April 15, 2014

How To Design Your Edible Landscape Like a Pro Part 1

This patio needs privacy for entertainment and sunbathing. Before and after five years later.

This patio needs privacy for entertainment and sunbathing. Before and after five years later.

It’s Saturday morning, the sun is shining, and the temperature is perfect. What would you be doing right now in your outdoor space?

Relaxing? That’s a great idea.

Pulling weeds from your raised beds or admiring your organic veggies? Ok, plan for a sunny spot!

Walk around your current landscape and visualize your paradise. Don’t make this HUGE decision in the moment!

Look outside through your windows. What do you WANT to see? Remember, your landscape will change through the seasons. (The evergreens stay the same, but deciduous plants will lose their leaves).

Weekend Warrior

Do you love a green grass lawn or do you want to remove the turf so there is less weekly work?

  • If you want lawn, design your future planting beds so you can easily mow around them. Pick shapes like circles and half moons.
  • If you have children or want to entertain large groups of people, it’s a good idea to keep some lawn, especially in your front yard. Or consider a patio made from stone, brick, or concrete.
Nosy Neighbors Nearby?

Do you need privacy screening?

  • Install evergreen trees like Arborvitae (Thuja) or Holly(Ilex). 
  • Space the plants according to the plant tags so they will grow together more quickly, making a privacy hedge.
Organic Edible Landscaping
Raised Beds for Edible Landscaping Before and After

Raised Beds for Edible Landscaping Before and After

  • Consider evergreen plants and raised beds or containers. Line is a design principle. Evergreens and raised beds give strong straight edges that frame your outdoor space.
  • You must have 6+ hours of direct sunlight. That means the southern side of your home is best. West is good too.
  • Perennials like rosemary, parsley, oregano, and mint are easy to maintain and live for years!
  • Basil is a great choice for your first edible. It loves the heat of summer.
Professional Layout Process

This is my personal process for initial layout (after walking the property).

  • Use flags on metal stakes to arrange the location of beds and plants. Or use a garden hose to create bed shapes. Or place new plants in their pots if you’ve already bought them. Move things around.
  • Install plants of various sizes in groups of odd numbers. Odd numbers create a center plant that will be the focal point for they eye.
  • Triangles (formed by three plants) are patterns that please the eye. Make the distances unmatched if using informal style design. Groups of three never go out of style
  • Start with small plants or a small area of your landscape the first year. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. I recommend starting with the foundation of your home. Plant evergreen shrubs around the foundation. This is pleasing to the eye and the shrubs will be near a water hose for easy care giving.
  • Plant choices are based on sun exposure and your cold hardiness zone. Ask your local garden center for plant recommendations, as well. Don’t forget to read the plant tags when shopping.
  • Looking for energy savings? Plant a deciduous shade tree on the south western side of the home for summer time shade. The tree will provide cooling shade in the Summer and allow light and radiant heat to enter your home in the Winter because the leaves will be off.

Do you have your vision? This helps frame your budget in Step 2.

Filed Under: Edible Landscaping, Landscape Design, Right Plant In The Right Place
March 21, 2014

How To Design Your Landscape Like A Pro…Color Choices

Colors define the landscape. When you think about a memorable landscape, color is always remembered.

Use the color wheel as your guide. Two hots with one cool color is great.

Use the color wheel as your guide. Two hots with one cool color is great.

Start With Green

Pros repeat colors throughout a landscape. It starts with your home. If it has blue accents in red brick, consider blue gray green evergreens. They’ll look great.

What is your shutter color? What is your roof color? What is your trim color? Make your landscape match these or compliment.

Pick Your Three Favorite Colors

Determine your favorite colors you want to see in your landscape. This is one of the most important decisions you make. My personal favorites are pink, purple, blue, and white.Designers classify colors in two categories.

Hot Colors

If they are hot like red, pink, or orange, they scream energy and passion. They say Let’s Go! They increase energy level to the viewer. They exude passion and get the blood flowing.

Lime Yellow is a hot color that catches the eye.

Lime Yellow sweet potato vine (Margarite) is a hot color that catches the eye. Notice the green lettuce is calming.

Cool Colors

Cool colors like blue, white, and purple are calming. They reflect tranquility and peacefulness. Cool colors relax you while hot colors entice. Mixing the two like choosing two cools and one hot color create a juxtaposition. They fight.

An easy way to determine a professional design from an amateur is to count the colors. Is there order and consistency? Or is every color under the rainbow used? It’s not imperative that only three colors are used, but it’s pleasing to the eye. Here are basic guidelines to color choice.

  • Choose two or three hot/cool colors and one opposite cool/hot color
  • Base your landscape around the selected colors. Search plants that contain these colors.
  • Don’t forget green! There is blue-green, grey-green, lime-green, dark green, etc. It’s fine to mix different kinds of green throughout your landscape
  • Consider having a hot color landscape in the sunny part of the yard. Cool colors work great in the shade.
  • Blue is the rarest color found in plants.
  • Pink, purple, and white are found in hundreds, if not thousands of flowers.
  • Don’t ignore foliage. Trees can have purple leaves and many plants have interesting foliage colors like the annual Coleus.
The blue agave and dark green Japanese holly match the blue-gray roof and shutters. The yellow leaf coral bark Japanese Maple is the hot color.

The blue agave and dark green Japanese holly match the blue-gray roof and shutters. The yellow leaf coral bark Japanese Maple is the hot color.

Realize that it’s ok to choose every color, but a professional designer wouldn’t do this. Understand that creates a lot of color for the eye to take in and it can seem overwhelming. As long as you like it, it’s perfectly fine.

 

Filed Under: Edible Landscaping, Landscape Design
March 14, 2014

How to Design Your Landscape like a Pro…Proper Plant Spacing

Cool season vegetables in a cedar raised bed.

Cool season vegetables in a cedar raised bed.

Do you want to avoid messing up your landscape in a hurry?

  • Don’t space your plants too close together…

Plants need space to flourish and become self sufficient. Sunlight creates healthy branching.

Without proper space, sunlight is blocked by other plants and the shrub will become stunted and grow weird. I’ll explain this later.

Even avid gardeners are guilty of dense planting. (It’s ok to plant your veggies close together if you are harvesting every other one…)

I’ll give one exception to this rule.
Green velvet boxwood transplanted Fall 2013.

Boxwood hedge planted densely to grow together quickly.

If you want to develop a privacy screening hedge quickly, space the plants closer than the tag says. This is the only exception I have today. For everything else, follow the guidelines from a reference like university websites, plant tag, or ag. extension recommendation.

Just Do This One Thing Or You’ll Be Sorry

Read the spacing guidelines on the tag at the garden center.

The plants may look funny and far apart now, but you’ll be glad you spaced them in five years.

  • Proper spacing saves you money because you’ll need less plants.

If the tag says the plant will reach 10′ tall x 10′ wide, then leave at least 8′ between the plants.

After you’ve made a purchase and brought your plants home, space them with a measuring tape while they are still in the container. Visualize what they space will look like in five years using the researched spacing guidelines.

I regularly use flags on metal stakes to arrange the location of beds and plants before I purchase. Rocks and bricks also make excellent markers for your plant layout.

Drive and walk by the proposed bed and visualize what the project will look like when completed. Move the plant markers around. I commonly move them two times over a week period.

Remember, design the shape of planting beds with your lawn mower and lawn shape in mind. Make the beds easy to drive near with a riding mower or walk around with the push mower. I often make this mistake and have tough corners to navigate and mow!

Start with small plants or a small area of your landscape the first year. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. I recommend starting with the foundation of your home. Plant evergreen shrubs around the foundation. This is pleasing to the eye and the shrubs will be near a water hose for easy care giving.

 

Filed Under: Edible Landscaping, Landscape Design