Gardening and Landscaping Tips: Top 10 DIY Landscaping

Contributed by Rick Vuyst at Fruit Basket Flowerland

Top Ten List For Do It Yourself Landscape Design

Many “do it yourself” types want to design their own landscape. They want their own personal touch to their landscape and want to make it up as they go. The type of person, (like me), who buys a plant not knowing where it will go. When you get home, you walk the yard with the plant in one hand and a shovel in the other. Admit it, you’ve done it, the impulse plant buy. Now your plant is all dressed up with no place to go.

If you fit that description, I have some “well rooted advice” for you. My top ten list of design considerations for the “do it yourself impulse yardener.”

• Opposites attract. I don’t believe opposites attract when it comes to people. I think it’s a myth but then again what do I know, I’m a horticulturist, not a psychologist. I know that in the landscape, opposites do attract and make for a better look. Use opposites in color, texture and form. For example the colors blue and yellow are opposites on the color wheel. Together in the landscape however they make for stunning partners. Another example would be form. If every plant had small leaves the look would quickly become confusing and cluttered. Use of large leafed plants with small leafed plants for example allows the plants to show off their unique characteristics as part of the whole presentation.
• Use the look around rule. Avoid what we call monoculture. Too much of one thing can be a problem. Diversity is important in the landscape. If you plant too much of one type of plant and a problem crops up like an insect or disease, it will spread like wildfire without a proper amount of diversity in your yard. Look around your yard, your neighbors yard, is there a plant that is let’s say, over done?
• Use unequal, not measured spacing. Use your tape measure for building stud walls. In most cases plants in a row with equal measured spacing do not look natural.
• After you apply rule 3 above; add the rule of planting in odd numbers. Generally plants in groupings of 1,3,5,7 etc. look better than even numbered groupings. A good example would be the ubiquitous practice of two identical plants on either side of the front entrance steps. I think the person who started this was the same person who started the ill advised “volcano mulching” around trees. A misdirected practice that for some reason began being copied by others.
• Used curved borders or edging and tie it all together with a continuous border. A recent study suggested that curved beds alone could add to the value of your house by 1% to 2%. If you are talking about a $200,000 home, that’s $2,000 to $4,000! Once you’ve established the curved borders, consider a plant material that can tie it all together. Remember point 2 above where we strive for diversity in plant material in the landscape? Now that you have a diverse group of plants, pick one type of low growing plant for the border to tie it all together……it works!
• Ask yourself (on paper) a lot of questions before you start as it regards to your intentions for the landscape. What is the purpose of my landscape or this area of my landscape? What is my favorite garden use? Entertaining? Tanning? Bird Refuge? What is my favorite garden mood? Seclusion? Natural and unkempt? Bright and happy? Shady and mysterious? What are my favorite sensory effect, sight, and smell, hearing, taste or touch? How about favorite garden feature? Fountain? Pond? Path? Specimen plant? Furniture? By asking these questions and putting them on paper you can do some goal setting for your landscape.
• In Michigan, the side of the house you plant and the exposure to the plants is an important consideration. I find the east side of the house to be a great area for planting. Plants like roses and hydrangeas seem to do well on the east side. The south and west side of the house provide plenty of light but can be harsh, especially in winter to evergreens and broadleaf evergreens. The unforgiving structural shade of the north side of the house can be difficult for plants that need a little more light. Take all four seasons including winter into consideration when selecting the exposure for your plants.
• Put a shovel in the ground! Working in amendments for good drainage and a good ratio of oxygen to moisture retention capability is so important. Consider a pH test. Mix amendments with the parent or existing soil 50/50. Dig a hole in the soil where you intend to plant and fill the hole with water. Observe what happens. Does it drain quickly? Slowly? Doesn’t drain at all? This simple test will tell you a lot about what you need to do to make the planting area a good habitat for the plant.
• Consider the eventual plant size. Don’t put a plant within 2 feet of another that will eventually grow to 5 feet! Do your homework. Take the mature estimated size of both plants and divide by 2. This will give you proper spacing for your planting. If you don’t, soon you’ll be moving or pruning one or both of the plants!
• Design the garden to be viewed from the inside as well as the outside. Grow a diverse group of plants as well as plants that tend to give 3 to 4 seasons of interest. This will give you something to enjoy year round from your vantagepoint whether inside or outside the home.