attractive landscape. If you’re in the market for a home, or simply want to give your homestead a new look, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Elsewhere in this magazine, women have been exhorted to seek and find experts in hair styling, make-up and exercise to get the most for their money in keeping themselves well turned-out. The same is true of your yard: If you really want a whole new look – at the risk of sounding self-serving -you need to consult a landscape architect.
After you finish reading this, take a stroll in your yard. You now probably have a conglomeration of over-grown or over-clipped shrubbery, all of which someone forgot was going to grow over the years. You probably have some wax ligustrum, various types of junipers and variegated eu-onymous. The first two culprits have probably grown up into a sizable Black Forest, unless you are a compulsive clipper. The euonymous however, has probably been kept well-pruned by the hoard of hungry insects which characteristically infest it.
With the advice of a landscape architect, you can develop a landscaping scheme which will be attractive, compatible with the architecture of your home, and easy to maintain. The most comprehensive source of landscape architects is in the Yellow Pages, but referrals from friends are probably your best bet. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the architect’s background. If he is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, you can be reasonably sure of his qualifications.
In choosing an architect, you should visit and inspect some of the homes he has already designed. Landscape architects have definite “looks.” A quick look at a man’s work can tell you if his style is for you.
A good planting plan, adequate for most homeowners, should not run over a few hundred dollars. A more elaborate design, perhaps including swimming pools, gazebos, etc., can cost several thousand. A good rule of thumb is the cost should average out to $20 to $25 an hour.
If you decide against using a landscape architect, here are a few broad principles to follow for do-it-yourself landscaping.
Your first concern should be foundation planting, especially if your home is traditional. Your local nursery will carry those plants known to thrive in our climate, but you should be inquisitive about their growth habits. Sure, they may look great when you plant them, but a few years later you may be living within a barrier of greenery. As a general rule, your foundation planting should not exceed the bottom of the window sill, except in areas where taller planting will not overwhelm the architecture.
By all means, keep it simple. A little of this and a little of that in a row will have the front of your house looking like the nursery the plants came from. The use of dwarf-growing plants, usually hollies, is very helpful in keeping the foundation planting from overwhelming the house. And by using a tiered planting of two or three plants you will achieve a softer, more subdued effect.
Next to over-planting the foundation, the next most common mistake is the incorrect placement of trees. A tree planted on either side of the sidewalk is definitely unimaginative, and an evenly spaced row at the curb is even worse. Your home, if you can see it, will look like an orchard. Instead, you should place the trees in an asymmetrical configuration, but with proper balance. And fat, dense trees such as the mulberry or magnolia are too concealing. Select small leafed or multi-trunk species such as red oak, live oak and little leaf elm. Keep them trimmed high so that your home is not hidden by a low barrier of foliage.
Now if you have survived the basic design test so far, I hope that you have not been tempted into other pitfalls. To name a few, never outline your planting with brick stacked at a 45 degree angle. If you relish the saw-toothed effect, you may as well contain your flower beds with old license plates or worn out tires. Use a simple, unobtrusive edging: good steel edging is easy to maintain and is hardly noticeable. Masonry boundaries can be useful, but keep them low and allow plenty of room for future growth of plant material -24 inches is a minimum. And by all means, do not outline your front walkway with shrubbery or flowers unless you would like Hansel and Gretel to stop in on their search for the gingerbread house.
If you are a flower lover, you will also have to resist the temptation of planting the front of your home with a potpourri of bedding plants you can’t resist bringing home from the nursery. If you want seasonal color, do it en masse and use a limited number of plant types and color. Well-groomed areas of pansies, tulips, petunias, dwarf marigolds and cala-diums can be very effective throughout the different growing seasons. But keep the hybrid tea roses, dahlias, bearded iris and hanging baskets in more intimate areas of the garden.
The use of sculpture in the gardenis an often-abused landscape consideration. If you can afford to buy reallygood original or even quality reproduction garden art, they can be anattribute to your intimate landscapeareas. However, with few exceptions,they should never be in obvious display in the front of your home.
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