Sometimes it is a good idea to just step back and take a critical look at your landscape. Questions you may want to ask yourself concern freshness, functionality, and maintenance.
"Re-enginering" is a term used by many corporations. It can take on different meanings, but overall it refers to using what works and doing away with what does'nt work. Rather than start from scratch, it is much more cost effective and saves a lot of effort.
The landscape is constantly changing. Plants mature often outgrowing their original space provided. Trees grow taller casting shadows in areas that need more sunshine. The thing to remember is the landscape is dynamic, not static.
So, lets take a look at the points of consideration I mentioned earlier. Does your landscape give a feeling of freshness? Or does it look drab? You may want to liven it up a little with the use of some of the latest perenials, add some different colors, or use a different edging. Odds are that most of the hard work of soil conditioning has been done naturally. Try swaping some plants around. Add some new mulch. Before you know it you will have a new fresh look!
Life styles change which can hamper the landscape's functionality. We find ourselves having to go around a flower bed to get from point A to point B. Maybe trees have grown much taller now and shading areas that once called for sunshine. The mature garden spot now may block a view that we treasured at one time. Do you still need the play area that is no longer being used? Take a hard look at how you use your outside areas.
Lastly, maintenace should be a major consideration. Open up your areas to allow room for weeding, fertilizing, and triming. Our original plan may not have considered how large some of our plants can get. This can restrict the amount of area avilable to perform needed maintenance. It can be very difficult to avoid injuring plants (or yourself) while tending to others.
Consider "rounding out" landscaped areas to allow for easier mowing. A good flow to allow the mower to make the necessary turns with out having to stop can make mowing a lot easier and faster. Hving to stop, back up or repositioning the mower just to get to an out of the way place can be very frustrating and takes time away from other things you might enjoy more- a break resting and admiring your handy work for example.
Back to the original question, is it time to re-engineer your landscape? If you haven't done the above lately, I would venture to guess that the answer is yes. Go ahead, it will be worth it!
Til next time,
Poppy
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We tried changing the mulch in our beds, from a natural color to one that matches a cedar color. It has completly changed the appearance of our beds. What is even nicer, is that it has brought out colors that had blended in. In addition, Denise had me round out our beds. I like a more abrupt symetrical look, but must confess I have really begun to appreciate the rounded, blended look that Denise has "forced," me to enjoy. Just kidding. One thing that we have learned is that we tend to "baby" or flowers, and plants. Turns out that they really don't need quite that much. Looking forward to the next post, and screaming "Die weeds die!," until then.
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