What makes a good hardscape design?

Recently this was the question that was asked in a group discussion on a business networking web site I frequent. There were many great answers, and perspectives that were offered by both landscape architects and designers. For me however my answer had more to do with the basic use of the landscape space in question than anything else.

As designers we can be blessed with a client with an unlimited budget when it comes to materials, plants and all manner of various accoutrements but that budget makes no difference when it comes to designing a functional space that flows properly and most importantly, comfortably. My belief, and this is really in keeping with good design, is that no matter what type of hardscape materials are to be employed and no matter what type of plant material that is to be placed in the landscape none of it matters if the overall space is improperly conceived, laid out and installed. Now don't misunderstand. I'm not suggesting materials and plants aren't important because they certainly are. However what I am suggesting is we can use the best of everything but if the space is awkward, disjointed or otherwise uncomfortable in any way it will be abundantly clear and the space itself could become highly undesirable.

Now this notion may seem fairly evident, and hopefully it is, but as a client you might be very surprised to learn how the poor use of space can effect the use of a landscape. No client wants to find this out after spending their hard earned money on the installation of their landscape so it pays to think ahead about how you plan to use a space now and how you may plan to use a space in the future. Consider not only your present needs but your future needs.

To reiterate it makes little difference how much is spent on a landscape if the basic structure of that landscape and the effective use of the space are thought out poorly and hard to use, or similarly awkward or disjointed.

Tips on protecting plants from the cold from CLCA

In a recent article in Lawn and Landscape the California Landscape Contractors offered advice on how to keep plants safe as the temperature drops. It's a little late for the season but still practical advice:

Tips on protecting plants from the cold from CLCA

Well it's that time of year again........

This might seem odd coming from a blog about landscape design in the Mojave Desert of Southern California but it's true.....it's time to break out the advise regarding winter care of the landscape. If you aren't to familiar with the high desert of the Mojave here's a quick overview. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter! Yet, the heat isn't all that bad come to think about it. I mean in our area we only have about 3 months of temps that reach triple digits and it's usually quite dry - kinda like an oven! Yet these temps aren't as bad as they get "down the hill" as we locals like to say.

Case in point. Some days here in the high desert it may reach in the low 100's. In the low desert, the Palm Springs area, however it could be 10 maybe even 15 degrees warmer. So why am I talking about the heat when I'm really writing about the winter? Well, let's just say I miss it already!

This part of the Mojave Desert as some fairly unique and interesting weather where wide temperature swings of 30 sometimes even 40 degrees between daytime and nighttime are typical. Winter is no different - just reversed! Starting now in the late fall until just about mid spring this area can get quite cold with the aforementioned wide temperature swings. It's not unusual to have daytime temps pushing close to 70 degrees with nighttime lows below freezing. This type of environment can be extremely stressful for many plants. Couple that with days where the wind can gust up to 50 miles an hour and you have a recipe for tough growing conditions.

So here are just a few practical tips for shoring up your landscape for the coming winter:

Adjust your automatic sprinkler system - Set times for watering and watering days to account for shorter days and longer nights. Cut back on actual watering days simply because there isn't a need. Where you may have had the system run at 7 o'clock at night for 20 minutes during the summer set it to start at 4pm for ten minutes. Adjusting the run times for each valve in the system and cutting back on the watering days will definitely save money. These simple steps will prevent ice from forming.

Wrap all out door exposed pipes - It just makes good sense at this time of year to wrap all exposed out plumbing with insulation tubes and duct tape. Works wonders and will save the hassle of hearing that noise when a pipe suddenly bursts.

Inspect all trees and shrubs - Carefully inspect all trees and shrubs for any damaged or broken limbs and remove the damage promptly. This is especially important for all trees in that any overhanging branches could pose a serious problem to power lines, structures or other property such as cars.

Inspect rain gutters - Inspect, repair and clean rain gutters to ensure they will function properly during the winter. Even though we don't get much rain in the desert we can get a enough to cause damage during a significant storm.

Winterize all planting beds - Now is a great time to clean and dress all planting beds in the landscape. Rake up all leaves and compost them for free fertilizer in the spring. Apply four to six inches of clean straw or pine needles (wind protected areas only) or chopped/shredded bark. Make sure to cover the drip line under each plant. If your yard is equipped with drainage make sure those drains are cleared of any debris. This could dertainly prevent any possible flooding.

Inspect walks and patios - This is a good time to inspect all walks and patios for damage and repair them as needed. No matter what type of material these walks or patios may be water can get under any cracks or damaged areas and coupled with the effects of heaving (freeze/thaw) serious damaged can result which could prove costly to repair in the future.

These are just a few (out of the many) things that you can perform right now to ensure that your landscape is properly winterized.

Stress your plants

Just the other day I received a panicked phone call from a client who is vacationing in Hawaii until mid-August. It seems a very conscientious neighbor of theirs called them to let them know that a few weeks ago there was a power outage in the area and that the grass and plants were dying. To be honest I would panic too! It would appear that it isn't all that convenient to drop everything to check your irrigation system 3,000 miles away! So they called me and asked if I would take a look at the landscape and recheck the irrigation timer system. Glad to do it I said. Truth be told I'm grateful I could help.

I'm very pleased to report that the overall landscape was coming in just great. The lawn and for the most part all the plants looked great. Although there are a few areas that are a concern. The row of Nandina's that were planted don't seem to be doing so well. And one of the White Birch's of the three that were planted seems to be drooping somewhat. I suspect that over watering might actually be the culprit so I'll definitely what to keep an eye on that.

And yet this illustrates a valuable point when our automatic watering systems are set run everyday.

This system in particular was set to run twice a day for everything; the lawn, the trees and the shrubs. Specifically the system was set to water the lawn for 15 minutes in the morning, and 10 in the afternoon. Unfortunately this type of watering pattern is never as effective as we might think. In nature it never rains for just 15 minutes and never everyday (well it does depend on where one lives!). In the High Desert area of the Mojave Desert where Victorville is located we can expect, on average, roughly 6 to 8 inches of rain a year. A year! There are areas that get this much rain in just a few days! Couple that with wide temperature swings from day to night of 40 degrees or more and you can well imagine that managing the irrigation of plants can be quite challenging indeed.

The safer bet, and one that will actually promote healthy root systems of the lawn and plants by mitigating the possibly of soil fungus's and molds, would be to set the irrigation system to increase the station run times and increase the watering interval between days. For example, what I did was to increase the watering times to 20 minutes each cycle. This ensures a long enough time for the water to begin to reach the deep root zone of the lawn and the shrubs, and I turned the system completely off for Tuesday and Thursday.

This will cause the top of the root zone to dry out slightly and promote a healthy root system by forcing the roots deeper into the soil to get the "water fix" it needs. This will basically "stress" the plants a bit by causing the plant to have to "stretch out" it's root system to find adequate water. This is a good kind of plant stress. This also prevents soil "water logging" and the leaching of valuable nutrients and oxygen found in the soil.

A longer more continuous watering run time is much more effective than many short, daily bursts of water. These tend to saturate the top later of the soil but never really seem effective at reaching the deeper roots zone. Allowing the top layer of the soil to dry out somewhat will ensure that the root system will begin to grow deeper into the soil as the water level begins to reach deeper into the soil. As we get later on into the year I'll offer some additional tips that can be real money savers and integral steps to ensure a healthy and water conserving lawn.

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.

Kaleidoscope your Abelia

Here's a great, fast growing and compact Abelia grandiflora called 'Kaleidoscope' that would be a great addition to your landscape. It is a very colorful, dense and low mounding shrub that grows 24 to 30 inches tall by 36 to 42 inches wide. It has bright red stems holding strongly variegated leaves that are bright yellow with a light green center in the spring. Gradually these change to golden yellow with a green center in the summer and then in the fall and winter turn a combination of golden yellow, bright orange, and fiery red. They look really cool! Now the flowers are typical Abelia. They start as very light pink buds and open up to small, white, tubular flowers.

I've now used this plant in a couple of designs recently and I have been very blessed with good results and performance with wonderful comments from my clients. I have noticed that just like all Abelia's it seems these can get a bit "leggy" but that can tend to be very attractive and desirable for some clients. Regular maintenance will help.

Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope' is hardy in USDA Zones 6 to 10. It works great as a container planting and as a low mounding accent plant in the garden it is a wonderful choice for mass plantings, which is something that appeals to my design style. The foliage does not scorch or bleach in full sun as do some other variegated Abelia cultivars do but be sure to give the plant some afternoon shade if possible. The plant likes most soil types but does perform poorly in heavy, poorly drained soils that are very high Ph. So make sure to amend the soil if necessary.

Enjoy!

The Environmental and Economic Benefits of Good Design

The many challenges of the design professional have become even more evident as our clients environmental awareness changes and becomes much more enhanced. Yet our client is still looking for great value in these tough economic times. While it may have been commonplace for the design professional to emphasize the benefits of good environmental design to the client in years past, this is not as necessary true anymore because it is the client that is now insisting in responsible environmental design.

Educated clients are investing in their property much more carefully than before because of economic impact and yet considering the environment in what they want in their landscape like never before. It goes without saying that it is essential for the landscape design professional to know their client’s concerns for the environment and their desires for their overall landscape more than ever before.

Of course good design has always offered both environmental and economic benefits so as design professionals we should welcome these added challenges. From the strategic placement of shade trees and evergreens, which benefits the client in reducing energy costs, to the efficient use of irrigation in reducing water use, it seems that the client is becoming vitally aware of many aspects of the design of good design. If we as design professionals don’t know the positive benefits of what we do, it is a now a good bet that many of our prospective clients do, so it is vital we communicate effectively with them regarding what we do.

Case in point, I actually at one time prided myself on telling potential clients, “I don’t promise I can save my clients money.” Whew, what a dummy I can be sometime! Needless to say, I don’t make this foolish statement anymore. In fact I am not shy anymore in expressing to my potential clients that I can provide a landscape design that can eventually save with both energy and water consumption. A well-designed landscape will work well with environment, not against it, and this will obviously result in less energy and water consumption as well as lower maintenance costs.

The attitudes and desires of the landscape design client are shifting. Educated clients regarding the environmental impact and economic concerns for their project can make good landscape design a priority for them. The client may not always directly see the potential benefit initially of a perceived benefit but explained in detail and properly and the client is much more likely to embrace what is being offered.

The client’s level of concern for environmental and economic issues is indeed changing, yet this can only be seen as a positive for our industry in the years to come. In positioning our services and expertise to enhance both the environmental and economic concerns of our clients our industry and our business reputation can only increase.