Happy New Year. Let's all have a great 2017 and say good riddance to 2016! But before I can do that, I am going to explain the trees I selected for the Ecological Backyard Design I showed in November. If you remember, I left off explaining the evergreens I used in the design. … [Read more...]
Ecological Backyard Landscape Design
In today's post, we will look at a backyard landscape designed to do two things. First and foremost, it will look great in each of the four seasons. Secondly, it will benefit the environment instead of being a burden on it that most landscape designs end up being. … [Read more...]
Naturalistic Front Yard landscape design
Let's use some of the big ideas I have talked about in other posts to make a Naturalistic Front Yard landscape design. I have done front yard designs before, including one last year for my old little neglected ranch house. While I did mix it up a bit with some more interesting plant choices than the typical landscaper might use (no spireas in that design thank goodness), I admit it is still pretty shall we say "landscapy". … [Read more...]
Planting Plugs is a Cheap and Easy Way to Plant a Landscape
Why is planting plugs instead of larger plants in a landscape often a better idea? Let's start planting the landscape design for my backyard and I'll show you. Since I am a gardener and not a landscaper, we will be installing this design over time. Why have all the fun at once when it can be spread over the years. If I was a landscaper, I would want you to buy the largest (most expensive) plant possible, certainly not plugs! … [Read more...]
Backyard Landscape design finished
Lets get back to that backyard landscape design we have been working on and lets finish it up. … [Read more...]
Moving from functional diagram to design
The last time we looked at our landscape design, we had completed the functional diagram. To refresh our memory, it looked like this: … [Read more...]
Landscape Functional diagram, a key step in creating a landscape design
Now that we have completed our base plan (see post), it's time to go back to our list of goals for our landscape and start putting them on top of our base plan by creating a landscape functional diagram. If you have drawn a base plan on paper, it's easiest to do this using a piece of tracing paper overlaid on top our our completed base plan. … [Read more...]
Finishing our Base Map adding sun, shade, and wind
I know what you are thinking, how hard can it be to figure out where you have shade in your yard? Do I really need to read a blog post on this? … [Read more...]
Simple Plant combos can be a solution to a garden area
Do you have an area in your landscape where you would like to add color and texture? Perhaps a simple plant combo can be a low maintenance solution for you. … [Read more...]
Looking at a site’s landscape soils
A couple of posts ago, we left off with our landscape design by creating a base plan. Lets continue the design process by starting our site assessment looking at our landscape soils. … [Read more...]