Revising an Unsuccessful Landscape

Sometimes when a homeowner meets with a landscape designer from "Company X", things just don't seem to connect, the plans are vague, the designer is set in a specific style or "theme" that they like to work with, and before the homeowner knows it, money has been spent on "Company X" and the landscape was an expensive, unsuccessful experiment.  That was the case with this nice gentleman and his wife, here.  They ended up with a project that was not at all what they want and now they feel that they've have to live with it and try to "revive" it back into something they want, and something that works, with "lots of color".....   Away goes Company X, and now..... in comes Dave at Landscape Design Studios.

While, I am not certain that I have "slam dunked" this by any means, I feel that I have been able to add some level of balance and layering in this landscape.  It was challenging as the plants and forms were so free of structure, but by using some of what is there and then adding layers and groupings of new plants, this will hopefully add more balance to the landscape.  

With the past winter and the heavy snow punishing the more delicate plants, the main structural tree being introduced is a Iseli Foxtail Spruce, or the Somatic Seedless Blue Spruce (whatever looks the best at the nursery) which will give a vibrant contrasting steel blue foliage and a moderate growth rate giving them an additional 8-12' of elevation on their planting beds.  In planting them in clusters of threes at opposite ends of the bed, and then adding an additional crabapple at the opposite end of the bed, there starts to be some level of symmetry there.  This will help it from looking so "random".  

Then, on the ground layer, we are using vibrant copper-maroon foliage plants like Coppertina Ninebark, and other bright greens and chartreuse colors in plants like Magic Carpet Spirea and Bush Honeysuckle, and add layers of new colors in the perennial beds, rather than use three varieties over and over and to death.

Here are the mockup images for this Design Revision.  

Spring? Hellooooo... are you there?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I love Minnesota.  I love the lakes. I love the people. I love the work that I do (especially when there's enough of it and it pays the bills). I love the town I live in.  I love the public school my kids will both attend (an International Baccalaureate school with amazing teachers).  I love the Arts community.  I love the music offerings.  I love the professional sports teams and the enthusiasm behind them.  And, I love the balance of 4 seasons that we get to experience, nicely distributed through the year... Usually!   However, this year's Winter season has been utterly relentless.  Once again, today we topped out in the mid-30's (as it is 34 degrees as I type this with a low expected at 30 degrees tonight).  It even was flurrying again this morning. This is getting ridiculous.


But in spite of the terrible weather and extremely delayed construction season, things have been happening on the computer screens of Landscape Design Studios.  This year has offered some fun design solutions to keep us busy, working for our clients and amongst some fine landscape contractors looking to offer their clients some amazing service this year.  Please take a look below and check out what we can offer.


Anyway, we would love to help you with the project you have been thinking about, if and when the spring and summer finally arrives.   At a glance, we're at least going to be in the mid-60's later this week.  So hopefully things are coming around.


Let us know what we can do for you!


Sincerely,

Dave