Landscapers can turn your yard into a park-like vista
Aleen Crispino
SOME people, without any formal training, have a natural eye for landscape design. You know, the neighbor across the street who prunes his shrubs in perfect, symmetrical, umbrella or basket shapes, or the lady next-door who sculpts her lawn in a cascading series of free-form, raised beds filled with seasonally unfolding displays of bulbs and perennials.
However, there are novice gardeners, like myself, who have trouble telling an armillary from a pergola, whose ability to appreciate a fine landscape design far exceeds the ability to impose one on an unruly, improvised combination of grass, cement and random railroad ties that, in the case of my own backyard, reflects the disparate visions of several previous owners. We could use some advice on, for example, the proper trees to screen a fence that won’t, five years down the line, reach a height of 20 feet and blot out the sun, get tangled in the telephone lines or uproot the patio.
Fortunately, to assist gardeners who would love to gaze out on park-like vistas but whose design skills fall short of Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of New York’s Central Park), many landscape companies in the area provide the services of professional landscape designers.
Nick Pugliese is one of three landscape designers at Moon Landscaping in Yardley, Pa. As Moon Nurseries, the company began in 1767 by selling fruit trees and now encompasses a 1,000-acre farm in Maryland and an 18-acre wholesale yard in Yardley, where Mr. Pugliese maintains an office, taking on residential and commercial landscaping jobs “from the Main Line out to the Shore.”
When a homeowner asks him to design a landscape, which, in addition to lawn, perennials, shrubs and trees, can include patios, terraces, ponds, walkways, retaining walls and accent lighting, he starts by asking a few key questions.
First, how much have they budgeted for the project? “I can design the same area from a $10,000 range to a $25,000 range — it all depends on the detail, basically, and the material,” he says. “If you’re trying to be more budget conscious, you use smaller plant material. I typically like to use larger trees and smaller perennials because they only take a year or two to fill in.”
Another budget-friendly measure is to carry out your landscaping plan in stages, setting priorities and postponing some items until next year, which has become a popular option since the economic downturn began, says Mr. Pugliese.
When phasing in a project, “I always plant trees first,” he says, “because they take the longest to grow.” The only exception is when the trees will be adjacent to a patio; then the patio goes in first, he adds.
Ken Dilts Jr. is a landscape designer at Ostrich Nursery in Robbinsville, a retail nursery in business since 1980 that offers thousands of trees and shrubs, as well as designing and installing landscapes including rock and stone walls, pavers, walkways, patios, driveways, poolscapes and ponds. He also reports that when he inquires how much a customer is willing to spend, more customers ask to phase in projects, deferring some items until next year. A few have even canceled altogether.
”A lot of people lost their jobs and a couple have come to me and say they couldn’t do the landscaping,” he says.
However, there are many ways to save money while improving your landscape. One way is to maintain the health of existing trees and shrubs. “You have to stay on top of what you have so you don’t have diseases or insect damage,” says Mr. Pugliese, adding, “I’m a big fan of transplanting things. If you have a tree that’s not quite placed correctly, let’s dig it and move it, so as it does grow, you’ll still have some value.”
An attractive planter, urn or annuals can also be relatively inexpensive additions, he says. Perennials are a particularly good value. “You can split a perennial every three years,” he says. “If you have a large massing of black-eyed Susans, you can go in there and take those and plant them elsewhere.” Other plants that split easily are echinacea and hostas. “You don’t need to buy a 3- or 5-gallon perennial. Buy a 1-gallon perennial and be a little bit more patient,” he says.
After ascertaining what a customer is willing to spend, Mr. Dilts will ask about the physical characteristics of a site, such as the amount and direction of sun exposure, the pH balance of the soil and whether there is adequate drainage.
Much of the soil in this area is clay, but the pH level varies and sometimes the homeowner will know whether their soil is acidic, alkaline or neutral, says Mr. Dilts.
What can be done for a site with poor drainage? “You could either recommend plants that would tolerate a wet site, or you could correct the drainage issue by raising the bed,” which only works for smaller beds, says Mr. Dilts. Some moisture-loving trees are the bald cypress, dawn redwood and weeping willow, he says, while water-resistant shrubs include the serviceberry and “certain kinds of itea,” or sweetspire.
Apart from considering the site itself, a landscape designer may also ask questions related to the lifestyle of the owners. Patios and decks must be sized according to how many people a family typically entertains, says Mr. Pugliese. “If they have large gatherings, we have to make the space adequate to hold that many people.” Guests need enough room to back their chairs out and get up and walk around, and they also need a pathway, says Mr. Pugliese. “If you go too small, you’re going to end up with a space you can’t use.”
Mr. Pugliese, who holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Wilkes University, also finds it helpful to note the style choices a customer has already made. “I play off the architecture of the house a lot. I always look through people’s houses — their art collections, what kind of cars they drive, how they dress — these are all good indicators of how they’d like their outside space to be used as well,” he says.
He will observe or ask if there are children in the home. “If so, there are certain plants I won’t use around the house, because they’re poisonous,” says Mr. Pugliese.
He will also ask what time of the year people are at home. “I have clients who live in New York (or Florida, or Maine) half the year and who live in Princeton the other half of the year. I try to time it so all their plant material blooms when they’re here,” he says.
Accustomed to doing a job attuned to the seasons, landscape designers plan for the long haul. “If you do instant gratification, you’re going to end up taking out about half the plant material in about five years because it will get too jammed up,” says Mr. Pugliese.
”I have a patient job. Instantly, it’s in but it doesn’t really come to fruition for five or six years. That’s when all the trees start to fill in and all the shrubs really take off and it looks like it kind of did in my mind’s eye when I designed it.”
Nick Pugliese of Moon Landscaping, 1955 Quarry Road, Yardley, Pa., can be contacted at 215-968-5071, [email protected]. Contact Ken Dilts Jr. of Ostrich Nursery, 170 Pond Road, Robbinsville, at 609-426-9114, [email protected]