Out
On A Limb / April 2006
Spaces and Places
Landscaping for wildlife
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Landscaping is more than planting trees, shrubs, and flowers. It is planning and designing for the best use of available space around the home. Designing a landscape is part art, part artistry as well as equal portions labor and love. The components include plants, homes and people, but also fences, patios, decks, walkways, arbors, ponds and garden decorations.
When planning a home landscape, preserve existing features of interest like longstanding trees or rock outcroppings. Consider the views of the landscape from the house, as well as from the yard. Take a look from the kitchen window before planting or planning a new addition.
Since they will affect growth rate, direction and health of all plantings, take notice of exposures relative to light, wind, and temperatures. Some plants, like hollyhocks, are more susceptible to wind damage. Many plants like sun, but can’t take the full brunt of a summer afternoon. Less hardy perennials may over-winter much more successfully if planted in a more protected area.
Landscaping is for all seasons, not just spring and summer. Use deciduous and evergreen trees to create shade and to accent the house in summer and winter. Plant for winter color with holly or one of the many varieties of shrubby dogwood that display crimson stems in the snow or add yucca and evergreens.
People and plants mature. Take a new look at the yard thinking about specific family-related issues. Young children need more lawn area in which to play; but if they are grown or gone, that turf can turn to tulips. If the family reunion has changed venues, put in a bed where the picnic tables used to sit. Consider maintenance requirements. Working women with a family or retirees may prefer simple landscape that takes little maintenance.
Landscaping for privacy
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Certain design principles should be kept in mind when developing a landscape plan. The first is scale, the relation of the size of mature plants to the size of the house. The second is balance. A balanced landscape is aesthetically pleasing. Balance doesn’t mean the landscape is perfectly symmetrical. Symmetry makes a garden more formal, and asymmetry makes it less formal, but the sense of balance is what makes it most beautiful.
Unity, also critical, is how the landscape relates to the house or accents the house. Using too many ideas or plants or colors or garden flags in a limited space leads to lack of unity. A harmonious landscape, like an engaging painting or a well constructed poem, has a rhythm. A repetition of elements creates the rhythm and directs the eye. The duplication of an element in the landscape can be the repeated use of curves or angles, a certain color or certain plant. Harmony is achieved naturally through the pleasing arrangement of plants but it involves other elements, too, and the implementation of design principles.
Simplicity will make more out of less. Create spaces, and then don’t fill them up. Use accents to create a focal point, but let them draw the eyes, not overwhelm them.
Professional landscapers recognize five senses of the garden-welcome, entry, enclosure, flow and place. Making a welcome space, with an inviting entry is the first step in creating a beautiful landscape. Incorporating an enclosure like a trellis or hedge offers a sense of a respite, of sanctuary, and defines the garden, so it feels like a room rather than an open field. Flow is established with paths and walkways, lawn area and openings. The sense of place is how the garden reflects the lives and personalities of those who live in it. It’s what makes walking into the garden feel like coming home. PL
Thanks to the WVU Extension Service for their information and assistance in preparing this article. For more information, email Extension.Service@mail.wvu.edu.
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Femme Fair 2006
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