Archive for the ‘Landscape Design’ Category

« Older Entries

The Tree Lawn

You do not have to be a gardener to enjoy and appreciate a park.  A simple landscape with trees and grass is a place to meet, to read, to relax, to while away a few hours, to appreciate the natural world.  The ultimate tree lawn-a golf course.  Though I doubt any serious golfer would admit to loving the land forms, lawn and trees better than the sound of his club striking a ball true and square, there is no doubt that golf courses are beautifully maintained parks. This client is fortunate enough to own a large piece of property in a densely populated urban area.  I landscaped it as a park-lots of lawn, and trees.  The sweep of meadow-not so unlike a golf course rough. 

Our country is blessed with an embarrassment of riches in land. From sea to shining sea describes no other place on earth but ours.  Though I live in a gritty city, I have places to go where I can partake of big spaces.      

Mature trees-mature people treasure them, as well they should.  A giant maple on my property draws water away from what is planted underneath, and drops debris every day into my fountain.  Would I ever consider doing without it?-not a chance.  The shade in this client’s garden requires a buffer between the tree trunk and the lawn-Gold Standard and Gold drop hosta light up that trunk with a chartruese skirt.     

An open tree lawn asks for but one thing-the lawn right up to, and fringing the trunk of the tree.  So natural, and so beautiful. This arrangement of grass and trunk says “park”.  Many suburban landscapes feature round rings of bark around the trees.  Americans are a practical lot-the lawn crew armed and eminently dangerous with a string trimmer can quickly kill a tree.  That bark ring speaks and shrieks to “landscape”., and convenience. I will admit I have hosta around the trunks of the maples in my right of way at home; they came with the house, and I rather like the look.  But my urban garden is anything but a park.  

Though few gardeners have large properties, there are very good ideas that can inform the landscape design of a small patch of land.  A tree set in lawn up to its trunk speaks strongly to peace and reverie. A tree trunk in dense shade, plant as much ground cover as you can muster.  Be simple about it. Save your intricate or tricky moves for sunny spaces.  Sweep those bed lines, and breathe.    

 Look at your garden at all times of the day.  Early, and late.  Make much of the long views.  Should your long view be but 15 feet-so be it.  Mulch your beds to conserve moisture-do not mulch defensively.  Breathe.  Making a decision to leave something be can have as much impact as that which you touch.


I am a landscape designer first up, and through and through.  I am biased-no doubt. I look at every move I make with my hands- with my eyes.  The hands and the eyes need to speak in concert.  No matter how big or little your garden, no matter how little or how much you choose to do, your garden will speak back to you-should you be listening.  A great landscape has eveything to do with the length and breadth of one’s listening.

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 Tags:
Posted in Landscape Design | 1 Comment »

In Process

I am hoping you remember my post from not long ago about a young but very articulate client whose parents rank right up there on my list of “ten people I cannot do without”. I will amend that statement.  Cathy and Dick rank right up there with my most favorite clients, but kid Rich is getting my attention.  This rear yard, post a big house renovation, has been laying in wait.  Sue is so over the laying in wait phase-Rich is lucky to have her.  Thank you Sue, for getting Rich to get moving.  We got going with the landscape a little more than two weeks ago.  

Four Bowhall maples were planted first off.  Trees of this size require planting via a tree moving truck as big as a garbage truck.  The rootballs were 120″-10 feet-in diameter.  A house bereft of any plant of scale asks for a little something big.  Given the prized views to the golf course, columnar trees seemed like a good idea. 

A fountain figures prominently in the design.  A 10′ by 10′ fountain, 18″ above ground would feature a galvanized and acid washed steel surround, and a likewise contemporary steel vase skimming the surface of the water, and spouting.  This picture of Buck’s shop, and the fountain surround was shot from the mezzanine level at the Branch studio.    The surround in question was ready for a trip to the galvanizing plant.   


A complicated landscape installation involves the coordination of a lot of contractors from different disciplines. GP Enterprises would install the drainage first up, and then the big trees.  We would install the landscape.  Concurrent to our work, Gillette Pools would begin the installation of the fountain.  The irrigation work-a whole other issue we hope will get done today.   

Nothing gets done in the blink of an eye-just ask my client.  Each phase has its issues that need sorting out.  Careful and thoughtful sorting out.  Who needs a poorly planned installation to be evident at the finish?  No one.  The forms for the fountain seem like the work of a boy scout project, but they are anything but.

Wes Gillette has been installing fountains, spas, and pools for a good many years.  His work I can rely on.  I know this fountain will be reinforced with steel, level, and true.  Exactly what was drawn on the plan.  I can expect that he will coordinate with Buck on the installation of the steel surround, and fountain vase.

This fountain goes the extra 50 miles, thanks to Wes.  The water will be filtered and cleaned, just like a spa or swimming pool.  Though they were not interested in a swimming pool or spa, they greatly liked the idea of a fountain that would be people friendly.  The 8′ by 8′ water surface will have a fountain vase 4′ in diameter, and an overall depth of 23″.  I can see friends, kids, and family in the water.


Though the forms pictured may seem slight, the finished concrete work is solid.  This fountain will need its surround, its coping set at seat height, its pumps installed, its fountain vase levelled and fastened securely.  Every part of this fountain will need to be level.  My conversation over the Labor Day weekend with Buck-mostly about how to set and fasten that fountain vase level.

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 Posted in Landscape Design, The Branch Studio, Water, fountains, landscape features | Leave Comments »

Evergreen, Ever Lovely

Being Labor Day weekend, I knew I could expect the weather to change. Sure enough, it was 51 degrees when I came to work this morning, and I hear I can expect 48 degrees overnight.  Our British born Christine who works weekends came in today in shorts-and a sweatshirt-grumbling about how “perishing cold” it was.  The onset of fall gets me to thinking about reworking the garden-so it might be better next season.  But fall also has a way of bringing the issue of planting evergreens to the fore-as we have a very long leafless winter season ahead. Norway spruce thrive in our climate; should you have the space, they are brave and comforting against the winter skies. 

There are many cultivars of thuja; they can be very effective in providing year round privacy. Thuja Smaragd, or Emerald Green arborvitae, takes up little space on the ground compared to the big growing pines. Thuja Nigra is bigger growing, but still fairly vertical.  I could not do without them in my small urban garden.  In this landscape, thuja Pyramidalis provides privacy on a grand scale.    

Taxus media “Moon” is an upright growing yew that rarely needs any side pruning.  Taxus media “Hicks” is the old standby for vertical yews, but they are much more open in growth.  Choosing the right cultivar of evergreen for your purpose is important.  The natural habit of a plant  is a vastly superior to that too heavily pruned look.     

I use Green Velvet boxood almost exclusively-as it keeps its color and performs well even when we have terrible winters. It tolerates shearing well.  Should I need boxwood that grows taller, or bigger than 3′ by 3′, Buxus microphylla var koreana is a good choice.  It is much more open growing than Green Velvet, but sometimes the eventual scale of a plant is the most important issue.  The foliage of Green Mountain boxwood is very close in appearance to Green Velvet, and matures at 4′ by 3′. Vardar Valley boxwood has a beautiful blue cast.  Faced down with Japanese painted ferns-really beautiful.  Boxwood is handy as a companion planting to deciduous shrubs. It helps to relieve that twiggy look, or that cut to the ground perennial garden look-in the winter. Â
There are no end of interesting and visually arresting cultivars of dwarf evergreens. Though I am neither a connoisseur nor collector, I know a beautiful and well grown evergreen when I see one.  People who love dwarf conifers really really love them.  Designing a landscape for a collection is great fun.  For each specimen plant or plant grouping I may choose a companion evergreen that will showcase that specimen.  The juniper “Calgary Carpet” is a juniper I can take to.  This prostrate evergreen has needles with a silvery sheen that is very attractive.      

Given my druthers, I would only plant blue needled evergreens far in the distance.  Everything at a great distance in a landscape has that far away blue cast.  The color blue seems so natural-far off. But creating an informal tapestry of various shades of green  can be very appealing.   

This old dwarf scotch pine on standard rules this view-never mind a climbing hydrangea  that has been draped over this wall for decades. All of the attending horizontal elements make much of the singular shape of this specimen evergreen. 


The most commonly planted evergreens in my area represent but a fraction of what is available to plant. In the above photograph, Pinus Flexilis “Vanderwolf’s” on the left, and Pinus Heldreichii Leucodermis further down the drive.  One of the nurseries where I buy plants lists 42 cultivars of Chamaecyparis alone. This is more than enough to replace one’s regret at the passing of the summer with an interest in making some new friends.

Saturday, September 4th, 2010 Tags: ,
Posted in Landscape Design, Trees and Shrubs | 3 Comments »

Some Thoughts on Spacing

Once there is a landscape plan in place, there is the matter of the plant count.  Determining a plant count has much to do with spacing.  I have read much about rules for spacing plants properly for optimal growth, but the issue is more complex than that.  For instance, if I am planting pachysandra, and space them at a foot apart, I need one plant per square foot.  For 500 square feet, I will need 500 plants, or about 10 48 count flats.  If I space them at 6″ apart, I need 4 plants per square foot, or 2000 plants, or about 40 48 count flats.  Option A asks for a modest up front investment, but I see a lot of time ahead devoted to weeding, the purchase and spreading of a lot of mulch, and a lot of water thrown on bare ground.  I also see a grim looking space for probably 3 years.  My solution?  Start a groundcover bed small and plant densely.   Enlarge it next year, or the following season- only that number of square feet you can plant densely.  My mature, healthy beds of pachysandra-individual plants are much less than an inch apart.

Spacing evergreens has everything to do with the desired outcome.  Should I plant a taxus densiformis in the middle of the lawn, and give it 50 years to grow, I will have a single plant of considerable size.  A hedge, or a mass of yews is more about a community. Sometimes I look at the distance between the rootballs.  The big idea here-everybody has their own subterranean digs. This may mean that the foliage touches.   

Plants are much more sociable than I.  I want my space. I was never so conscious of the need for my own space than after my knee replacement.  I was less than stable on my feet, and was not interested in an enthusiastic Golden Retriever broaching my borders. But plenty of plants do well planted in close quarters.  They are completely happy to relinquish their individuality, and become a part of a larger community.

One of my most favorite landscape moments-the arrival of the plants.  These 1.5″ caliper fastigiate hornbeams in 25 gallon pots would be planted as if they were the poles of a pergola. Carpinus betulus “Frans Fontaine” is a culitvar of fastigiate hornbeam which is slower and more densely growing than the species.  Even so, it will grow 30′-35′ tall, and 15′-18′ wide. I spaced them at 8′ on center, knowing they would grow together.  Someday there would be a green roof under which there would be shade.   

I had other reasons which influenced my spacing.  The house next door loomed over this side yard property.  Evergreens would have provided year round screening, but they occupy a lot of space at the ground plane.  My clients wanted to entertain in this space.  Given enough time, and spaced close together, they would eliminate this view of the neighbor.   

Carpinus are also very tolerant of pruning.  Decisions about spacing are specific to the species in question.  The vast majority of green spaces have not been planted by a person.  There are those wild places densely populated by plants.  No natural forest or meadow is at equilibrium; some plants are coming on as others are in eclipse.  Perhaps a lighting strike will “prune” a giant tree such that new plants can take hold around it.  Should you be interested in the exceptions to any gardening rule, visit any wild and untended space. 

Five years later, the new yews have grown together to make a mass.  The topmost row of yews had been transplanted from the front of the house; the new yews will eventually cover their bare lower limbs.  It sometimes makes more sense to underplant an old and ungainly shrub rather than tear it out.  These big old yews will eventually become part of a simple mass.Eight years later, the house next door has all but disappeared. As the carpinus grow taller, they can be selectively pruned on the underside to permit easy passage beneath them. 


The yews planted behind the carpinus are planted on a gentle slope that rises to the neighboring driveway. Though the shade has become considerable, they are green and well needled from top to bottom.  Allowing those densiformis yews to keep their natural shape is in large part responsible for their continuing health.  Yews do not respond so well to hard formal pruning.  Once all light is blocked to the interior of the shrub by a proliferation of growth on the exterior, those inner branches will go bare.  I have begun planting Taxus media Moonii in place of Hicks yews, as their natural growth is much more upright and formal. 


This is a great spot to sit.

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 Tags: , ,
Posted in Landscape Design, Trees and Shrubs, Trees of Note, good gardening practices | 4 Comments »

« Older Entries