Digging It
Too much lawn. A straight line of trees. Perennials chosen for the color of their fleeting blooms.
All three are common garden and landscaping blunders that mar many American homes, says Don Engebretson, a Twin Cities Master Gardener, professional landscaper and garden writer who is featured regularly on HGTV. Known as the Renegade Gardener, he’s also co-authored several gardening books.
Engebretson, 49, is candid in his observations and often biting in his comments about what homeowners do wrong. At the same time, he admits that in his 20 years of gardening he has made all the blunders at least twice — but he’s learned from them.
Engebretson’s list changes with the season and as new blunders appear.
Here’s his latest list:
l. We design and plant garden beds based on flower color combinations.
“The gardening industry sells you color,” Engebretson says. “They blast blooms in your face. But if you look at a really gorgeous garden, the reason is actually where those plants are placed. The foliage contrasts from plant to plant.”
Perennials only bloom for two to three weeks but the foliage is there for six months. That’s a good reason to plant artemisia (silver mound) and ornamental grasses. Use plants with colored foliage — silver, variegated, red, gold, purple and black — and plants with large, broad leathery leaves and those with fine, lacy leaves.
“When you place shrubs, especially in front of other shrubs, look at the foliage and try to create pleasing, sometimes striking, sometimes subtle contrast in the leaves,” Engebretson advises.
2. We don’t test, correct and amend our soil.
If you have trouble getting plants to grow, the problem is probably your soil. Have your soil tested.
If plants grow well in your garden, enrich the soil by working in compost in the fall, Engebretson says.
3. We use too few containers, structures, art and accessories.
Accessorize your landscape like you do in your home. Add an arbor, art, statuary, a birdbath, a garden bench and other outdoor furniture.
“Art and sculpture make the landscape really special,” Engebretson says. “And it doesn’t have to be expensive.”
Place containers on the patio, along the driveway, on the steps up to the house and in places in the yard where plants put into the soil won’t grow.
4. We get suckered into taking the easy way out.
Part of the gardening industry is convinced that Americans have no desire or ability to learn to garden so they dumb it down, Engebretson says.
“They’re trying to make everything simple, low- or no-maintenance,” he says.
Gardening catalogs often don’t use Latin names even though it’s the only way to precisely identify plants. “Plant-by-number” gardens that bloom at the same time “look terrible,” he says.
Instead, Engebretson says, plant what you like every year. Learn where each plant does best and looks best.
“Don’t take the easy way,” he says. “It makes for really boring gardens and landscapes.”
5. We plant the wrong plant in the wrong place.
Before planting trees and shrubs, find out how big and how wide they’ll grow. Make sure the mature plants will have enough space.
Pick appropriate sites for plants by learning plant culture. What are a plant’s requirements for light, moisture and soil? Does it need full sun or prefer shade? Does it like sandy soil with good drainage?
Ask at the nursery, buy a good plant guide book or search for information on the Internet.
6. We don’t use enough shrubs and small trees.
Beds around house foundations aren’t wide enough, Engebretson says, so we have “a tutu of shrubs that circles the house and looks ridiculous.”
“The landscape should make a house nestle, rather than look like a dollhouse on a pool table,” he says. “We need to use small trees and shrubs that bring the roof of the house down to ground level with some kind of scale.”
Engebretson’s rule of thumb is that the width of a foundation bed should be at least one-third the height of the house. In front of windows, choose shrubs and dwarf evergreens that at their mature height will not block windows, he says.
A wider foundation bed that curves toward the back of the yard allows for depth in planting. Shrubs can be planted in front of other shrubs and perennials in front of shrubs. There may even be room for small trees such as dwarf evergreens, skyrocket junipers and Colorado blue spruce.
Large trees off the corners of the house, rising to and surpassing the roofline, help create that nestled appearance.
“When you design a landscape, the goal is to make it look like the landscape was there before the house, and you can do that even in brand-new home construction,” Engebretson says.
7. We devote too much space to the lawn.
Until the 1950s, only 20 to 30 percent of yards in urban neighborhoods and small towns were devoted to grass lawns, according to Engebretson.
“We had a much higher reliance on trees and shrubs,” he says. “The lawn area was usually one-half circle in the front or back. People would use a push mower, water with a hose, throw on a little fertilizer.”
With the 1960s came suburbization and yards became mostly lawn.
Expansive lawns require more chemicals, more water and more time to mow than other landscapes. Incorporate more trees and shrubs, Engebretson advises.
“Your house will look a lot better, the appraisal will come in a lot higher if you get back to 40 to 50 percent lawn,” he says.
8. We cut live branches off our evergreen trees but don’t prune dead branches from our deciduous trees.
We want grass to grow under a spruce tree, so we start pruning from the bottom.
Never cut a healthy branch off an evergreen, Engebretson says. It saps vitality from the tree and opens it up to fungal disease and insects.
“A spruce tree is supposed to have a broad base that stretches out and kisses the ground,” he says.
Evergreens will lose branches naturally. Prune off any dead branches but also have an arborist check the tree for diseases.
Hire a professional tree trimmer to prune deciduous trees and trim dead branches, Engebretson says. Do a section of yard each year and in a few years the whole yard will be done. You won’t have to do it again for 15 years.
9. We’re afraid to cut down a tree or yank out old shrubs.
We’ve heard about the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest and think it has something to do with trees in our yards.
“They’re not the least bit related,” Engebretson says.
Cut down a tree that’s in a bad spot in your yard. Cut it down if it’s diseased, old, storm-damaged, looks bad or keeps you from creating the landscape you want.
“Just give it the ultimate prune,” he says. “Cut it down, get rid of it. Plant better trees in better spots.”
The same holds true for shrubs, especially those big, old overgrown shrubs in front of living room windows. You don’t have to work with them, Engebretson says.
“Rip them out and go to the nursery,” he says. “The nursery is full of extraordinary new shrubs.”
A classic example is tall, leggy lilacs that were planted decades ago in what was once sun. Now they’re completely shaded and don’t bloom anymore.
“People ask how they can get lilacs to bloom,” he says. “You can’t. Rip them out. Plant something that will bloom.”
10. We think too small and too straight.
We take a divide and conquer mentality to our landscapes. Instead of seeing a landscape as a whole, we see it as little sections. We cut a circle in the middle of the yard and plant flowers in it. We plant perennials by a fence because it’s the only sunny spot in our yard. In the fall, we get a good deal on trees so we buy several and plant them in a straight line along the driveway.
“They’re all examples of thinking too small,” Engebretson says.
Start by visualizing an overall landscape design. Where do you need trees? Where do you need tall evergreens to block the wind or block the sight of the neighbor’s yard?
The landscape, whether simple or elaborate, should flow from one corner of the property to another and from the front to the back. There are no straight lines in nature, no perfect circles, no 90-degree angles.
“These are human inventions,” Engebretson says. “Make the lines of your landscape sweep and curl and bend.”