Expert tips for landscaping your new yard
Landscaping can be challenging in any region, but Regina property owners are further limited by the availability of materials and the extremes of our climate. With some guidance from an expert however, landscaping can enhance a property both aesthetically and practically.
Fortunately for those creating or revising their properties, landscaping fashion is not as fickle as other aesthetic domains. “It’s been pretty consistent over the last 10 years,” said Brandon McGillivray, who owns and operates Cherry Lane Landscaping. “It’s the creativity of the design part of things that’s consistently improving.”
McGillivray said that light, orange-red colours are currently quite unfashionable: “Darker colours seem to be more so a hit in the last three years as opposed to the lighter, sandier tones that definitely were popular in the mid-2000s.”
That is one of the reasons why McGillivray prefers to work with dark stones, such as the Rundle Rock that has recently become accessible from Canmore. “It’s different, it’s sharper corners, it’s not the regular, smooth, round rock that we get in Saskatchewan, and it’s dark in colour – consistent grey. It really accents shrubs that have colour,” said McGillivray. “It is still a lot more money than what you would find here as far as rock goes.”
So, those who are content with lighter earth tones and smoother shapes will probably prefer to reduce their costs with locally-sourced rocks, which can be enhanced using surrounding shapes. “Rock looks best when it’s shaped throughout a yard with brick – when brick borders a rock bed, that’s what really makes the rock look good,” McGillivray said. “It’s just not really alive until you add some shape to it.”
With dark or light earth tones as a foundation, homeowners can bring more vivid colour into their yards using vegetation. Some plants that thrive in wetter or warmer areas cannot survive in Regina, but there are still many that thrive in this part of the continent. Nevertheless, landscapers here should consider how their properties will look throughout the year.
For the summer, McGillivray is fond of the hardier grasses. “Karl Foerster grasses and low-maintenance grasses are a pretty popular thing nowadays, because they’re so easy to maintain, they don’t require a lot of moisture and they look beautiful,” he said. “They grow straight, almost like a wheat sheaf. In the very bottom of it, it’ll have green grasses, and then golden wheat sheaves grow straight up … They look very good amongst rocks or anything that can display the gold and green that they offer.”
For the winter, McGillivray recommends ninebarks and dogwoods. “They’re both very hardy in a zone 3, which is what we have in Saskatchewan, and dogwoods look beautiful in the winter because they have maroon sticks that show after the leaves fall off,” he said. “When winter is half of the year, it’s kind of nice to have something that looks good throughout the winter months. And ninebarks are really nice in the summer when they bloom too – almost a dark red or burgundy colour.”
Of course, evergreens are always a popular option for year-round colour, though McGillivray cautions that cedars do not always thrive here. “Instead of cedars, I like using junipers: they grow really well in our zone 3, and they look beautiful in the wintertime,” he said. “Things like junipers, and spruce and pine all look beautiful in the winter as well as in the summer.”
If a landscaper intends to cultivate vegetation, fresh topsoil is typically a wise addition. “We’re quite fortunate with how much dirt we have here: we have pretty good soil when it’s all mixed together,” said McGillivray. “It’s always good if you’re doing grass to try and have around four inches of topsoil or more.”
Building up the earth around a home also protects its structure. “We do have water drainage issues because we have such flat terrain in Saskatchewan, so it’s always good to make sure your highest elevation is at your house,” McGillivray said. “If you were to bring up your grade, make sure that the material that you use – hopefully yellow clay – is packed down nice and firmly so that you can get as much material in as possible.”
Ultimately, McGillivray says that landscaping is a difficult task that may prove overly challenging for amateurs. “Building a yard is quite a complex process, and there’s not a lot of people that would build their own home. It definitely takes some research to do it properly.”