Landscape Design

The Art of Garden Design

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Amazing gardens require both artistic composition and horticultural expertise to create gardens that not only look good, but make you feel good.  

Colour Rendering of Garden Design

A Few Design Tips

Gardens set the tone for your home. Select a colour palette that reflects you and your style. Keep it simple. White flowering gardens are trending this season (they are every season!) and are very easy to put together. If you want to keep down visual clutter in your garden, pick a couple basic hues. Purple and yellow; orange and blue; pink and purple; or white and black are great colour combinations for any garden.    

Perennial Geranium Rozanne

Are you a gardener? It’s okay to say, no!

If gardening isn’t your thing, make sure to select plants that require little care such as elegant ornamental grasses, dwarf flowering shrubs or easy-care perennials.

For a sunny location, try perennial selections like daylilies, coneflowers, perennial geranium, salvia, or phlox. All come in a multitude of colours to mix and match in your garden.

If you deal with shade, try hosta, ferns, shade grasses or foam flowers for a great combination of textures and colour. 

Hosta August Moon & Hakone Grass

Keep it Simple!

Less is more. More mess equals more stress, which is why homeowners feel so overwhelmed when it comes to an unruly garden. I like to keep it simple. I select only four or five fabulous plants – shrubs, perennials or grasses – and then work to lay them out in different combinations in the garden. Remember, plant in groups for impact. This creates a garden that feels unified. Pssst…this technique works really well in front gardens.

The Low Maintenance Garden

A low maintenance garden is the number one request from clients any season. Selecting plants that look great throughout the growing season and require little maintenance – I didn’t say ‘no’ maintenance – is the key to fulfilling this request. Boxwood, yew and cedars look amazing, however, they need monthly clipping to keep them looking neat and tidy. Instead, try a few of the new dwarf flowering shrubs available this season such as Wee White Hydrangea, Sonic Bloom Weigela, Glow Girl Spirea, or Bloomerang Lilac. Not only do you get low maintenance shrubs, the bonus is amazing blooms.

Dwarf Wee White Hydrangea, August Blooming
Dwarf Sonic Bloom Weigela, June Blooming – Attracts Hummingbirds
Dwarf Glow Girl Spirea, Early Summer Bloomer
Purple Bloomerang Lilac, June Blooming & Again in August

I tend to see gardens much like a painting, filled with colours and textures.  My process to creating a great garden is, first select a great colour scheme, then add in the plants. By doing this, I keep the gardens I create feeling harmonious, interesting, and they feel good.  

Lexi – The Gabby Gardener

Spring has Sprung

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I love spring. It’s so exciting…the snow is melting after a long winter, the birds are returning and singing their wonderful songs, and my inner gardener is itching to get out there and play.

As an avid gardener, I feel the draw. I see the winter debris, and I just want to get it all cleaned up.  I also know I have to be patient.

Did you know soil has air pockets? Yes it does!  When we walk in the garden too early, these air pockets become damaged. Without getting into a whole science lesson here, soil air pockets allow plant roots to breathe and allow water to drain away from the plant roots during times of heavy rains or melting snow.  When roots can’t breathe due to soil compaction (from my big boots), plant roots can fail. Hmmmm… I must be patient.

Grandmother’s advice. The first full moon in June. Yep, my grandmother always said, ‘We can get frost until the first full moon in June’ and she was right.  In our area the weather can be all over the place.  Snow one day, sun the next, followed by a few days of rain, then snow again.  If you’re looking to plant out in April to get some colour, pansies and spring bulbs are the way to go.

Each spring like many gardeners, I start my spring ‘crawl’ through the garden centres hunting the latest and greatest finds. And every April I see folks arriving at the garden centre on the first sunny day looking for plants to install.  April isn’t the right time of year to be looking to plant out. The daytime temperatures maybe be warm however the nighttime temperatures can freeze tender new plants.

Bee Power!

Last May I really wanted to get ahead of my spring design rush and get a bit of work completed in my home gardens. I selected a few new lovely shrubs I thought would look great in my front flowerbeds.  Not one of my best ideas.  I planted those poor shrubs out way too early and it took them much longer to get ‘their feet’ under them than it should have.  If I had been patient and planted closer to the May long weekend when it was much warmer, my pretty shrubs would have been much more successful and I wouldn’t be replacing some of them this spring.  Patience. Just a bit of patience.

Getting out into gardens too early to complete a good spring cleaning isn’t the best decision. Some of the bugs and bees who over-wintered in my garden debris are still dormant, waiting for warmer temperatures to make their appearance.  Cleaning out my gardens too early takes away the protective layer of dried leaves and stems, therefore exposing these garden helpers to the elements.  Patience is the key to giving this year’s pollinators and predators a fighting chance.

Gardening is the quiet act of patience. A ‘journey’, not a ‘destination’. And like life, gardens ebb and weave, change season to season and month to month, having their own unique personalities.

 

Children’s Garden. Finding Outdoor Joy!

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“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world… but it takes people to make the dream a reality.” Walt Disney

Are Children’s Gardens a thing of the past?

Sometimes I wonder if ‘gardening’ is becoming a lost art. In today’s world you can build your own virtual garden, grow your own virtual vegetables, feed your virtual animals, and slay the Fire Breathing Dragon. Where does gardening fit in? If this is today’s reality, we really need to be creative to draw children outdoors and into Nature.

Butterflies Flutter & Dance

In many of our new landscape projects, backyards are being gobbled up with stonework, pools, and decks. So where is the space for flowers and vegetables?  The children’s garden?  The garden where fairies come to dance on the petals of dewdrop flowers, where toads come to reside in the dark corners, where birds come to feed on nectar sweet blooms, where little fingers dig in the soil, and where nature comes alive.

A thoughtful children’s garden design creates excitement, it stimulates young minds, provides mystery, and is a place of discovery. Outdoor Joy!

It’s all about creating opportunities. To touch, see, do and be creative. To learn from nature. To learn from each other in play. For families to be able to use their outdoor space for ‘together time’.

Designing for Children. Little Fingers. Big Ideas.

Children learn with their senses. All of them. They want to touch the pretty flowers and soft leaves; smell the fragrant blooms; and watch the dancing butterflies. They will slay the Fire Breathing Dragon with their buddies, play Hide & Seek with neighbour friends, and dig holes in your backyard to create a great hideout. At least they did in my backyard. They will watch bees gather pollen from blooming flowers from a safe distance.  You can plant a few veggies in patio containers so kids can feel the wonder of watching seeds spout.  Hang baskets of strawberries from decks or trees just to see kids sneak the strawberries.  Plant fruiting shrubs like blueberries for late summer harvest. Grow pumpkins and watch the magic of the curling, twinning vines and huge yellow blooms become pumpkins.

Rubber Boot Containers

Not all kids want to run around, some just want to watch and read. Create a great viewing location for ‘watching the world go by’.  It’s okay to be an observer.

Children get bored easily so create areas for them to move from place to place. A chalkboard mounded on a wood fence, a sandbox beach, or a tree swing.  They can make music with pots and pans, blow bubbles, add worley gigs to their gardens for colour and movement, build a toad house, feed the birds, or just lay in the grass and look up at the sky.

If you’ve ever walked through the mall with a child you know, kids can’t just walk in a straight line, they’ve got to skip, and dance, and jump. All that energy has to go somewhere.  Driveways are great for hop-scotch made with sidewalk chalk, a low spot in the yard becomes a great place to jump in a puddle in your rubber boots after the rain. Build a fort in the backyard with lawn chairs and blankets, put up a tent, or construct a simple a raised deck as a stage for dancing and singing – and of course a classic – a simple lawn sprinkler on a hot day and a couple kids in bathing suits.  What could be more fun!

For your peace of mind, ensure you have clear sight lines to watch children play. We want kids to be safe, so keeping an eye on children at play from the house (or a lounge chair) is part of a great landscape design.

It’s All Child’s Play

If you want to create a great outdoor space for children … Think like Them. Children see the world in simple terms so ‘Keep it Simple’.  Give them flowers. Give them space. Give them the joy of being Outdoors.  

 

Trends for Outdoor Living in 2018

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Artic Fire Dogwood | Proven Winners

Winter Berries of Bittersweet Vine

 Seasonal Interest

In any area with snow, winterscaping is an important element for a great landscape design. A garden space in the winter without visual interest can feel very dreary. Select plants to brighten up the long cold season. Brightly coloured stems and fascinating seedheads can liven up even the most dull snow day. Consider selecting plants and combinations for their hardiness, colour, and texture. The fiery red stems of a Red Cornus (Osier Dogwood) against white snow; the peeling golden bark of a Betula (River Birch); feathery brown seedheads of Miscanthus (Japanese Grass); or the bright red berries of Celastrus (Bittersweet Vine) placed along a fence.

Tall majestic evergreens like Picea pungens (Blue Spruce) or Pinus strobus (White Pine) covered with snow, create a winter wonderland in a backyard. You don’t need a vast array of plants to provide winter interest.  Just a few well-selected plants placed in the right location will create a beautiful winterscape.

 

Brown-eyed Susan

Wildlife Habitat

Creating a wildlife habitat at home will be trending again in 2018. With big homes on small lots, landscape designs tend to feature hardscaping (stonework) and less plant materials, there is little thought given to the needs of local wildlife. However this doesn’t have to be the case. We can create beautiful landscapes and gardens while meeting the needs of our wildlife friends. It really is a matter of choice. Select plants that produce berries and seeds, and plants that produce flowers heavy in nectar and fragrance. Adjust your plant selections to support a wildlife habitat.  Many of our indigenous plants will provide food for our feathered friends. Consider Tiarella (Foamflower), Asclepias (Milkweed), Rudbeckia (Brown-eyed Susan), Echinacea (Coneflower), Monarda (Beebalm), and Geranium (Wild Geranium) as a few easy-care, low maintenance wildflowers for your summer garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People, process and portfolio

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Landscape Ontario Trade Magazine. March 2017 Article.

In 2001, Lexi Dearborn launched Dearborn Designs & Associates, a design and build firm in Barrie, Ont., following a 25-year career in the hotel and restaurant industries. A graduate of the University of Guelph’s Landscape Design program and a Certified Landscape Designer and Project Manager, Dearborn is an active Landscape Ontario member and has taught landscape design and gardening courses at Georgian College.

Which personal qualities are important in landscape designer?

First and foremost, you have to like people. Honestly, if you aren’t a people person, you’re going to have a very difficult time working as a designer. The job for me really is a 50/50 split, with half the time spent in my own head creating wonderful spaces, while the otHead Shot 2017 Lexi Dearbornher half is spent learning who the clients are and understanding their needs.

As a designer, we almost become a member of the client’s extended family. If you are good, you want to build that kind of relationship, because you need to understand their dynamics; it is so much more than somebody saying, ‘I want a pool, or I want a new front walkway.’ For me, it’s about finding out who the client is so that I can create the right space.

How do you balance your design style with your client’s vision?

I meet with my clients, we walk their space and I ask them what they want to do in the space. Clients will often say they want the patio here, or the garden there, but I stop them, and bring them back to what they want to do in the space. See, they start by trying to design, but I want their head in a whole other place. I say, ‘Let’s talk about do. Do you want to dine, swim, read, watch birds? What do you want to do?’ So now I’ve created a wish list of things they want to do in their space. Then I ask, ‘How would you like it to feel?’ Clients often say they want to feel like they’re in the tropics, or perhaps in the Muskokas. And so that is their homework, and that is the only thing I ask them to do. Once I have their wish list, they are done, and I ask them to let me design the space. I’ve found this process really helps to build trust.

Describe how you build relationships with contractors.

I watch for contractors who do really good work and have some creativity themselves. I also reach out to suppliers and ask them a lot of questions about who is doing a lot of work in our area, and what they think about the work. And then I’ll approach the contractor, after I’ve done some homework, and ask if they would consider doing some pricing. So I start to build the relationship based on the quality of their work and their pricing, and I’ll often go out to take a look at some of their projects.

I develop the relationship slowly, because as a designer, you have to be able to work with a contractor who can read your drawings. I will often start them out with a couple of small projects. And it also has a lot to do with personalities. I am very particular about my jobsites and the integrity of the drawings. I need to know that the contractor is going to not only do great work, but also provide a high level of service to the client.

Do you have any tips for designers just starting out in the profession?

When speaking with designers that are early in their careers, one thing I always emphasize is the importance of portfolios. As a designer, your portfolio should run off your left hand, regardless of whether it is print or digital. It needs to be your number one selling tool. Particularly during the early years, before you have developed a reputation, your portfolio really is critical to landing clients.

 

The Autumn Garden | Make it Alluring

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FRONT ENTRANCE STONE GARDENS WELCOME HOME DEARBORN DESIGNS LANDSCAPE 8Ah, Autumn!

The time of year dedicated to grand colour changes.   A time when our thoughts wander to putting our gardens to bed, maybe raking the leaves, or moving around a few perennials. I often wonder if we miss some of the greatest moments in our own gardens. I know I have!

“Design for All Seasons!”

I believe the autumn garden can be as inviting and interesting as any summer garden. Trees, flowering shrubs, woody vines, and ornamental grasses share the garden spotlight as their colours intensify. It only takes a few wonderful plants to create an Alluring Autumn Garden.

When I work on a project, plant materials are selected not only for their great summer qualities, but for their ‘talents’ in the autumn garden. Plants really need to work. To make the list, I’m looking for talents like great colour – in foliage or blooms or both, wonderful fall berries, interesting textures, movement, or maybe it’s just as simple as a great shape. I look beyond the pretty flowers. I consider plants without their blooms. And remember, autumn’s light can be stunning to work with so take advantage of the golden to red glows of fading light to enhance your Alluring Autumn Garden.

Take time to enjoy the special moments in every Autumn Garden … they all have their Allure.

‘Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower’ – Albert Camus

fall-crocus-with-periwinkle-crocus-and-vinca

The bright purple blooms of Fall Crocus, planted with the dark green foliage of Periwinkle make a winning combination in the autumn garden. Picture taken Mid October.

GARDEN_design_vertical

The golden leaves of Stephanandra creep over a stone wall, blending with the bright red blooms of a Blushing Bride Hydrangea and the deep red and maroon foliage of a Bloodgood Japanese Maple. While the white bark of a Heritage Birch is highlighted by the deep burgundy foliage of Red Carpet Sedum, drawing the viewer’s eye to this stunning autumn garden, set in a simple raised stone garden.

AUTUMN GARDEN LANDSCAPE DESIGNER BARRIE

The bright red and maroon foliage of a Bloodgood Japanese Maple blends with the fading blooms of Blushing Bride Hydrangea while the waxy foliage of White Bergenia starts to turn burgundy. This White Summer gardens turn to shades of red in the autumn.   Picture taken the first week of November.

Residential Rain Gardens

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RAin Garden Picture lake Simcoe

Rain Garden from Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority

A Rain Garden is an engineered landscape feature that takes advantage of rainfall, storm water, and melting snow, by collecting and temporarily storing the runoff from eaves troughs, lawns, and driveways | walkways.

Rain Garden Elements

It’s all about the garden design and the plant selection that makes this feature work. Usually, it is a small garden which is designed to withstand the extremes of moisture and concentrations of nutrients, particularly Nitrogen and Phosphorus that are found in storm water runoff.

Why a Rain Garden?

  • Stormwater runoff can increases flooding
  • Increases the amount of water that filters into the ground which recharges local & regional aquifers
  • Helps protect streams & lakes from pollutants carried by stormwater – lawn fertilizers & pesticides, oil & other fluids that leak from cars, & numerous harmful substances that wash off roofs & paved areas
  • Enhancing the beauty of yards & neighborhoods
  • Provides valuable habitats for birds, butterflies & beneficial insects
  • Is your personal contribution to cleaner water

When to Install a Rain Garden!

  • If you are experiencing drainage and erosion problems a Rain Garden can helps control water on the property
  • If you have disconnect your downspouts | wet around the foundation a Rain Garden can help
  • If you have the ‘space’ to install this garden feature | the feature should not be any closer to the house then 10 feet
  • If you want to take advantage of a slope or grading change
  • If you want to attract butterflies, birds and pollinators to your yard
  • If you want to lower your water bills & grass cutting

Construction of a Rain Garden

Rain Garden Detail Coloured jpeg

Plants | Native | Non-Native

  • Plants need to tolerate both flooding as well as dry periods
  • Don’t over plant | 1 plant for every 10 to 15 square feet of garden
  • Plant for vertical layering | mix of tall, medium and low growing plants
  • Salt Tolerant if in the front yard
  • Light conditions | Sun | Shade
  • Consider Dwarf Trees | Tall Shrubs | Perennials | Grasses

Native Trees | Flowering Shrubs

  • Kentucky Coffee Tree| Northern Red Oak | River Birch
  • Serviceberry | Witchhazel| Inkberry | Willow | Pussy Willow
  • Blueberry | Chokeberry | St. John’s Wort | Low Bush Honeysuckle | Red Twig Dogwood | Arrowwood
  • Native Lilac | Snowberry | Buttonbush | Elderberry | Summersweet | Swamp Rose

Perennials

  • Ferns | Sedges | Native Grasses
  • Cardinal Flower | Blue Lobelia | Beebalm | Brown-Eyed Susan | Marsh Marigold | Red Columbine | Swamp Milkweed
  • Ironweed | Flag Iris | Joe Pye Weed | Liatris
  • Swamp Sunflower | Turtlehead | Virginia Bluebells
  • Wild Ginger | Anemone | Foamflower | Lilyturf

Native Groundcover | Evergreens

  • Jack Pine | Larch | Tamarack | White Spruce | Cedars
  • Bayberry | Bearberry | Winterberry

 

Colour throughout the Season … Great Combinations!

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Hirta daisy web ready

Gloriosa Daisy | Fall Blooms

PERENNIAL COMBINATIONS THAT REALLY WORK!

Do you want flowers that bloom all season?  Not just in the spring? Planning is the key to creating a perennial garden for ‘Colour throughout the Season’. 

Here are just a few of our favourite perennial combinations, that really work for us!

MAY AND JUNE

The Sun Garden | Cut Flower Combination

Immortality Bearded Iris | Blue Angel Columbine | Coral Sunset Peony | Allium

The Sun Garden | Dry & Hot Combination

Red Riding Hood Penstemon | Superba Blue Salvia | Moonshine Yarrow | Southern Charm Verbascum

The Sun Garden | Wet Location Combination

Caesar’s Brother Blue Flag Iris | Bowles Gold Sedge | Giant Butterbur | Orange Queen Globeflower

The Sun Garden | Meadow Combination

Orange Poppy | Caradonna Salvia | Yellow Sundrops | Mexican Reed Grass | Flax

Salvia c web ready

Caradonna Salvia | Spring Blooms

The Shade Garden | Spring Combination

Empress Wu Hosta | Lady in Red Fern | Polar Splash Lungwort | Red Lady Hellebores

The Shade Garden | Groundcover Great under Trees

Red Epimedium | Bigleaf Geranium | Virginia Bluebells | Plum Perfect Woodland Phlox

The Shade Garden | Big Plants, Big Impact

Plume Poppy | Goatsbeard | Giant Solomon’s seal | Roger’s Plant

 

JULY AND AUGUST

The Sun Garden | Cottage Garden Combination

King Arthur Delphinium| Blue False Indigo | Crimson Scabious | English Lavender

severn sunrise crocosmia ready for web

Severn Sunrise Crocosmia | Summer Blooms

The Sun Garden | Meadow Combination

Little Spire Russian Sage| Skyracer Moor Grass | Giant Coneflower | Severn Sunrise Crocrosmia

The Sun Garden | Butterfly Combination

Grand Parade Beebalm | Solar Flare Coneflower | Flying Saucers Coreopsis | Purple Liatris

The Shade Garden | Woodland Combination

Bear’s Breeches | Othello Ligularia | Milk and Honey Astilbe | Purple Monkshood

The Sun & Shade | Wild Combination

Pink Meadowsweet | Firetail Perisicara | White Gooseneck Loosestrife | Black Fountain Grass

Firetail Persicaria

Firetail Persicaria | Summer Blooms

 

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER

The Sun Garden | Meadow Combination

Ironweed | Joe Pye Weed | Indian Grass | Prairie Coneflower

The Sun Garden | Butterfly Combination

Fall Garden Mums| Fireworks Goldenrod | Autumn Joy Sedum | Orange Butterfly Weed

The Shade Garden | Woodland Combination

Toad-lily | September Charm Anemone | Fall Aster | Gloriosa Daisy

Butterfly Weed Web Ready

Butterfly Weed | September Flowers

Purple Beebalm

Grande Parade Beebalm | Summer Blooms

Annual Containers for Instead Colour!

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containers 2

After a long cold, winter, I need colour!

One of the fastest and easiest ways to add colour to any landscape is with annuals and tropicals.    Instead Colour!   A few containers filled with nonstop blooming annuals with a focal tropical for texture, creates Instead Colour.  Containers strategically placed in a landscape can transform the look and feel of an outdoor living space. Use annual containers to set the mood on a patio or pool space or welcome friends to your home.  Containers placed in gardens adds Instead Colour as perennials flowers fade.  

Here’s a few simple tips for creating colourful, textural containers that will make look like a Container Star!

It’s All About the Container – Size Matters

Container size selection is important. We tend to look at containers with a close up perspective, not from the street as a car would see it driving by, or a pedestrian on the sidewalk. Think big. Think colour. Selecting a container that is too small in scale for your home reduces visual impact and you want your container to stand out. A container can feel ‘too big’ in the store however when you get it home, it can be just right in an open setting. I tend to look for containers at least 3 feet in height and 2 feet around. And if they come in a great colour, bonus! Orange is hot for 2016!  In both containers and flowers.

Double Potting – Colour Made Simple

A larger container allows you the option of ‘double potting’. Double Potting is a liner (or pot) smaller than your container, placed inside the larger container. Fill the larger container with gravel – make sure you have a drainage hole in the bottom of the container (you don’t want your plants to drown). Then place the liner pot inside the larger container on the gravel. Double potting allows you the opportunity to remove the liner for quick changes, helps reduce watering because liner insulates plant roots keeping them cool, and the liner expands during freezing, not your new container. You can easily pick up an established planter at a greenhouse and pop it in your larger new container for easy, fast colour.

Feed Your Containers – For Nonstop Colour

To keep nonstop colour throughout the season, annual and topical flowers require food. Try using a slow release pellet, high in phosphorus (the middle number), and sprinkle the pellets around the plants. Phosphorus promotes flowering and we want flowers. Slow release pellets seep nutrients to plant roots during watering. No mixing required, just sprinkle and go! I use Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed. You can check out Miracle-Gro here: http://en-ca.miraclegro.com/smg/goprod/miracle-gro-continuous-release-plant-food/prod70290

containers-wine-1010-l

Splurge on Something Gorgeous – One Amazing Plant Will Do                                                

It’s no secret. If you are planting your own containers, it’s all about the specimen. Every year I walk into the greenhouse and fall in love with one great specimen (one-of-a-kind) plant. It could be an ornamental grass or a topical plant or a flowering vine. This specimen becomes my inspiration. Yes, they are more expensive, however they tend to be mature and you only need one! So what’s holding you back? Buy something unique and interesting. And select cheaper plants as fillers. You’ll find a specimen will take up a large portion of your liner and you will only need a few fillers for texture and interest. If you are new to annual containers, one specimen plant surrounded by all the same filler plants will make you look like a Container Star! If you’re not sure what colour to pick for flowers, white is never out of style!

Finishing Touches – Add Bling to Your Containers

  • An obelisk with a flowering vine for height at a front door
  • Add large seed pods (natural or painted) for interest in container gardens
  • Wrap colourful tulle around a container – a simple way to add flourish of colour
  • Paint an old container a new colour – something old is new again
  • Add glass watering bulbs – water and beauty in one!

It all starts with the right container.

Take your time, select containers you love and remember, the right container can be around for a long time. Longer then the kids!

Cubico plantersOUTDOOR RESIN CONTAINERS

Design: Is it Good to Be Your Own Landscape Designer?

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LANDSCAPE PLAN VIEW

Are you thinking about your yard? Maybe a renovation? Refresh an outdated area? If you are thinking about tackling a ‘design’, there are a few particulars you’ll want to know. It comes down to a two items: wish list and your site conditions.

The first, your wish list – tends to be the easiest! People know what they want. The second, site conditions – tends to be bit more difficult for people to really understand and overcome.

Can you say No to You?

So I’m going to say it … one of the hardiest things you will ever do is design your own yard! There, it’s out there for the world to see!  Why?

It’s really quite simple, if you don’t have the ability to see your project finished, or to understand site conditions, or if you don’t know products and plants and how to use them, and you can say NO to you then being your own landscape designer is one tough job.  By the way, the toughest client I have is me!

Your Wish List – Be Realistic!

Creating a list of wishes for your project can be fun and exciting. Depending on your lifestyle your list could that consist of a few items, such as more colour in the garden, or a wider walkway to a large list of items like an inground pool, lounging area, outdoor kitchen or sports areas.  The list can go on and on.  I say “create your Wishlist!”  Just remember, be realistic. If you have a small, urban yard a petting zoo really isn’t a great idea.

Assessing Your Site!

It takes years to learn site assessment.  Understanding grading changes tends to be the most difficult. What I wouldn’t give for a truly flat piece of land! Retaining walls, steps, terraces and ramps are all great ways to overcome grading changes.  Deciding which one to use, now that’s a skill. Being creative with design, that’s a talent.  Understanding building regulations, codes, and rules for construction, this enquires expertise. This is one area where you don’t want to make a mistake!

Draw it Out!

Even a simple drawing works, so you know where you’re going. Much better to make a mistake on a piece of paper than to install and find out you made a real, live, expensive mistake. Yikes!  A drawing keeps everyone – you and the contractor – on the same page.

When is it Time to Bring in the Big Guns?

“Good landscape design requires far more than creativity. Creativity without horticultural expertise and an extensive knowledge of site engineering will only lead to disappointment in the finished product.” Landscape Ontario: https://landscapeontario.com/hire-a-cld

Hire an Industry Certified Landscape Designer

Of course I would say that … I’m an Industry Certified Landscape Designer. However people can tell the difference between a project created by a homeowner and a project designed by a professional.  There’s great value in investing in a landscape drawing! It’s the little things and sometimes it’s the big things like: trees & shrubs planted to close to the house, walkways not quite wide enough for winter use, dining spaces too far from the house to be inviting, not enough room on a patio to allow guests to pull back after dinner without ending up on the grass, or a garden that isn’t your style.  Hiring a Designer doesn’t cost, it pays. By ensuring that the most practical solutions for your site are designed to create an amazing finished product.