The Real Thing

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 “The Real Thing”

This refers to what is arguably the tackiest of landscape mistakes. It is the practice of putting artificial flowers in the landscape. The only place this belongs is a cemetery and perhaps a trailer park in Florida. It is better to have no color in your landscape than to have fake flowers. What is worse is leaving them out all winter. The purpose of anything that imitates the real thing is to be as close to the real thing as possible. Flowers of many colors do not bloom on the same plant. They do not bloom in winter when there is snow on the ground, and they certainly do not remain static as the season goes by.  Folks who want a garden must realize that it is hard work and requires the initiative to learn about the plants in their own landscape. If you feel incapable of this work there are many reputable professional companies that you can hire to do it for you.   If this is not acceptable, then perhaps a house with a garden is not for you. Have you considered a condo or townhouse?   To be continued…

The Real Thing…