Taking Stock

Although designing a creative landscape can often seem like quite a daunting task, you will be surprised at how much of the design process is dictated by conditions beyond your control. These include existing land conditions, climatic conditions, and existing landscape features, all of which really do give you a starting point, even if you are starting from bare earth. The idea is to evaluate these conditions at the beginning, and from them develop the template for moving ahead with your plan.

	Carefully examine your starting point, taking everything into account both on and off your property

There is only one more thing to do before we can start designing our perfect landscape; we must take stock of our existing landscape. The idea of having an existing landscape may only seem like a dream to you. You may only have a house standing on a bare patch of earth, or you may have a fully established landscape that you want to renovate. Either way, it is critically important to examine the starting conditions for your landscape, because they will factor into your plans in a big way.

The first thing to do is examine your environment, the particulars of your little part of the world. Since plants will play a major role in your future landscape, you should know your climatic realities. Start with the obvious but important general climatic factors of your area; your hardiness zone, the annual precipitation in your region, and the frost free period. Know your seasonal variations and extremes. Are the winters long or short, cold or mild? Are summers hot and dry, or sticky and humid? In which season do you get most of your precipitation? What are the prevailing winds in your region? What is the typical depth of snow cover of your area? All of this information will help determine the correct plants to use in your landscape.

That addresses the macroclimate, the weather characteristics unique to your greater region. Now let’s examine what is called the “mesoclimate”, which is the climatic influences on a smaller scale. Do you live in a city or a town, or on a farm in the countryside? Cities are often slightly warmer than the surrounding countryside, due to increased human activity, the heat-trapping effects of asphalt and pavement, and abundant shelter from existing buildings and forests. As a result, they can be almost half a zone higher, with a slightly longer growing season as well. A well-established shelterbelt can have the same impact on a rural property, and if you are landscaping in the northern countryside you will find that a shelterbelt may be mandatory to support any landscape at all.

Finally, examine the “microclimate”, the very specific climatic differences within your own property. The most important aspect is wind and shelter. Do you have any exposed areas subject to frequent strong and drying winds? What degree of shelter do you have on your property and where? Does it provide protection from the prevailing winds? Look for ready-made shelter such as beside the house, or adjacent to a structure on the property. Study each side of your property, and include a look at what is off-property, such as forests or other homes, and how these might influence exposure.

Examine the contours of your property from a climatic perspective. Are there low spots that will collect frost? Are there higher spots that may be more favorable to growing fruit trees or vegetable gardens? Study the patterns of light, the progression of the sunshine throughout the course of the day. Where is there continuous shade, and where is the sunlight hot and direct?

A shelterbelt is almost mandatory for exposed country landscapes

Do the microclimates change with the seasons? For example, you might have deciduous trees that provide shelter and shade in summer, but let in direct sunlight and wind in winter after the leaf drop. Microclimate often plays the largest role in landscape design, as you seek to maximize favorable influences, and minimize negative ones.

You should make a listing of all of these characteristics. Look for the ones you can change in your landscape; controlling wind by creating shelter, improving annual precipitation by employing irrigation, creating sunlight by clearing existing trees or creating shade by adding them. Also understand the limitations of the ones you can’t change so easily; growing season, minimum temperatures and hardiness zones.

My Little Heaven

One universal ingredient of any landscape in the world is land. By becoming a property owner, you have accepted the responsibility to beautify and maintain a small portion of this earth. At first glance, property seems like just a slab of land. You may notice some features; maybe some trees, grass, a small mound. But look a little deeper; where does the water go when it rains? What is really going on underground? This is the point where we must look closer at the details of your piece of property, and how they will influence your landscape design.

Probably the best investment you can make into your property is in site analysis and preparation. Think of the land as the foundation for all future activity in your design. It is like the foundation that holds up your house; you wouldn’t use just any grade of concrete or some random thickness of walls, because then entire future of your house is built on this foundation. The same is true for your landscape. There is absolutely no point investing large sums of money on beautiful tall trees and exotic play structures if the soil won’t support them or if small lakes form when it rains.

Drainage is one of the most critical factors in your landscape. The objective of drainage is to direct water off your property in a controlled manner. Standing water will eventually kill trees, shrubs and grass, while rapidly flowing water will erode the land. You will need to examine the grade of your property, looking for low spots. In general, the land should gradually slope away from the house in all directions towards the property lines, to direct water to the municipal drainage channels. This is a job best done by professional surveyors, who know what to look for. You should also check with your county or municipal offices to see what the grade setting should be for the property as a whole, and any regulations for slopes across the yard. Remember, drainage must work on a community level, and no one will appreciate you for sending your water onto their property.

	Try and work with existing landscape features by enhancing them rather than paying to have them changed

Examine your existing soil. What is the soil type and structure? What is the pH? Do your have adequate topsoil (at least 6” depth), or is there useless excavation backfill around your property? Soil has two functions; it must hold up your house and landscape structures, and it must support the growth of your plants. Structurally, you need soil with some strength and rigidity to support structures. Clays are very strong, while sandy soil is more difficult to work with. The opposite is almost true for plants; clay soils are heavy, compact easily and retain water, while lighter soils are better for root development. Plants in general require a blended soil with a balance of clay, silt, sand and organic materials for optimal growth. Since most soils do not fit this description, you may wish to consider bringing in specially blended topsoil as a dressing for your property.

Soil pH and fertility are also concerns for plant growth. Clay soils tend to be overly alkaline, while sandy soils tend to be overly acidic, neither of which are good for general plant use. It is possible to amend soil pH and structure by adding sand, silt or organic material. You are well advised to get a soil sample taken by your local extension office or a private lab, who can also make recommendations for soil amendments. Trust me, your plants will thank you for it in the long run.

Take note of the existing features of your landscape. Look at existing plants; trees, shrubs, lawn, groundcovers. Are they generally healthy, or are any in need of rejuvenation or replacing? Don’t be too hasty about removing existing plants unless you have a very specific reason; it takes years for trees and shrubs to reach their full potential, so try and work with what you have. Look at existing structures in your landscape; buildings, sheds, roads and paths, even the house. Are any in need of renovation? Are you happy with their function and appearance? If you are planning changes, a landscape renovation is the right time to implement these changes.

Set aside a part of your landscape for a service and utility area

You need to know your local laws and regulations. Go to your county or municipal offices and obtain copies of the relevant bylaws and ordinances, and know how they will impact your design aspirations. There are often bylaws regarding slope and drainage, structures, decks and railings, or accesses, and they typically vary from city to city or county to county. Some subdivisions have specific ordinances regarding acceptable plants or materials, to keep a harmony throughout the neighborhood. You will also need to know if any permits are required, and if inspections are necessary. Some of these services may be at a cost to you. In general, know these things well in advance, so that they can be planned into the implementation phase. You don’t want any unexpected surprises once you’ve started work on your dream.

Since landscaping typically involves working in the ground, you must know the exact location of all underground services and hazards, be they gas, electrical or telephone. Contact your local utilities to obtain the locations of underground services and hazards, and be sure to mark these off on both your plan and in your actual landscape when working. Many services have setbacks or easements, which stipulate that you can’t restrict access to these underground runs with plants or structures. In the planning stage, be sure to leave sufficient access to all services and sufficient clearance from hazards, and by all means, keep all underground or digging activities well away from these hazards.

Your Home, The Centerpiece

In modern landscapes, there is absolutely no doubt that the home is the focal point, the centerpiece of your composition. It certainly plays this role in your life, because this is the place you eat, sleep, relax and play, the place where you will live over half your life. It also adopts this role in the landscaping sense, both in recognition of its importance to our daily lives, and in a visual sense. Because homes are typically centered on the property, because so much is invested in making them look beautiful both inside and outside, and because this is where your family and friends congregate, it must be treated separately and distinctly in the context of the overall plan.

	A subtle front landscape complements the natural beauty of your house

You are probably keenly aware of the outside features of your home. Take a moment to refresh yourself, looking closely at the details. Think about the style of your house; is it modern contemporary, the typical suburban bungalow? Is it more Victorian, maybe colonial? Does it seem to lean towards one specific style? Look at the exterior finishing materials, starting from the front and working your way around the house. Note the colors used, the textures, any distinctive materials, maybe local stonework, or a distinctive color relating to the native gravel type. When designing for harmony and unity in your landscape, it will be important to use materials that fit with the style and finish of your home, and to stay away from sharp contrasts.

You should also obtain a copy of your house plan. Study this carefully, noting the location of the main entrance points, popular traffic entries and exits, the location of the kitchen, the accesses to the yard, etc. Plan your entertaining to flow easily from the house to the yard, with cooking areas linked to the kitchen. Think about how guests will get to the outdoor entertaining areas of your yard when they come to visit. How will they get there from inside the house? All major traffic ways throughout the yard should be referenced to the house, preferably originating or ending at the house, following the logical paths that people would naturally feel comfortable taking.

Take a look out of each of the major windows of the house from the inside, especially those that are not closed with drapes during the day. Note the views; are there some you like, others you don’t? Could you strategically place a tree or two to frame a particularly beautiful view off your property, or could a hedge or screening tree fill an empty view or block an undesirable view? Think of the windows you use the most, maybe the kitchen or living room windows. Could you strategically place a garden, a rare ornamental tree, or possibly a bird feeder strategically so that you can enjoy the view from such windows? Maybe you could plant a fragrant garden under a window that you like to keep open in summer.

Look at the light and shade patterns. Can you arrange a planting using deciduous trees to provide for the warming summer sun in winter, but to shade the hot sun in summer? Where do you favor outdoor shade that restricts direct sunlight into the windows of the house, and where you value the sunlight in your home? If you have a sunroom, how will you ensure that it gets sunlight at the times you want it?

Spend some time looking at your house from the outside. Are there any features or parts of the house that are best hidden with a creative planting or fencing? It is common in modern landscapes to plant a “foundation garden”, which essentially uses low shrubs and flowers to hide the foundation line of the house from the public view, generally making the home’s appearance more interesting, as well as tying it’s main features to the ground. Are there any features you want to accentuate? You can use ground level uplighting to emphasize particularly attractive features at night, or the enframement of a tasteful small accent tree. One such technique is to frame a beautiful bay window with tall columnar accent shrubs which draw attention to this feature by bordering it with a living green.

The dynamic shapes and accents of plants can be used to modify the strong lines of a house

Look at the lines created by the home. Look for sharp and uninterrupted lines. Strong vertical lines, such as a steep corner of a 2-story house, can be softened with round accent shrubs or trees at the sides, while long horizontal planes, for example the long side of a bungalow, can be broken with tall, columnar trees and shrubs, especially those that will extend over the height of the house. Remember that the plants you use for these purposes have to grow within the scale of the home; tall plants for a tall home, smaller plants for a small home. Look for excessive visual masses, such as a large, blank and featureless side of the house. These masses are distracting to the eye, and can be broken with a planting of large shrubs or very small trees, which look especially powerful when planted as 3-4 shrubs grouped together.

Since virtually all homes have some utility provisions on at least one side of the house, it is wise in a landscaping design to reserve this area for a general utility section. Acknowledge this as a service area, and design to hide or baffle it from the general public view, even from your private space views. This is a good area to put other utility-type structures and functions, such as a storage or garden shed, maybe a clothesline or a woodpile. When designing the house, try and keep all the services and utilities to a single side, so that they will not restrict your future opportunities.

The Bigger Picture

Unless you are a professed hermit, your landscape is inevitably a part of a bigger picture, a picture which is made up of the homes and yards in your neighborhood. In turn, the neighborhoods combine to form your community, communities to form your city or town, your state or province, etc. Every region has a style, because every group of people inevitably makes a common statement with the way they present themselves; that is human nature. Recognize that your landscape has to exist in this community, and that a beautiful landscape is really a balance between what you want, and what the neighboring people expect it to be.

	Your landscape should blend in well with the surrounding homes and styles

Make an effort to study your neighborhood and your surroundings. The important thing here is to look for commonalities, elements that unify the many otherwise diverse homes and yards in the community. This will be different for every community, but here are some pointers. Do people employ common trees or plants, maybe those native to your region? Are there common colors or common styles, maybe local materials that are repeated across the yards? Is your particular neighborhood known for any unique and distinctive features that can be integrated into your landscape?

Spend the time to walk both on and off your property. Walk everywhere the public has general access to with a view onto your yard, and look carefully at what you see of your home and your yard. Look at the existing features, good and bad, and what you might want to change. Look also for what is not there, something you may want to add to either block a view or to enhance a view. Pretend you are the general public, seeing your home for the very first time, and look objectively at what they will see. Be critical and honest, because you are at a stage in the landscape design where you can do something about it.

Pay close attention to those living next to you, your neighbors on all sides. You will do them a great favor by making the view onto your yard pleasing and artistic, highlighting the elements that are beautiful, and screening those that are not. If you have a beautiful accent tree, share the view with them. Afford them the courtesy of planning your entire landscape not only for your benefit, but with them in mind. Be sure that your messy trees don’t leave messes on their yard. If you plan on sunbathing in the nude on your deck (illegal in most states!!), at least give them the dignity of a good, thick hedge! That’s maybe a drastic example, but you get the idea that they will appreciate these efforts, because you would expect the same courtesy from them.

Sharing your landscape with your neighbors can make it look larger than it actually is

There are also tricks to expanding your landscape that involve your neighbors. It is possible to “borrow” landscaping space from your neighbors, a particularly valuable technique if all of you have small properties. As a rule, rigid delineation of property lines is a sure-fire way to make your property seem small. If you completely eliminate any indications of property lines, no fences, no hedges along the lines, and if you work with your neighbors towards some degree of commonality, then it will actually be difficult for passersby to see where your landscape ends and your neighbors’ begin, thus giving the illusion of a much larger landscape for all. I hope this is one message you take with you from this guide; optical illusions go a long way to making things seem other than what they are, and good landscapers will use this to their advantage.

To Change or Not To Change?

One of the toughest parts of landscaping is making the hard decisions, among the hardest being whether to change something or to leave it the way it is. I hope you have seen from this guide that sometimes change is inevitable, even if it incurs cost or temporary hardship. Working the grade of the land, preparing the soil or amending it if required, controlling erosion; these are things that will be most appreciated later on when your landscape matures, probably because you WON’T be thinking about them.

	Mature landscapes offer a great starting point for landscape enhancement

However, the case is different for everyone, and so I can only suggest how you should approach the decision, not what decision is right for you. The first and most important thing for you to know is your constraints, your personal limitations. These may be financial, they may relate to the time expectations of your landscape, they may relate to your physical ability to undertake major changes. Be sure you are honest about what you are prepared to undertake from all these perspectives, but be equally as honest about what limitations this decision will impose on your design. Again, there is no point scrimping on correcting soil or drainage because you want to plant an expensive tree in your yard; if standing water caused by poor drainage kills the tree, what have you gained?

As a baseline rule, there are deficiencies that you really should change if at all possible. Poor drainage, poor soil composition or pH, or soil compaction should be corrected, because any landscape will suffer with these. Exposure is impossible to work with under virtually any circumstance, so you really should consider planting protective trees or other structures to block the prevailing winds. Country properties need shelterbelts, there is no way around this. Hazards must go; very old trees in danger of falling down should be removed. Rickety old structures should be demolished or replaced.

Try and retain existing features such as mature trees when starting a new landscape

There are also things that don’t really need to be changed, things that you can actually learn to live with. An existing stand of trees or forest can be used to your advantage if you can use them as backdrops or if you are prepared to work with shade gardens. Rather than pay for expensive grade corrections, slopes can be planted with naturalizing plants to control erosion, or terraced with small retaining walls and gardens. Old shrubs can be rejuvenated with a proper pruning, and overgrown gardens can be opened up and brought back to life with a careful thinning.

The bottom line is that if you are undertaking a landscape project, whether on a new property or renovating an existing landscape, this is the right time to make changes, because it will become increasingly difficult to implement these changes once everything is in place.