Establish Green Foundations

19th c. home of George W. Cable, The Amateur Garden

During the late 19^th century, suburban builders planted landscape plants around homes to highlight the grandeur of the property.  Frederick Law Olmstead, founder of American landscapes, advised to ‘take care of the corners, and the centers will take care of themselves.’ Installing opulent shrubs and trees around foundations not only accented homes but created the framework to showcase the architecture of a new century. 

Side view of George W. Cable's home in 1914

 After World War II, houses became less expensive and landscape packages adjusted to budgets of veteran first-time home buyers.  The next generation — baby-boomers— jumped into the middle class. The housing boom continued with smaller yards, less money for landscape budgets becoming the norm.  Today with savvy builders and 21^st century science of water and energy conservation leads the way in offering ‘green’ landscapes with their showcase homes.  But for others, the Victorian trend of installing foundation plants continues with the 20^th century artificial reality of zero-lot lines and instant landscapes.  You can easily tell the age of an instant landscaped community by the large trees, scantily grassed front yards from the lack of sunlight, and overgrown shrubs blocking the view of the doors and windows. Its five to ten years old.

Example of instant landscaping after one year.

Instant landscapes have a formula:  Pack as many colorful plants around the house as possible to give that WOW factor so you can sell the house quickly.  The buyers move in, loving the landscape, not realizing the costs and work ahead with high maintenance of pruning, pest control, and replacing stressed plants within a few years. 

The first six months is the honeymoon, landscapes look good.  But Olmstead’s advice that the centers will take care of themselves is a lie. Over the next two – three years though, the established landscapes mature and grow into their full size, requiring continual pruning to get to the door, or see out windows, or keep the trees from hitting the roof.  Mold and mildew become issues with the moisture of irrigation hitting the home and lack of air circulation from the shrubs. With bi-weekly or monthly pruning necessary to prevent shrubs and trees from taking over the home, the shrubs succumb to die-back or ‘bare-bottom syndrome’[1], leaving the shrub looking forlorn and sickly.

Bare-bottom syndrome with die-back issues. 

How do you prevent instant landscapes?

• Use landscape plantings that allow for mature growth.  Take the full width of a plant and divide it by half.  If a tree grows 30 feet wide, plant it at least 20 feet away from house or overhead wires.  Hedge shrubs that will reach 6 feet wide within two years, plant three feet apart.
• Do not cram perennials and ornamental shrubs together for the instant look.   Instead, plant more perennials and ornamentals appropriately, and then use seasonal annuals, containers, and hanging baskets to provide more color. 
• Pruning foundation plants should not be necessary.  We shouldn’t put plants in to cut them unless it’s a formal landscape, a standard specimen, or a formal topiary.  If a window ledge is three feet up from the ground, then use a shrub that will only grow to three feet or grow very slowly, so that pruning is an annual landscape chore.
• Install foundation plants at least two feet away from the foundation or outside of the roof line.  This will allow the foundation plants to receive rainfall, and therefore cut supplemental irrigation, but also keep the soil at the foundation dry.  Keeping the rootball moisture away around the home will also maintain the integrity of termiticide barrier, reducing susceptibility to termites. 
• Shrubs should have three to four inches of mulch on top of the root ball, leaving the trunk flare visible but only use one to two inches of mulch around the foundation of the home. This will allow the moisture to dry around the house, again providing more termite protection.

How do you know how big a shrub or tree will get? A great landscape database to help determine appropriate size of shrubs and trees is the St Johns WaterManagement District’s Waterwise Landscapes website.   


Correct landscape installation 2008

Same landscape 3 years later.

Green builders want to provide better landscapes that will look great upon installation, are fabulous a year later, and within five years, look natural as if it had always been there.  Green landscapes mean lower upfront landscape budget costs for the builder, getting more bang for your buck while selling the benefits of less maintenance, lower water bills, for the home buyer, resulting in a quicker home sale!  

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[1] My label for shrubs that have no foliage at their base due to being pruned incorrectly. 

 

Teresa Watkins, horticulturist, landscape designer, and environmental consultant is a Florida Water Star certifier, and a member of the USGBC-LEED Technical Advisory Group. Watkins is also host of the award-winning gardening radio show “In Your Backyard” heard on www.My790am.com every Tuesday at 1:00pm. You can contact or send questions to Teresa at www.she-consulting.com.

Simple Resolutions and Smart Solutions for 2012

Happy New Year! I hope this season of reflection and assessment will help you garden with soul and create an environment that will help you become healthier, wealthier, and wise. My four part series of resolutions this year are simple. With the economic times, I’m looking to working smarter in my yard, invigorate myself and my landscape, and recycle what works to save dollars and time.  Here's the first of the New Year series - the three areas of my landscape I need to work on:

Resolution: Use my compost pile more often.

I have a great compost bin that holds a bounty of hardworking earthworms and humus. But because my yard is already at a level elevation, I don’t usually take the time to incorporate the wonderfully organic matter into my soil as much as I should. It’s ridiculous to have this valuable resource and not use it. This year I’m going to use compost more to replace my tired soil with the nutrient rich humus. I’m going to put those good earthworms to work in my yard. 

Resolution: Spiffy up a boring corner with an easy care, low water use container garden.

It’s been six years since I designed my front landscape and it is in need of rearranging and invoking new life. I’m going to dig up my northwest corner “foundation” shrubs and move them around the yard like sofa furniture till I’m happy. Then I’m going to add a new colorful container with colorful xeric perennials, annuals, and a vine or groundcover that spills over, to the corner like a new end table with a beautiful lamp. Oh, that gives me an idea… solar lighting for an uplifting night time display.

Resolution: Create a seating area in my garden.

While I have “floors” of walking paths in my front and backyards, and “walls” of foundation plants, I haven’t decided on seating. Do I want wrought iron, cement or wood furniture? I have wrought iron rocking chairs that are ideal for the garden but do I want to take them off the patio? I also have wood that Tony could make into a swing. I sometimes see aged cement benches in yard sales and on Craig’s list. Don’t pass them up. Deciding on what type of chair I want will help me select the flooring underneath, whether it’s recycled bricks, pavers, or flagstone.

 If I do those two garden projects and incorporate my compost, I will be very satisfied at the end of the year to achieve those goals. Stay tuned for the after pictures!

What are your gardening New Year Resolutions?

Tomorrow, will be the second part for getting off to a good start in the New Year.  I'll provide some simple solutions to help you save money, make better use of what you have, and take time to enjoy living in your garden.