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Danville Today News ~ November 2011 - Page 17
Life in the Danville Garden Spruce Up the Tired Garden By John Montgomery, ASLA, Landscape Architect #4059 Let’s talk Tired Gardens! You know what I’m talking about. You look out into your Danville garden with a huge sigh and see uninspired plantings that you have looked at for years. The gardener continues to prune plantings that are clinging to the edge of survival. Once glorious flowering shrubs and perennials have been reduced to woody stalks that seem to suffice because they are still alive. It may be a single small area or it could be the balance of your front and back yards, but something needs to be done. What do you do when your garden is tired? In some cases it is wise to design a new Master Plan and start anew, and in other cases it makes sense to “spruce up.” Instead of bulldozing the entire garden, you can “spruce up” what you have! The fundamental criteria for a “spruce up” are that you are happy with the basic functionality of your hardscape and garden layout. Maturity brings radical changes to landscapes that are often welcomed. It also brings other changes that are not. Trees finally provide shade cover and shade out once sun-loving plants. Lack of care and poor maintenance practices have taken their toll. Hedges and shrubs have become overgrown, hiding the house and blocking good views. These changes give cause for a “spruce up” although the overall context of a “well-designed” landscape may still prevail.
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Within the life of your Danville home, an owner’s uses will change for many reasons; kids grow-up or a family matures and changes. Lifestyles evolve and change. Once busy families had no time to work in the garden but are now retired and have time to play. This brings a whole new reason for the landscape to be spruced up. These changes call for careful consideration and should be well thought out. They should be logical and creatively resolved. Updating landscape projects are challenging yet satisfying when properly executed. In addition to our full spectrum of landscape design services, we offer garden consultations that cover a wide range of solutions for sprucing up an existing landscape. Our consultation service is intended to provide clients with simple and doable solutions that satisfy their need for a beautiful and inspiring garden without the need of a master plan. Our basic consultation includes a site visit to assess the condition of your garden; we provide practical recommendations for planting, irrigation, drainage and soil problems. Whether you are tired of a small planting bed or your whole yard, we can provide solutions to “spruce up” your tired garden. Especially in today’s economic climate, in many cases it makes sense to “spruce up” your tired Danville garden instead of completely gutting it. Consultations for sprucing up may reach beyond just the planting and may include solutions for updating hardscape elements; sitting areas, benches and seat walls, arbors and trellises, play courts and kid zones, water features and sculptures, etc. Adding dramatic landscape lighting or adding colorful pots and décor around the entry for the holidays can make all the difference to inspire a tired garden. Like the design of a new landscape project, a garden “spruce up” should be well thought out and planned before executing. A hot tip from your local Landscape Architect: Whether you are interested in a “spruce up” or Master Plan, now is a great time to design and execute your proj-
ect; while fall and winter set in think ahead to spring and be ready to implement your project so you can enjoy your yard during the summer months. G a r d e n ing Quote of the Month: Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. - Melody Beattie If you would like me to write on any particular subject, email your ideas to jmontgomery@jm-la.com or for design ideas visit www.jm-la.com. Advertorial