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01-04-2003, 05:20 AM

In article ,
(Keegan Alex) wrote:

Hi folks,

Well, I just purchased a house, and it's on a 1.2 acre lot with a few
nice trees, but no landscaping at all. I want to do some landscaping
in the front and back yard, but I have no idea how to start. This is
my first home, and I definately don't have a green thumb (that I know
of anyway).

When one has so much room to garden & no one previously planting much of
it, it is overwhelming to imagine where to begin. The trick is to imagine
the shapes of things already hinted out by the features already present,
or which you may need to add to meet your own sundry requirements. I think
it's easiest & best to focus on some existing landscape feature (hump of
group, two old trees, little drop-off, & boulder) & struture a garden
around it. You say you have a few nice trees -- that's ideal because it's
hard to have a mature tree right away unless they've already been there 20
or a 100 years. Look at the space between two trees & figure out how THAT
space can be gardened, ignoring the rest for a while. As each feature of
your landscape becomes gardened, it becomes itself an extended feature
that suggests ways to extend left or right & upward or back.

Most people see no feature to their property except the house itself, &
end up planting right up next to the house in a boring square. The house
is certainly a high-importance feature, but look at where trees or nearby
natural features either exist or could be added, & imagine gardens
extending away from the house rather than just up next to it.

If there's a natural & attractive place to build an entryway arbor, or a
grape arbor or pergola, that becomes another feature that helps define
what sorts of plantings are needed. If you have or intend to build a shed,
make sure it is itself something handsome like a rustic shingled wee house
(not one of those plastic put-together pieces of s--t), & that will be a
most remarkable feature to garden around.

Footpaths are extremely important features. It's actually very interesting
to watch where paths occur "organically." It'll depend on where you park a
vehicle or how you leave the property to walk around the neighborhood or
what there is on the property to go see, but footpaths will soon become
apparent because of the human tendency to make paths even without thinking
about it. Paths ALWAYS appear even through "nothing" because we're such
creatures of habit or so require familiarity -- & most curiously, these
organically occuring trails are almost invariably aesthetically placed. A
"planned" path is often artificial, often square like city blocks, or in
some manner unnatural, & waiting to see where human feet unthinkingly want
to walk again & again will reveal a new feature of even the flattest
emptiest landscape. Accept these subconsciously selected trails & plant on
both sides of those.

As "features" you should include Light & Shadow, remembering that "Empty
Space" is also a feature & may not always need to be filled up (lawn
areas, places for picnic barbeque or playing baseball with chums, suggests
another "feature" to build around). If you want a veggie garden, some area
that is not much shaded by trees now must be preserved as a bright-sun
area -- use again defining what can & can't be planted nearby -- you don't
want to install a horsechestnut tree & expect still to grow veggies to eat
where it will in time block out the sun. Areas already somewhat shaded or
have dappled-shade are already begging to be shade-gardens. Moisture &
dryness are additional "features." Where water can be provided most easily
will probably be where you want the more refined shade gardens, but where
it would be a hassle to reach with hoses will be low-maintence plants, in
most cases sun-lovers. Things off your preoperty you either do or do not
want to see define planting areas too. Privacy hedges where you don't want
to see or be seen, & shorter shrubs that won't rise to block any pleasing
view from garden "viewing stations" or from windows of the house.

You mention having a chain link fence. Too bad it wasn't a beautiful
rustic wooden fence that provide dreamy backdrops to shrubs & easy
surfaces for climbing vines, but if you want to keep the chainlink, that
becomes a major feature, & one you'll probably want somewhat disguised.
Any number of fast-growing vines might do the trick -- a collection of
widly varied flowering vines could be loads of fun to have. Those which
are floweriest & have rich perfumes are perhaps best of all.
Strong-scented vines can be oppressive on a porch or deck, but at the
property line the stronger the redolence the better. But the point is, the
fence is a landscape "feature" & it tells you what needs to be planted
there. Ultra-fast growing vining annuals that shoot out to 20 or 30 feet
in a single season but don't come back the next year can be instant
fence-fillers while slower-growing more permanent plants are wending their
way in & out of the chainlink over time. Sometimes you can get both rapid
growth & permancy simultaneously, as with jasmine, akebia, or purple
passion vine.

A rough wooden fence; a gate; a mere property-corner; a driveway; a
street edge; a garage wall; a rusty vintage tractor; a fallen
tree....everything becomes a focal point for a concentrated gardening
effort. If a tree fell down in the past & its roots are sticking up in the
air DON'T get rid of it (keep at least the upturned roots) this is not
something messing up the property, it can be a beautiful feature around
which a garden is structured.

It doesn't have to be done all at once, think long-term, as new features
will develop over time demanding some plants to surround or hide or
highlight this or that. You can create new features if there are too few
-- the wooden shed, a chickenhouse, a concrete koi pond (please, no sunken
plastic, do it right or forget it -- having no garden there yet means it
is a great moment to do it right).

There is such a thing as "over planning" because if you plot out all the
gardens all at once you'll be overwhelmed by the expense & by the
workload. When someone says to get pencil & paper & work it all otu
beforehand, I think they must be nutty. One looks at the landscape &
projects possibilities, not a blank piece of paper for scribbling. An idea
of what one really wants is important & that can be worked out a bit on
paper, but only as generalities -- if you love shade-gardens then pergolas
& trees & enclosed areas & whatever makes more shade can get mapped out
approximately where, baring in mind that some other area will need to
remain full-sun for veggies or roses or whatever loves the sun foremost.
For that a mapped reminder not to plant a Cedar where the veggie garden
goes is perhaps a good idea, but endlessly drawing it all out in detail is
not going to be so much helpful as it will be in the way of actually
getting it done.

Also think in layers -- a garden has a low level (groundcovers, bulbs,
clukmping perennials), a mid level (shrubs), & an upper level (trees &
vines). Don't start planting truckloads of perennials & bulbs until AFTER
you have a substantial number of flowering shrubs or young trees & other
"bones" of your gardens in place, as these are the knitting "features"
that tell you waht to plant between. Shrubs & trees will define what can
be planted under & around them. If you plant a whole garden of clumping
perennials first, they'll be disrupted when you belatedly acquire shrubs,
or you'll have nothing to show for your labors late autumn & winter when
nine-tenths of the perrenials dies back, or something small that was so
happy by itself in full sun will suddenly be startled that shrubs appeared
& stole the sun, so that constant translpanting to get shade-lvoers here &
sun-lovers there will be stressing the plants.

So, focus of landscape features & garden finite areas bit by bit,
beginning with woody shrubs then working downward with perennials & upward
with vines when the shrubs are correctly arrayed.

Are there any good books that might help? I'm working on getting my
yard drawn out and I'm getting a soil sample tested to see what will
grow best out here, but after that, I'm not sure what to do.

Just a small background on the house. I'm on 1.2 acres, and the house
sits about 50 yards from the street in middle of lot. House is a
square brown/white ranch-style house built in early 1980's, and the
entire back yard is fenced in with 5 foot chain-linked fence.

What would be best?? I've picked-up some books, but most seem more
geared for landscaped/terraced yards outside my price range or those
fancy mansion yards. I'm looking for something that looks nice, but
something that'll fit my middle-class neighborhood. I've even thought
about calling a landscape person out, but I'm sure that'd be way too
much. Do they come out and do advising for a small fee?

More likely for a big fee. If there's someone in your neighborhood whose
garden looks great, you could knock on their door & praise their garden to
high heaven & when they're good & buttered up, walk them over to your
place & take notes as they dream up what THEY'D do with that much new
space to garden in.

-paghat the ratgirl

Thanks for any suggestions or help.

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/