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Planning your Summer
Do-it-yourself
Landscape Projects
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With warm weather finally
arriving, you may be thinking about doing one of
those HGTV do-it-yourself landscape projects.
Thanks to HGTV, Sunset Magazine, and the internet,
many homeowners are inspired to add more color and
interest to their landscape, but then they go
outside to figure out what they can do in their
yard, and suddenly, all of the inspiration is
extinguished by a flood of questions—“What should I
plant?, Where should I plant it?, How do I do it?,
Will it look nice when I get done?, Will I be able
to keep it looking good in coming years?”
Gardening and yard work remains the number one hobby
in the United States, and many homeowners enjoy the
physical work of doing yard care and landscape work,
but many homeowners feel insecure about their
knowledge of plants and landscape work and approach
do-it-yourself landscape projects with
apprehension. Over the past 20 years I have had the
opportunity to work with many homeowners as they
undertook do-it-yourself landscape projects, and
there seems to be several keys to successful
projects. |
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The third key to successful
landscape projects in Wyobraska is plant selection.
Plant selection is to some degree, of course, a
matter of personal preference. But as a general
rule, do-it-yourselfers in Wyobraska may want to
work hard to avoid two types of highly promoted and
highly used landscape plants—small shrubs with
colored foliage and many of the traditional spring
flowering shrubs. The reason is simple—Wyobraska’s
soil’s and climate are not very friendly to small
shrubs or to spring-flowering shrubs. Small shrubs
often have thin stems which dry out in our long
winter season causing their appearance to decline in
just a few years. And spring flowering shrubs often
find that their blooms are greeted with a late
spring freeze or snowstorm—leaving the homeowner
waiting for another full year to see their prize
plant at its best.
Instead, try to select plants
which bloom or are at their best in mid-late summer,
or which are attractive in winter. That list
includes ornamental grasses, summer-flowering
shrubs, summer and fall blooming perennials, large |
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Previous Articles
Yes It's Time March 12
Pruning Trees March 26
Plant a Tree in 2009 April 02
Great Old Trees April 09
"Nightmare
on Elm Street?"
Elms & Oaks for WyoNeb
April 16
Green, Easy & Cheap April 23
No GardenSpace? No Problem
April 30
A Mother's Garden May 07
What Makes a Good Perennial?
May 14
Summer School - Kids Gardening
May 21
2008 Articles
2007 Articles
2006 Articles
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The first key is to start
small. Don’t try to redo your entire landscape at
one time. Successful do-it-yourself landscapers
tend to start with a small project, do it
successfully, and then use the knowledge and skills
they gained to take on other, often bigger, projects
in their landscape. Examples of good starter
projects are to redo the “foundation beds” or
landscaping around the front of your home. Another
easy project is to start a perennial or landscape
border in your back yard.
The second key to undertaking a
successful do-it-yourself landscape project is to
understand that the plants are only a small part of
it. A successful landscape project is usually going
to involve 6 steps. 1. Removing existing plants
and/or sod and establishing a proper grade (slope of
the soil) for the landscape bed. 2. Amending the
soil—sulfur, compost, and starter fertilizer are
essential soil amending ingredients. 3. Installing
appropriate edging if any of the bed edges are
adjacent to lawn areas. 4. Selecting and planting
the plants. 5. Installing appropriate
irrigation—generally some type of low-output
irrigation. 6. Mulching, preferably using a
shredded wood mulch—absolutely no plastic or weed
barrier products under the mulch. So when planning
your first project, be aware that buying plants and
planting them is only one of several steps. A good
approach is to do steps 1-3 one weekend, and then do
steps 4-6 another weekend.
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deciduous shrubs, and evergreen shrubs and
trees. Mix and match these types of plants, and
you’ll likely be pleased with the results. A good
rule of thumb for landscape plant selection is the
Rule of Thirds—use 1/3 evergreen trees or shrubs,
1/3 deciduous trees and shrubs (medium to tall
shrubs especially) and 1/3 perennials and ornamental
grasses. Finally, a word or two
about maintaining your do-it-yourself landscape
project. “Low maintenance” is the popular request
for landscape projects. Homeowners want an
attractive landscape, but they don’t want to be a
slave to it. They want a little yard work, but not
a lot. I like to tell homeowners that the key to a
low maintenance landscape is doing a good job of
installing it. The soil amending helps plants to be
healthy and fast-growing—virtually eliminating any
problems with insects or diseases. Drip or other
low-output irrigation takes care of the watering.
And mulch eliminates any weed problems. Presto—a
low maintenance landscape. ---And the best part is,
you did it yourself!
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