Hello again, Westside Gardeners.
This article is for new property owners in new development homes in our Westside, where the landscapes are planted at the bare minimum: a few shrubs, a small patch of lawn, and, if you’re lucky, a shade tree. This is very sad.
These homes can be landscaped so much better. In my experience, the landscape practically goes downhill very quickly. The homeowner doesn’t know what to do, so they go to Home Depot and buy a bunch of palm trees.
I recommend you hire a landscape designer, architect or contractor. Any of these professionals can give you a portfolio of design concepts.
The first design is an overview of the situation and rendering. It shows how the design will look when plant material is well established.
Additionally, there are concept notes that summarize important aspects of the design. They tell whether the site is sunny or shady and the season depicted in the rendering.
There might be a second design option. This variation, which addresses the same situation as the first design, may differ in design concept, site conditions or plant selection.
Many homeowners might want to take on this task themselves. My suggestion: don’t rush and take your time.
There’s no greater reward than tackling it yourself. With careful planning and consideration, you can create paths, patios, fences, arbors and, most of all, plantings.
Again, if they correctly plan, homeowners can enhance home life in countless ways—large and small, functional and pleasurable—every day of the year.
At the main entrance, you might place an attractive brick walkway flanked by eye-catching shrubs and perennials that provide a cheerful send-off in the morning and welcome you home from work in the evening.
A carefully placed grouping of trees, shrubs and fence panels creates privacy on the patio or screens a nearby eyesore from view. An island bed showcases your favorite plants while dividing the backyard into areas for several different activities.
Let’s not forget about maintenance once you have installed your landscape. Most folks today have little or no time to maintain their landscapes correctly.
If this is true, I suggest you hire a landscape maintenance professional with years of experience in the landscape industry who can prune correctly and differentiate weeds from plant material and herbicides from pesticides. They must also know how to fertilize and, most importantly, irrigate.
Please contact me if you need help with any of this, as I’m a certified master gardener, landscape technician and certified master arborist with degrees in landscape architecture and landscape horticulture.
Mark Koehler of Los Banos is an arborist and master gardener who has degrees in landscape architecture and landscape horticulture from UC Berkeley and Northeastern University. Please send any questions or comments to markgardenguru@gmail.com.
