Why Hire a Garden Designer

Unless you have a good knowledge of plants (mature size, soil and sun requirements, form, texture, and color), your climate, traffic flow through a property (foot and cars/equipment), and basic design principles, it’s almost always CHEAPER TO HIRE A GARDEN DESIGNER THAN TO WING IT. I start with this because most people consider cost above most everything else when it comes to property improvement.

Why is it cheaper? Most reasons hinge on maintenance and plant replacement costs. I’ve been asked for free advice on what to plant many times, and I really don’t mind. But it’s bothersome when that advice is ignored because someone found cheap plants that seemed to serve the intended purpose. The most obvious example is the planting of large-maturing plants near homes. The real cost is not in the initial planting but in the long-term maintenance (often involving eventual removal)…..plants get too large and cover widows, encroach on the structure, holding moisture against it, and generally look overgrown. So the solution is to prune. This usually isn’t too bad for the first few prunings. But as the plants age, they become harder to control. Often the long-term solution is removal (costly) and replanting…..with several years of unsightly, manipulated, unnatural-looking plants in the meanwhile.

While pruning is a necessity, controlling large-maturing plants that have been sited incorrectly is extremely labor-intensive (costly). Again, size reduction usually results in an unsightly

plant, which defeats the overall purpose of a planted landscape. As a side note, the general rule is that cheap plants are quick-growing plants. While it’s initially more expensive to purchase sizable, slow-maturing plants, in the long run you will save money in maintenance.

Another reason it’s cheaper to hire a professional designer is that often incorrectly-sited plants do not survive. Does the plant like sun or shade? Sandy soil or clay? What are the water requirements for establishment and long-term health? This is information that is needed for survival and aesthetics of the plant. I usually leave my clients with watering instructions for establishment and long-term health.

Other considerations in siting plants that are best left to knowledgeable professionals are bloom time and length of bloom period, incompatible color combinations, foliage color, needed shade, focal points, blocking of unsightly views, optimizing good views, and so many others. Planting the right plant is the correct location is not only the most cost effective but the added benefit is that you will have a beautiful landscape!

Note: “Garden Designer” or “Landscape Designer” are both terms that have no legal or licensing requirements. Anyone can call herself either of these with no education, experience, or license. Reputation, experience, and education should be considered when deciding if you have the right person.

A “Landscape Contractor” maintains a license with the state of NC and requirements include testing, experience, and bonding. Continuing education is required.

A “Landscape Architect” maintains a license with the state of NC which requires testing, experience and continuing education. Landscape Architects have extensive knowledge of design principles, plants and hardscaping.

For those out picking the last of the tomatoes and peppers and disposing of the vines, you might also want to cut back your hardy tropicals like ginger lily (hedychium) and canna before the freeze as well. It’s much easier to cut the fleshy stalks than wait for them to turn black and soggy. The fibers tend to get stringier and it’s just a messier job all around.

Americans are obsessed with mulch (and pinestraw). Don’t get me wrong, organic mulch is great for keeping the soil moist and keeping weeds at bay. In fact, I don’t consider a plant fully planted unless it has been mulched. And new beds may often have large areas of exposed mulch until plants have filled in. But huge mulch areas for the sake of mulch is uniquely American. Areas of organic mulch exceeding the area in which plants will eventually grow makes so sense aesthetically.

For instance, how appealing is this bed?

The shape of the bed is nice. But there needs to be more plant area or less bed area.

The bare mulch to plant ratio is better in the second photo, but still needs filling in.

Yep, plants in eastern NC are looking bad right now. I had a low of -2 degrees at my house and wind along with it. See my post from March 2016 for description of the different types of winter injury. Right now, we are seeing results of desiccation on evergreen plants but as spring approaches, I am sure we will see bark splitting as well.
So what should we do? First of all realize that, in most cases, plants will recover. There will be some death in marginally hardy plants but there is really no way to know that yet. Until new growth appears in spring we will just have to look at a lot of brown. In many cases, this is just foliar damage but in some cases, there may be stem/branch dieback. To check how far back on the plant this goes, scrape the bark with a knife for green under the bark. It’s still winter so I would not prune until March as pruning stems back now could expose the plant to further injury from any cold spells ahead.

Please be patient as we are getting aquanted with our new Houzz account and will be adding projects in the coming weeks.

I am so happy that “rejuvenation pruning” has become a buzzword. It sounds much better than “butchered”, which is an accurate description of how shrubs can look after such a pruning. I do not use this method often, but there are times when it is the best solution. There are several important things to remember concerning this drastic type of pruning. First, it should NEVER apply to trees. Also, there are some shrubs that do not respond well to having more than a third of the top removed at once. This list includes most boxwoods (Korean can take a heavier pruning than most others), daphne, and conifers (including juniper). Large-leaved hollies are slow to recover from this type of pruning.

The best thing about rejuvenation pruning is that it is easy because the only decisions to make are when and why (and how to get rid of the large pile of debris it creates). For flowering shrubs the “when” is almost always just after flowering so buds for next years flowers are not removed (though sometimes they may still not flower the year after). For evergreens, the best time is now, just before new growth in spring-so that you do not have to look at the unsightly stubs very long. Never do rejuvenation pruning after September since it encourages tender new growth that will be killed by frosts.

There are multiple reasons why one would choose this pruning method. Sometimes a shrub is too large for its space (though the best solution here is often to replace the plant with a smaller-maturing one), a shrub has become leggy at the bottom, or is just gangly overall. Some shrubs grown for colorful stems (red and yellowtwig dogwood) need cutting back to the ground yearly since the colors only show on new stems.

The “how” is usually so very easy. For evergreen hedges, that usually means taking them back as low as you’d like using loppers or handsaw. For deciduous flowering shrubs, this means taking them down all the way to a few inches of the ground. Spirea, forsythia, quince, as well as many other caney shrubs respond well to this though the better way is to remove a third of branches all the way to the ground every year so as to never have canes older than three years (the younger, more vigorous shoots bloom more heavily than old, tired canes-I have seen this type of pruning referred to as “gradual rejuvenation pruning”).

That’s it!

Since we had such a spring-like day yesterday, I went out and cut the old foliage from the Lenten Roses. Every year they look ragged by February. Cutting them back now is easy since the flowers and new growth come up from the center and the old foliage lies flat. All you have to do is grab the old foliage from the edge by the handfuls and cut it off. Though they are a little bare now they will have new foliage in just a few weeks and they look fresh instead of tired.

I’ve included a before and after shot.

After

Winter injury occurs for several reasons and there are steps we can take to minimize risk of occurrence.

Frost injury occurs usually in fall and early spring when tender tissue is not hardened off for cold. Water in cells freeze, expand, and burst, causing tissue death. Covering plants to hold in ground heat can often keep temperatures around the plant warm enough to keep frost damage at bay. Plants do not generate heat the way animals do, so wrapping the top of the plant and cinching it closed below will do little to protect it.

Winter desiccation occurs when a plant loses more moisture than it can take up from frozen soil. Leaves turn brown, first at margins, and then the entire leaf. Plants exposed to wind are more severely affected as are plants that are not properly hydrated. Be sure to water and mulch before extreme cold of winter sets in.

Woody die back (low temperature injury) occurs when a plant is planted outside of it’s hardiness range, when temperatures drop below normal for an area, or when temperatures drop suddenly and plants are not properly hardened off for cold. This results in dead branches or delayed and stunted regrowth in spring. Avoid planting outside of the recommended hardiness zone. In eastern North Carolina, do not fertilize after August 15th to avoid tender, new growth as winter approaches.

Sun scald and bark splitting both occur because of rapid day/night temperature fluctuations. Sun scald results from a cold night after a very warm day (occurring on the West and Southwest side of trunk) while frost cracking results from rapid temperature rises after a very cold night (occurring on the East and South east sides of trunk). These usually occur on thin-barked plants. Wrapping trunks in fall reduces risk of either, especially if they have occurred on a plant in past years.

Fall is the best time to divide all except fall and winter-blooming perennials. Many (day lilies for example) perform best when divided every few years and doing so is an inexpensive way to have young divisions to plant or share.

A spading fork is the best tool for digging the plant to be divided since it pulls the root system while leaving most of the soil in the ground. A spade or shovel will work, but you will need to shake the excess soil from the roots. Begin at the drip line of the plant and dig down and inward. If the plant is very large, use a spade or shovel to slice it into several pieces.

The type of root system a particular perennial has will determine how to separate it. Once out of the ground, either pull small plants apart, or use a sharp spade or knife to cut them apart, leaving enough root system to sustain each new division.

Keep plants moist until they are replanted.

Fall is a wonderful time for planting and since soil is such an important part of plant health I thought I’d give a blurb about healthy soil. We all know that a plant’s water is taken up through its root system, but sometimes we forget that a plant’s nutrients and oxygen are also taken up through its root system. Therefore, we have to maintain a proper balance of water to air space in the soil for healthy plants.

Sandy soils have plenty of air space but very little ability to retain water. Conversely, clay soils retain water but have very little air space. Adding composted organic material to soils improves available oxygen in clay soils and water holding capacity in sandy soils. The organic amendment should be fully composted because the decomposition process competes with plants for nutrients.

Incorporate amendments into the existing soil to at least 25% by volume to change the water holding capacity of clays and improve aeration of sandy soils. This translates to 2” OF COMPOST INCORPORATED TO AT LEAST 6”. More is better (up to 50% by volume) and incorporating deeper is much better.

A few other notes to remember:
Never work clay soil when wet
Do not amend clay soil with sand (think cement)
Organic amendments also create a better environment for microbes and earthworms.
If mulching yearly (which you should be doing) be sure to add nitrogen
yearly since the decomposition process uses available nitrogen.