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Adding
Style
To Your
Landscape
Part 2
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In last week’s column I
reported that one of the new trends in landscaping
is the creation of landscapes with “style”, and
suggested that homeowners in Wyobraska have plenty
of landscape styles to choose from if they wish to
join the landscape style trend. I promised to
continue the subject this week with more information
about how to create landscapes with distinctive and
recognizable styles. While doing a little
impromptu research on the subject of landscape
design styles a few weeks ago, I came across the
website for the American Society of Landscape
Architects (www.landscape-design-advisor.com).
It provides a detailed explanation of the history
and evolution of most of the best known landscape
styles, including Tuscan, English garden, French
cottage garden, xeriscape, Mediterranean, and
several other styles that are all very much doable
for Wyobraska homeowners. For anyone with a
serious interest in adding “style” to your landscape
I suggest spending at least 30-60 minutes on your
computer visiting this website—and any number of
other very well-organized websites on the subject of
landscape styles.
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As with any Wyobraska landscape
project, successful implementation will require
careful plant selection and proper soil
amendment. This is often easier to do in building
stylized landscapes for a couple of reasons. First,
in designing these landscapes, homeowners generally
first focus on creating the decks, patios, and
pathways that will allow them to be out in and
living in their landscapes. These hardscaped
outdoor living spaces, in turn, create what are
often small, but very important natural landscape
beds surrounding patios and decks and alongside
pathways or walkways, that are small enough in area
to be economically prepared for whatever landscape
plantings the homeowner’s style preference
requires. Likewise, because the homeowner can now
be out in the actual landscape setting, it is often
easier to select and combine plants with the correct
mature size and level of visual interest to properly
finish their “living” outdoor rooms.
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Previous Articles
A
Loooooong Winter
March 10
Just Dirt
March 18
Horse Manure & Hot Air
March 25
Mulch
to do this Spring
April 01
Creating Long Term
Tree-lationships
April 15
Spring Blooming
Shrubs & Trees
April 22
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The internet, and the ASLA website in particular,
now offers some big advantages to the average
homeowner over the old “magazine picture search
approach” when it comes to researching landscape
styles. Not only does it provide the ability to
immediately focus your research on a particular
style, but it also allows the opportunity to quickly
expand your research into important related
topics—like related hardscaping ideas, key plant
types and characteristics, and patio furnishings and
garden art—perhaps the three most important visual
aspects of any landscape style. |
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In other words, adding style to
your landscape, generally requires a homeowners to
follow a process of designing and building that
landscape that almost insures success, because it
forces the homeowners to create their landscape in a
naturally ordered process. The old magazine picture
approach did the opposite—getting homeowners excited
about this plant or that plant, without getting the
reader—or looker—to think about the landscape and
the outdoor living rooms first.
Next week—great Wyobraska
landscape plants for almost any landscape style.
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New
and Improved
Nebraska Arbor Day
April 29
A
Normal Spring
May 6
The Winter of Eight Moons
May 13
Adding Style to your Landscape
May 20
2009
Articles
2008 Articles
2007 Articles
2006 Articles
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If you’re one of the many homeowners around
the region wondering if there’s anything
you can do help your plants recover from the
recent hailstorms, the answer is yes. For
perennials and ornamental grasses, the storm
came early enough in the growing season to
allow for what should be a complete
recovery. Simply cut off broken stems, and
if the plants were badly damage, cut back
all of the new season’s growth and allow the
plant to “reflush”. You make actually end
up with a somewhat wider, if perhaps
shorter, perennial this year with a few more
flowers than normal. For trees and shrubs,
prune off any branches that were broken or
otherwise severely damaged by the hail and
other high winds. No pruning paint or
so-called wound paint is necessary and may
actually harm the plant. Then consider
expanding and/or refreshing the mulch
around the base of the tree or in the
landscape bed. Make sure to fertilize
your affected trees and shrubs this year
–the best time to do that is mid to late
June |
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