Planning Your Property-The Truth About Landscaping

Your design should be unique to your landscape, enhance the natural character of your property and reflect who you are as a homeowner.

An attractive landscape can add as much as twenty percent to the value of your home. More importantly your home, and your property, is your castle, your oasis, an island in this hectic world, a place to feed your soul. Without exception people are stunned at the cost of landscaping. Only after they see all the work that goes into it do they begin to understand. So, before you call in a professional, either a landscape architect or landscape designer, know roughly how much you can spend on your landscape. Most people I speak with have no idea of the cost of landscaping. If they are building a home, they either do not allocate money for landscaping, or in many cases, that money has been used up in the change orders during the building phase of the house. As a rule of thumb, plan to spend ten to twenty percent of the value of your home on your landscape: the design and installation of plant material and hardscape (i.e., patios, ponds, walkways, driveways, walls, arbor, etc).

A suggestion I make to a new homebuyer or homebuilder is: When you apply for a mortgage include a percentage of the mortgage money for landscaping, this way you can have a Þnished home and a wonderful garden without a large outlay of money at one time. This comes to a few
dollars per month, a small price to pay for years of sensory enjoyment. When building a house, if a structural architect or landscape designer work together initially, the house and land will achieve their greatest potential.

WHY CALL A DESIGNER?
Lets talk about particular clients, whom I’ll call the Smiths. They were building a new house and needed someone to design a driveway and to deal with site erosion problems at the rear of the property. They were unsure which type of landscape professional they required until their interior designer introduced us to them. After showing them examples of our work and plans, including driveway plans that detail grades and elevations, they realized that we were qualified to deal with any problems on the land around the house and create a beautiful home environment as well.

The Smiths had a serious problem with erosion off the rear of the property where the cliff had been blasted and many hundreds of yards of fill and topsoil added so that  they could have a larger rear garden. They employed our services when the project was 75 percent complete. When
we checked the grade of the slope, we told them that it was much too steep to sustain growth of plant material to stabilize the area.  Additionally, the slope had not been compacted properly. We advised that they were in danger of not only losing the slope but also quite possibly endangering the foundation of the house. The Smiths told us that they had spent quite enough money on this area and did not want to spend any more.

Well, along came a torrential summer rainstorm and ten thousand dollars worth of fill and topsoil washed away. Needless to say, they called us immediately. We reduced the grade of the slope, properly compacted it, and used riprap and pipes for drainage. For stabilization we used
strong, fast-growing annual rye for immediate cover along with Dutch clover, perennial rye, and red fescue. Keep in mind that when building a house, a structural or building design architect wants to put the house where he or she believes it will structurally work to its best advantage.
If a structural architect and a landscape architect or landscape designer work together initially, the house and land will achieve their greatest potential. The house can be positioned on the land to get the most dynamic vistas, avoid erosion problems, immediately handle wetlands setback issues, and avoid erroneous tree removal.
We find that many times a builder and/or building architect razes the land of trees; the wonderful, existing landscape is ripped away. This was particularly upsetting for the Smiths, as there had been a magnificent white oak at the front of the house that could have been incorporated
into the landscape. Do you have any idea how long it takes for a tree to reach seventy plus feet? I was talking with a colleague recently about the habit that some developers have of taking down all the trees on a building site. He and his twelve-year-old daughter were driving through a new development where a developer had taken down all the trees, to which she remarked, “How lonely the houses look.”

Let us turn now to another reason to call the garden designer. You have probably done your garden or had your garden done over many times. You have seen a wonderful garden in a book and have no clue as how to get there. Another client, Mr. and Mrs. Adams, who live on the
Connecticut River, had been throwing good money after bad for years. They called me after hearing about my work. After looking at the Adams’ garden, I could immediately see that there was no flow to the borders. There were no expansive drifts of color that blended or complimented the next and there were too many species of plants in too few numbers, which made for disharmony. There were not
enough whites or pale yellows to accentuate either the primary colors or any statuesque ornamental grasses to add dimension and softness.
My team and I began this project in the middle of August in 90-degree heat. We enlarged the main border to balance the proportions between the house and the landscape and transplanted approximately 2400 of the existing perennials into areas, which worked. We added white and
pale yellow to accentuate the other colors, added tall ornamental grasses at the rear of the borders and added repeat blooming perennials in colors that needed boosting.
We were able to do this with minimal plant loss because there was an automatic irrigation system as well as proper handling of plant material.
The foundation plantings around this pale grey house were green and boring, so we set about giving it some life. We planted a beautiful columnar Purple Beech tree to anchor a tall corner of the house. We introduced a dwarf Crimson Lace Leaf Maple as a concierge at the
front entrance and added Smoke bushes with their pink ßuffy summer growth. For year-round structure, we added Rosey Glow Barberries as well as some dwarf evergreens. The combination of purple, red, and pink gave the house much needed warmth. In the pool area, we planted many fragrant David Austin roses, lavender, and Russian sage. Fragrance in any leisure area is an essential element that encourages relaxation.
Mr. and Mrs. Adams recently sold this house. The new owner told me that in August, when she first saw the house, it was the garden that sold her on the property. We will continue to add to and maintain the gardens. Bear in mind that maintenance of any garden is as essential as an oil
change is to your car.
HOW TO CHOOSE A LANDSCAPE DESIGNER

When seeking out a designer, find one who is on the same page as you. As previously mentioned, I was referred to the Smiths by their interior designer. Word-of-mouth is the ideal reference. You can also look in the newspapers or yellow pages for an intriguing ad, or an article about
someone whose ideas are of interest to you. Or you may see a landscape that you love as you are driving around. If possible contact the owner and ask who designed and installed it. You can also seek recommendations from a good local garden center. The designer must listen to the priorities and desires of the client. I spend about two hours at that first meeting  to allow the client and I to get to know one another and
discover whether there is a client-designer synergy that will encourage the flow of the designer’s creative juices. Before we sign a design contract I ask what the client wants to spend on the landscape. A designer needs to know this so he/she can design accordingly. He/she can
also tell clients if the budget is realistic for their needs, and if it isn’t they can rethink it before beginning the design process.
Beware the designer who offers a handful of standard designs. Your design should be unique to your landscape, enhance the natural character of your property, not be exotic or contrived, and reflect who you are as a homeowner. A primary reason that people call me in is that
my landscapes from day one look as if they have always been there.

Finally, in making a decision about a designer, be reasonable. If, for example, you live on the shoreline, do not ask for a lawn at your beach house unless you are prepared to install an irrigation system.