Getting it right
There’s a lot of planning underway right now. Many will be thinking of vegetable gardens while others are selecting flower seed from catalogues for a colourful display. Advice will be sought and mine is to start small and keep it simple rather than become overwhelmed in your first season. You have a lifetime to create a market garden or a landscape worthy of a Chelsea Flower Show display.
When embarking on that landscape design it’s easy to make mistakes that can result in costly errors. I don’t recommend designing by trial and error, although some results can be pleasing. There are, however, a number of errors that are best avoided. Here are a few examples that I’ve gathered to pass on, none of which I’ve ever incorporated into my garden — oh, no, not me — Hah! You have the benefits of my decades of errors.
It is best to have a plan. Working in a trial-and-error fashion is fine providing you’re prepared to do the digging when it comes to moving a tree or realigning a pathway, but no matter how much beer and pizza you promise, there’s a limit to how many times the help will roll a humongous boulder around your yard. Moving rocks and trees on paper is far easier. Generally, if you like what you draw, it will look good in the landscape.
Shrubs and trees are the first things that newer homeowners choose to plant, and these shouldn’t be chosen like furniture. Shrubs, trees, and perennials grow and change, unlike couches and chairs. They can easily be rearranged or replaced. Plants are dynamic, living, growing entities, and not something that should be plunked in to fill a space.
It takes years for plants to reach their full potential — a lifetime for trees. The biggest error is planting the wrong tree in the wrong place.
That cute little stick in the onegallon pot might one day become a monster if planted too close to a property line, house, or other structure. Love weeping willows? Not on a small suburban lot.
Do consider the mature size of any plant and allow for its growth or you may find yourself with a maintenance problem, and a bigger one for the future homeowner who may curse you when tree roots are circling the foundation or branches are knocking on windows. Most tree roots occupy an area two to four times the diameter of the crown. That’s the circumference of the branches, drip line to drip line. A mighty oak is a wonderful tree but not well suited in today’s toastsize yards.
An important issue is water and where it flows. The yards of new homes are planned so that water flows away from the house. Typically, there will be swales, shallow depressions at each side of the yard and between houses. They are there to channel water away and should not be obstructed.
If designed correctly, they can be useful as rain gardens but it’s the wrong place for a regular flower bed or anything that will disrupt the flow of water during a rainstorm, resulting in flooded basements.
A garden should be a safe place. Houses are built according to codes, but almost anything goes in yards.
Wonky paths and deceptive steps in a garden are a major cause of accidents with injuries to bodies — and flower beds. The paths should be even with no tripping hazards and steps are best designed with standard tread lengths and heights, same as those within the home.
You may make the odd mistake when designing your garden but think of those as learning opportunities. Avoid the major ones if you can.
Above all, remember that your garden is your garden and even if it doesn’t go to plan, if you’re content with the results, you’ve succeeded.