There’s nothing wrong with a K.I.S.S.

Yep, that’s right….Keep It Short and Simple or in my case anyway, Keep It Simple Stupid!

In my mind and from my experience the best landscape designs are always those that are, from a visual standpoint, the most simple. They almost always exude an air of style and sophistication that is unmatched. Clean plantings done in mass. The stunning use of architectural plants. As a reminder let’s keep in mind that simplicity is not always the opposite of complexity and does not imply simplistic, boring or convey a lack of imagination. Rather, simplicity for the most part avoids the use of too many plants and plant species, too many textures, too many shapes, too many focal points, and/or too many curves or angles within a specific area or within an overall landscape.

This principle is the one area where I see most homeowners and yes, even designers such as myself, can generally and most oftentimes err. I have to include myself because I have fallen into the same trap of thinking I have to do more than is necessary on a number of occasions.

I think this is why it is important for me, for anyone really, to spend a little extra time visualizing the space, trying to envision what the site will look like in just a few short years.; trying to determine how the design will look when it isn’t maintained properly; trying to gauge how the overall design will look for many different views.

In a recently completed design that I did for a property that had a nice view of the Victor Valley and the surrounding mountains I literally used just too many plants in my initial planting plan. Now I knew the plants I wanted to use along with the colors, textures and styles of the plants I was going to use, I just simply used too much! So, I stepped away from the design. Gave it a day or two. And started to replant the plan. Once I finished paring down most of the excess I was still looking at a planting plan that included over 100 plants! Wow!

Granted a number of these plants are one gallon perennials and small 4″ pots of native grasses and the lot after all is fairly large, certainly able to accommodate all the varieties of plants I decided to use. Yet I think this still illustrates a very valuable point. In the process of landscape design there really is no substitute for simplicity! No matter what type or style of landscape you prefer a design that accentuates simplicity will often, for the most part, be the most visually appealing, look better after several years and may even be able to take occasional neglect much better.

So here’s a tip. If you aren’t too sure about what you are doing in terms of direction, how you think something will look after a few years, or if things will be maintained properly then just take a step back and rethink things.

Most of the time you’ll be glad you did.