Seeing Red

In the landscaping world, just like any other profession, there are those little things that “do it yourself” guys do that make the pros cringe. They are our “nails on the chalkboard” experience.   I, like many of my colleagues, have my personal pet peeves. Let’s go through a few of them and hopefully you can gain some insight as to how a professional landscape designer looks at your landscaping.   By avoiding or correcting your landscape mistakes you will have healthier plants as well as knowledge that can give your home that extra something. This will make your neighbors stand up and take notice and hopefully show some of the guys who call themselves “pros”, why these things are not helping to achieve the goals of good landscaping. The topics we will discuss include:  Green Meatballs; The Green Necklace; A Whole Lotta Nothin; Seeing Red; The Minnie Pearl Syndrome;  Crape Murder; Runway Lights; Volcanoes; and The Real Thing.  We will be addressing these issues over the next several newsletters.   This month we will tackle “Seeing Red”

Seeing Red

This refers to the red dyed mulch that has become more prevalent in the past few years.    The purpose of mulch is to keep moisture in and to keep weeds down. It is supposed to enhance the landscape as a background element. The focus should be on the plants and the overall design, not the mulch. The red color of this mulch competes with the colors of the landscapes. It screams at you. It actually clashes with certain flower colors and therefore limits the color palette available to the gardener.  A better choice is any shade of natural brown.  There are many different types of mulch that can be used as well. There are woodchips, pine needles, pine bark, peanut hulls, and decorative gravels. All of these are better choices than red mulch.  To be continued…

Rick Rice

Seeing Red…