Springtime is nature’s cue to start fresh. New buds and new blooms signal a new opportunity to remake your landscape into the view of your dreams.
“We start getting a lot of calls March 1, especially from people who have been thinking about a project for four months and are ready to get going,” according to Jeff Inch of Inch’s Landscaping in York (inchslandscaping.com), who says now is a great time to reinvent a garden.
“From a design aspect, spring is the best time to do landscaping because nurseries have their largest selection in the spring,” says Inch. “For the most variety, get your plans together early so you can get the plant materials you need.”
It’s an ideal time to take stock, reassess, and come clean.
Begin again
To re-imagine your landscape anew, it’s necessary to honestly assess what you have to work with and what should simply go. If it seems impossible to see it with fresh eyes, pretend you’re in the market for your own house. Take a drive around the block, and return to look at it objectively.
For those with little landscaping, the open palette is already there. But for those with overgrown yards, clearing it all out makes a new vision possible.
“Most of our customers struggle with seeing the vision,” says Inch. “Once they remove all of their unwanted plants and can see what’s behind their old shrubbery, it gives them a better idea.”
Often homeowners are so fed up with old, overgrown landscaping that the decision to tear out what’s not working is easy.
“Usually we start with a clean slate unless there’s some sentimental attachment,” says Jarod Hynson of Earth, Turf & Wood of Denver (earthturfwood.com).
Landscapers do recognize that homeowners may not want to lose certain plants.
“They might be attached to an old magnolia that’s been there for 20 years,” says Inch, noting that it is important to evaluate if the old plants will work as focal points or specimens in a new design, or if they will detract. “Old plants can show maturity and growth,” he says, “but they also may look out of place if the new plants are 18-24 inches and the old plants are six feet tall.”
Over the years, as a landscape matures, things subtly change. Trees grow tall and expansive, shading out a lawn and sun-loving perennials. Shrubs spread and threaten to engulf other plantings, or are pruned so severely that they’ve lost all sense of their natural form.
“Landscapes also evolve with family needs,” says Hynson.
The sandbox and swing set that entertained your toddlers have turned to nuisances when your teens want to stage a game of football or frisbee. The deck that served for family gatherings seems less functional now with a more streamlined lifestyle.
“Your kids may have played in that sandbox, but now they want a pool and a firepit,” says Hynson. “Parents who have teens want their house to be the cool place to hang out, so they’ll know where their kids are. Once they have an empty nest, they may want to change the landscape again to create a softer space in the backyard.”
Hynson says that one of the most effective ads he’s ever run carried the headline “Now you’ll know where your teenagers are on Friday night” with a shot of a backyard pool.
“It emphasized the importance of bringing family home,” he says. “In today’s society, as our lives are getting faster and faster, there’s less time to just relax and create memories.”
Hynson is passionate about this idea of creating family memories.
“When people ask me what’s really behind all that I do...it’s simple: Priceless memories built around what we build for you...and that, for me, is the ultimate ‘wow’ factor,” he says.
Creating order
When you’re taking stock, examine whether your garden follows a plan or if it has evolved in a more happenstance way.
“The thing to think about is how do you live in your house and property,” says Ted Ventre, owner of Hively Landscapes of Dover (hivelylandscapes.com). “Everyone has a specific way they seem to entertain and utilize their property. It helps if people have given this some thought before they talk to us.”
Being thoughtful allows landscape designers to help you design the plan that’s right for you.
“We don’t want to sell you a firepit if what you really want is an outdoor grill,” says Ventre.
He suggests compiling magazine clippings of design elements and desired plant materials as a starting point, “but it’s often more valuable for us to walk around the property and see its flow and how it’s currently being used.”
“It helps to know what your style, and the style of your house, is,” says Ventre. “Do you have a brick walkway and columns on your house and you want the organized structure of an English formal garden, or do you want more of a French countryside, native plant look that is layered and lush?”
For homeowners looking to create a patio or retaining wall, Inch suggests visiting the websites of hardscaping companies and picking up brochures. “Each of the companies out there has different colors. Depending on your home’s materials, if you have siding or brick or stone, you want to find which palette works best for your home.”
Inch says his biggest tip is for homeowners to decide on a budget and prioritize.
“It’s hard for a landscaper to know what to suggest without a budget range from the homeowner,” he says.
Ventre says that hiring a landscape designer to create a master plan “gives homeowners an outside perspective that offers ideas they may have never thought of.”
When thinking about their property, Inch suggests that homeowners also consider the quality of time they’d like to spend on their landscaping once it is installed.
“Some people are green thumbs and love to be outside, cutting flowers to bring in, spending time pruning plants,” he says. “Others are looking for low maintenance plants that don’t require much work.”
For ideas, Inch suggests homeowners visit trade shows like the Harrisburg and York Garden Shows to see the landscapers’ work and design ideas.
Landscape triage
Once a master plan is created, homeowners have the option to construct it in phases, according to budget and needs.
Ventre suggests that a master plan is a way to prioritize plans.
“It helps the customer understand which part should come first: for instance, if they want a pool, they should wait to install a patio later,” he says. “Or if they want to landscape a pool area, they should get the columns for the fence installed first, then think about the plantings later.”
Ventre compared it to renovating a kitchen by updating the cabinets first so that a new floor isn’t ruined later.
Pruning possibilities
By coming up with a master plan and enacting it in stages, homeowners can complete each phase as their funding allows.
“If your front yard looks decent, maybe all you need is a mulch and trim,” Inch says. “Then you can put money into a back patio where you can entertain outside.”
Ventre suggests, “the first thing is to get your overgrown landscape under control, pruning dead branches and getting pest issues taken care of, and you might find that that’s all you need to do.”
Good pruning and mulch applications can work wonders.
“A mature landscape, properly pruned, can look like a whole new landscape,” says Ventre, whose passion is teaching homeowners how to use garden shears properly. “If you have 10-15 little yellow balls of forsythia on your property that should be reaching out into a wonderful natural shape, you should think about allowing them to form into a nice hedge. Or if you have holly trees that you are overshaping, you should consider allowing the plant do what it wants to do.”
Simple, correct shaping can make all the difference.
