The weather has cooled, after a record hot summer, and what a perfect time to get your yard back in shape. It’s always the best time to plant (warm soils with cool air) and the nurseries are desperate to reduce their inventory before winter sets in. The sales are irresistible!
Specimen plants with a canvas of mulch do not ‘frame your home or guide you to the front door’
A confusing, high maintenance bargain.
Nurseries are inspiring places and you can easily lose yourself in the end of season energy and crisp oxygen high.
For some, finding something unique could be the very thing to enhance their; well… “I’m not sure where I’ll put it but “IT’S JUST SO COOL!”
Remember, plant material is not furniture or accessories. They are living, growing and sometimes invasive, disease/fungal carrying, damaging long term additions to your real estate. They are not something you can easily move to a different location or re-cover if you change your mind about their color to coordinate with the new color of your shutters.
Landscape design is most cost effective when considered on paper first. There are lots of questions to consider that start with your basic premise for wanting plants in the first place and end with how much maintenance you are willing to commit to. As a rule of thumb; your front plants should frame your home and guide you to the front door. Flexibility can be used in the rear yard extending the views from the inside – out.
Before our initial meeting we request that the homeowner complete a 5 page questionnaire to help them organize their thoughts, needs and desires, on paper and provide us with the background information we need to guide them in the right direction for their site and personal taste. Even a one-on-one consultation on site with an experienced professional landscape designer and/or horticulturist could help you avoid costly impulse buying at the nursery this fall. Yes, nurseries do have horticulturist and, sometimes, landscape designers but remember – they need to move their stock.
It seemed like a good idea at the time