Many property owners will come across a point in their lives when they realize that their landscaping is not interesting. The same boring shrubs need to be trimmed each year. The same old trees need to be trimmed, beds weeded and grass mowed. Boring, boring, boring.
This is the reality of landscape care: The industry average is to maintain a status quo. Plant stuff, nurture it, and keep it tidy. Although it may not seem exciting, it is effective. It’s simple: humans need food to survive. To sustain your body, you can eat the same things day after day. That’s not living. That’s maintenance. You can also choose to make food more exciting and interesting. Try new ingredients and recipes to delight your taste buds. This is fine dining.
Your landscape should be viewed in the same way. It is possible to keep your landscape the same, year after year, or to change it. Landscapes do not like to be frozen in the past. They prefer to respond to natural biological processes and grow as they mature.
Imagine your landscape as a video. Watch it grow, bloom and go dormant. The seasons will then bring new life to it. Your landscape needs to be based on natural laws and make sense of the world around it. It desires to be bright and give a WOW! in the form flowers and colors that not only help plants reproduce, but also draw us in with their beauty.
Our landscape must make sense.
It doesn’t make sense to try and freeze anything that changes or grows over time. Landscapes are like puppies. You can’t keep them in a roly-poly state. As they grow, you must nurture and respond to them. They will become wonderful adult-dog companions.
It is important to see your landscape as a living and breathing entity that evolves, and to understand how each element works together. It is essential to be able to recognize when your landscape is in disarray. A Fine Gardener can help you make sense of your landscape and restore beauty and balance.
Healthy garden, happy garden.
Gardens should be vibrant and healthy. They will be able to work in harmony with the soil, plants and environment. A healthy garden will be more resilient to the many outside pressures that they face, including weather, disease, and normal fluctuations of seasons and landscape.
Fine gardeners are always in assessment mode. Even the horse in this image is interested! Is that the right color for that flower? Is that leaf’s break normal? Are the plants as vibrant as they can be? Fine Gardeners can help restore the landscape’s vibrancy if the answer is not yes. It is important to follow the professional gardening horticultural guidelines. Another way to put it is that someone who used to maintain a landscape sees it as one unit. Is everything neatly trimmed? Fine gardening minds look at each plant individually to assess their condition and their place in the landscape. It is appropriate, balanced, and contributes to an harmonious “Wow!”
The “Wow!” effect is temporary. Landscapes are not always in a “Wow!” state. However, gardeners can manage the “Wow!” by adding decor, seasonal planters and other attention-getting features such as a water feature or pond. Maintenance is too busy to keep up with the “Wow!” and must move quickly from one property to the next. Fine Gardeners look for ways to add “Wow!” to each property. Fine Gardeners will spend more time with a property to learn how it functions and to find the best ways to make it functional and beautiful.