Planning Your Garden's Design

One of the first steps in creating a landscape design is to generate as many ideas as possible. Learning from some of the well-landscaped properties in your area will help a great deal. First, you will have undoubtedly noticed how quality landscaping dramatically increases the image of any home and how a skimpy, ill-thought-out design can detract tremendously from the appearance of an otherwise attractive dwelling. It's no secret that quality landscaping greatly increases the aesthetic and monetary value of any property.

EVALUATE YOUR PROPERTY

After you have begun to develop ideas based on your likes and dislikes, it's time to evaluate the design of your own landscape. As you look at your home from the front, does the sun rise over the kitchen on the left and set over the master bedroom on the right? If it does, then the patio in the back faces south and your front yard faces north. Under most circumstances, south and west are your sunniest exposures with east and then north receiving the least direct sunlight throughout the course of a day.

With this in mind, remember that from daffodils and daylilies, to roses and magnolias, the large majority of flowering trees, shrubs and perennials prefer full sun conditions. Recall however, that these exposures are simply guides and do not take into consideration obstructions between the sun and locations in your garden. A grouping of large oaks or pines could for all practical purposes create a very shady environment in a portion of landscape facing south!

As far as your soil is concerned, is it light and sandy or heavy and clay-like? What is its pH? Most ornamentals prefer the soil pH to be approximately 6.5 to 6.8. Ericaceous plants prefer much more highly organic, acidic soil conditions. Although garden soils may need some adjustment for a particular plant or two, most are quite serviceable for the large majority of ornamentals we choose.

Finally, does your kitchen look out over rolling farm country or does it open to the back of an ugly building or an ill-kept billboard that you desperately need to screen? With these questions in mind, determine the positive and negative attributes of your property as each is a critical factor in achieving a workable and distinctive garden design.

LIFESTYLES

All of our lives are different. Some of us are married with three small children, while others have recently retired. One of the biggest mistakes made in developing gardens is not considering how closely the landscape design complements our ages, jobs and even lifestyles. A landscape with a large, high-maintenance perennial garden might not be the best choice for a young, busy executive, or even for the retired couple who travels for numerous weeks each year visiting friends and family in neighboring states. Landscapes should complement, not burden their owners. Whatever your situation, taking an inventory of what you need and expect from your ideal landscape design will assure that the final creation works for and not against you!

THINKING LONG TERM

Owning the same property for three years may be "long term" if you are a young, upwardly mobile professional. On the other hand, you may live in the same rural farmhouse built by your grandfather. It's obvious that "long term" has different meanings for different people. The important thing is to plan and design your landscape to best fit your own particular needs as far as you can foresee into the future.

Thinking long term can also mean considering how you, your family and your garden will mature through time together. If your children are 10 and 12 years old, the swing set and adjoining backyard playground probably have only a few more years of useful life. Is that area of the landscape a prime location for the herb garden you always wanted? Or perhaps it would be better suited to grow cut flowers, especially those that attract the many butterflies.

HIGH-MAINTENANCE PLANTS

Most of us have favorite plants. For some it may be a particular iris or lily whereas for others, a showy tulip or hyacinth really catches their eye. Regardless of how much you like a particular plant, be sure that excessive maintenance requirements do not keep you from enjoying its positive features. Many ornamentals boast some of the most fragrant and colorful flowers imaginable but fall flat on their face given a long list of finicky cultural requirements or unreasonably high susceptibility to insects or disease.

Roses can certainly be affected by their share of diseases and more than a few crab apples have been known to contract cedar-apple rust or scab. This doesn't mean all roses should be avoided nor does it mean every crab apple is a poor choice for the landscape. Where some, especially older varieties should be avoided, others are admirable in their resistance to diseases while also boasting superb flowers, fruit and form.

Not all species or cultivars within the same genus are created equal. Though some selections of the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) are highly susceptible to powdery mildew, the leaves of all lilacs are not prone to developing the ugly white film caused by this disease. The Japanese lilac (S. reticulata) is more pest-resistant than the common lilac and displays a wide range of favorable ornamental features.