Gardening and Landscaping

A little about typical landscaping:

Home landscapes are too often dull—grass with juniper or laurel edging. Grass is the last retreat of the creatively disabled. And, surprisingly, grass is NOT low maintenance. The uninspired often try straight edges, a few tulips by the front door, and maybe a repulsive plastic or ceramic ornament. For those who find such yards desirable, now is the time to quit reading.

Another deadly tactic, used by those who hate yard work, is rock or bark. Heap it up and walk away. It is our contention, however, that Dull and Dead are not legitimate landscaping styles. Many agree with us, and fall victim to three more unsatisfactory landscaping ploys: the expensive, the wilting, and the faddish.

Tired of grass or rock, some folks hire a “landscape designer” (often one with awards to his name) to redesign and re-landscape their home. The consultation fee, the design fee, the plants themselves, and the labor of installation can reach several thousand dollars. The professional maintenance can be over a thousand a month. These yards win awards and get listed on the “flower walk” tours, but few can afford them. And there is no guarantee that the professional is any better (in fact he is often worse) than the sweet, little old lady on the corner with the showy roses, whose advice is free, and grateful you asked.

Bargain hunters and fly-by-night developers choose the wilting approach: run to the garden center, grab whatever is on sale, shove it in the ground, and run fast, before it all turns yellow or brown. The plant choices are consistently wrong for the climate, the sun or the home design. Those that live are invariably planted in the wrong spot, and often the owners have no idea what kind of care keeps a particular plant at its peak.

Another way to reap disappointment is following fads. Many recall the river rock fad, the crushed lava fad, unkempt wildflower fad (I tried that, too), the “Round-up®” fad, the Japanese-garden-raked-sand fad, the putting-green fad, complete with sand traps (thank Heaven that one is over), the crocus-in-the-lawn fad, the desert-look fad (which drove the saguaro cactus to the endangered species list), the water-garden fad, the gnomes fad (ghastly), the brick-lined-lawn fad, and the no-yard-at-all-let’s-put-in-a-hot-tub fad. The novelty quickly pales, and the cost of re-landscaping is again incurred. That isn’t to say that water features and brick lining are bad, or that hot tubs aren’t relaxing, or that crocus isn’t pretty, blooming in the spring in the lawn. But there is a simpler and less expensive way.

The answer: Expert Landscape Design

Our philosophy is the lazy man’s way to a traffic-stopping yard. By integrating the concepts of art (balance, color, asymmetry, gentle curves, variety), with climate, ease of care, and each individual owner’s preferences, we help you design, plant and enjoy a yard that requires exactly as much time as you wish to spend in it, while feeding the soul. Joel often says, “If I like it in the garden center, I plant it. If it grows, I keep it. When the yard shows no more dirt, grows no more weeds, and blooms 52 weeks a year, I am done.” At Expert Landscape Design we discuss how often you want to be in the yard (high, medium or low maintenance) and how much color/variety you want. (There are still some folks who just want lawns for football or croquet—and for that, you don’t need us. Nor do you need us if you wish to run cattle on pasture land.) We discuss using the yard for food production (garden, orchard), for serenity (flowers, curving paths, berms, sunken gardens, water features, benches, low lighting), or for activity (lots of children.) We even do “scent” landscaping, where the key is not the color, but the perfume. We encourage you to look through flower and tree books, gardening books, and even go on a spring flower walk in your community. And then we can help you establish the ideally landscaped yard. Joel reports his yard has reached equilibrium now where about 12 hours a week produces abundant fruit and vegetables, bouquets of flowers all year, very few weeds, and stops traffic for several months.

Simple guidelines: What to plant that fits your schedule

There is no zero maintenance yard. You can hire someone else (as condo owners associations do) or work the yard yourself.

Low maintenance: under 1 hour a day. Wild forest, desert, swamp or pasture land. Ivy. Wildflowers (and weed) mix.

Medium maintenance: 1-2 hours a day. Traditional lawns (This surprises some folks, but watering, weeding, edging, mowing, fertilizing, aerating, and thatching take time.) Small plot vegetable gardens. Fruit trees, berry bushes and grape arbors. Flagstone patios, water gardens, pathways and fireplaces. Flowers, if not arranged and displayed as a country garden. It is true, but unexpected, that a beautiful yard takes the same amount of time as the dull, lawn-with-hedge-and-tulip-bed that comprise 80% of American front yards.

High maintenance: English, German and country gardens (carefully organized, arranged, pruned, pampered, coordinated flower gardens). Full scale farms, especially with animals. Multiple acres in flowers—like Buchart Gardens. Golf courses.

To contact us:

E-mail your interest, your climate, constraints and preferences. We will dialog over the e-mail, until we have a plan you like. Fees are low, and individually set. Referrals to local professionals are often available.

About the architect:

Joel Black has been working with landscape design since 1962 when he first began working for his grandmother, the incomparable Thelma Ehlers, who not only created a celebrated showcase in her own yard, but bred some of the fancy tall phlox colors now marketed at high prices in specialty flower books. Another of his tutors was the world- famous agronomist Bion Tolman, whose German, bearded irises grace the gardens of European royalty. Joel’s designs are both unique in concept, and traffic-stopping once implemented. His own yard is one of the top five in his city, all the more impressive when you consider its small size.