Consider the Angle of Repose

     So often people feel the need to fight the grades that are natural to their site.  They think that they should have a large flat area where the natural grade of the site is sloping, or they want a slope to feature some aspect of what they intend to plant or showcase.  They want to put natural streams into culverts, or they want to create a stream where one does not exist.
     Obviously, these changes can be made and are made on a regular basis.  Sometimes the solution to a desired flat area is to create a steep slope above and below the flat area.  Sometimes the solution is to construct a retaining wall or two.  Sometimes the solution is to remove the top of a hill and use that soil to fill a hollow.
     I have frequently seen the constructed solution  take the form of reshaping the land to create steep slopes on one or more sides of a site.  This can be a very effective way to create privacy, by creating berms, or to create a flat central lawn.  All to often I have seen this done, though, without the aid of a trained designer.  In fact, many 'garden centers' and 'landscapers' offer grading services.  Frequently these outlets have people who might know how to operate a backhoe or bulldozer, but do not have any design knowledge or training.  Although some equipment operators have an inherent sense of how to form the soil, many do not.  As a result, I have seen a good deal of disastrous consequences.

     So just what can happen if a mistake is made?  To the equipment operator, it can mean his life!  I have seen equipment flip and roll trapping the operator in the wreckage.  More often, though, the disaster occurs after the grader is done and has moved on.  The berm or grade change is completed and maybe even seeded and then a storm rolls in.  Suddenly the soil that was barely staying in place has the added pressure of saturation and begins a downhill tumble.

Don't let this happen to you!

     Designing the grading of a site requires that the designer know the soil type, the rainfall for the area and the subsequent angle of repose.  Without this information, slope failure is a distinct probability.  The soil type determines the angle of repose which is the key to most failures.
     All soils are made up of small particles of minerals - the result of the breaking down of  rock that formed the site millions of years ago - and organic matter - the result of the breaking down of plants in very recent times.  Soils are generally classified as sand, silt and clay (with a fourth classification of gravel that is not considered to be soil) based on the size of the particles that make up the soil.  Sand is the largest of the particles and clay is the smallest.  When these soils are built up to create a steep slope, they will naturally only stay at the steepness defined by their specific angle of repose.  This angle is directed by the individual particle density, surface area of the particles, their shape and the coefficient of friction as they relate to the force of gravity that acts on them.  Attempts to form a slope steeper than the angle of repose of the specific soil of a site will result in that soil reverting back to its natural angle.  That angle becomes flatter when you add water to the mix because water reduces the coefficient of friction allowing the particles to slide past each other.  For example, a dry sand has an angle of repose of 35 degrees, but a wet sand has an angle of repose of 25 degrees.  That is why the contractor can walk away from a completed site and the disaster of slope failure will not occur until it rains.
     Make sure you know who is designing your grades and how much training they have had.  It is also helpful to get a soil analysis if a great deal of grading is being proposed.  Clients that refuse to pay the 'extra' for a soil analysis often take the burden of failure on themselves and find that the 'extra' paid for that analysis might have been a wise investment.  Don't let a lack of knowledge about your site and your soil cause you to be the next person facing disaster.
    

Creativity Challenge - the Sequel

     Last week I challenged you to be creative and think beyond the easy and simple.  I showed you an example of my work in which I took a site that had a simple but less than desirable solution and re-designed it to have a more satisfying solution.  The end result was a completed project that has been extremely  successful as a built development.
     What about your individual site?  Can you make use of features on your site to enhance it?  Take a good look at your site.  Is there something unique about it that you have maybe overlooked?  You might have even seen it as a problem and missed it as a possibility.
     I had a client who called me out to look at their site because it had a creek in the back yard.  "What do I do with this?" she asked.  "It's so ugly and it takes up so much of the back yard."  The back yard was indeed ugly, but it was not ugly because it had a creek.  What made the space ugly was the fact that someone had cleared to the edge of the creek and was trying to grow and mow grass in an area that was clearly wet a good portion of the time.  The grass was growing, but was thin and not holding the banks in place.  Undermining had occurred in a number of places and left large holes in the lawn as well.  I asked her if there was some particular reason why they were trying to have a lawn in this area.  Did they have children who liked to play ball there, or did they need to have the space for lawn parties.  As it turned out, they were growing grass there because that is what they thought was the thing to do.  All of their neighbors had large grass lawns.  With a bit of imagination and some work, they transformed this area into a paradise with small, flowering trees, sweeps of colorful plantings and areas of ground covers.  They no longer had to mow; although they did have to do some weeding and they had an amenity rather than an eyesore.
     I had another client who wanted to remove a good number of the trees on his site because he felt that the house was too dark.  His wife also wanted more light in the house but did not want to lose the trees.  The trees were an obvious advantage on the site and their removal would have seriously adversely affected the site.  They were amazed when I suggested doing some strategic limbing of the trees and even more amazed at the airiness that they obtained after the job was complete.

   Most recently, I have watched as a neighbor struggled with a large and quite dead cherry tree.  They cut off the limbs and worked their way down to the trunk eventually stopping at about three feet from the ground.  At this point they began to have trouble cutting it further to the ground so they left the tall stump.  Recently, they came up with the perfect solution.  They chiseled a hole near a crotch in the stump, filled it with soil and planted it.  Now a gladiola is blooming there.  Problem solved!  A stump became a very unique planter.
     Don't be afraid to be creative.  We all have creativity as a part of our makeup.  Let your imagination rule for awhile and challenge the conventions of the people around you.  So what if all of your neighbors have a grass lawn and a row of Japanese holly neatly hedged across the front of their houses.  If you don't find that to be pleasing or if it does not work with what you have on your site than feel free to do something different.  The people around you might not understand at first and they might criticize, but I would be willing to bet that eventually they will come to value your creativity and maybe even follow your lead.

Take the Challenge to be Creative

     My son completed and turned in his final project in his cabinet making class yesterday.  The project entailed clearly stating his intention, designing the intended project and then executing the design.  His intention was to make a chess board, reasonable considering that he is the president of his high school's chess club.  Furthermore, this chess board was to be made entirely out of wood from the scrap pile.  In other words, he intended to use what he had at hand rather than bring in new material.  This made the project a good deal more complicated, and the final product a good deal more interesting.
     I have clients who choose to take this route on a regular or on an occasional basis.  They choose to rehab existing structures or use sites that have had previous uses other than vacant ground.  This always makes the project a good deal more complicated.  I have in the past had to deal with sites that could not meet setback, buffer or easement requirements because existing buildings were placed such that they were in these parts of the site - sometimes because the site had been subdivided and sometimes because the zoning had simply changed.  This often leads me to have to file re-zoning requests, special use permit applications or requests for variance.  All of these are legal hoops that I had to jump through, but are not really physically hindering.
     I have also had sites in the past that had monitoring wells (wells placed on the site to monitor soil and/or ground water contaminants) and buried extras (one urban site had a number of 1950's cars buried under it and one had a deposit of medical waste).  I have even had a site where past foundations were discovered under the current foundations that were being removed to make way for the new use.  These very physical issues can create a good deal of extra work as my client, sometimes the contractor and I work to figure out how to deal with them.
     At the design level, physical aspects of the site should most definitely help to define the design of the site.  It is very easy to design the location of a building, associated parking, vehicle and pedestrian access and any additional amenities on a flat site with nothing larger than grass growing on it.  The designer is basically then working with a blank piece of paper, a clean slate.  It is much more challenging if the site has a major grade change or a rock outcrop, or a water feature like a stream or a pond, or a vegetative feature like a champion tree or an area of woods.  To obtain the owner's desired use out of these sites, the designer is challenged to be considerably more creative.  The end result, though, can also be considerably more interesting and desirable.

The entire site was utilized and a pond for fishing and swimming was added as an amenity!

     I was brought in on the design of a site, for example, in which the initial preliminary design showed a single double loaded parking lot (parking spaces on either side of a single 24' wide aisle) placed in a straight line and a row of townhomes placed along the length of either side.  The whole thing was to be raised up with fill soil to meet the requirement of placing these units above the 100-year flood line which added to the general ugliness of the design.  This design was boring, but it did meet the client goal of X number of units on the site and the local planning requirement of X number of parking spaces per unit.  I was privileged to have been allowed to re-design the site, with of course the same parameters, and to complete the design and construction drawings.  My design included a pond in the center of the site that allowed me to obtain the fill needed to raise the buildings but also accessed the clean water table near the surface of the site.  Encircling the pond were the townhomes and encircling them the drive and parking.  Thus each townhome had a public entrance to the loop drive and parking and a private interior entrance to the walks encircling the pond.  Ironically, my design actually cost less to construct than the estimate for the initial design and produced a pleasant place to live.  Residents got an amenity that provided them with swimming, fishing and walking recreation as well as aesthetics. It did, however, take a good deal more design time and creativity.
     Don't take the easy way out when designing your site.  Take the challenge.  You might really like the results.  Work with what you have on the site rather than ignoring it.

Don't Dominate Your Site!

     My ex-husband died last night and it made me think about a lot of things.  Not all of our marriage was bad; in fact, some of it was quite good.  The really bad parts had to do with him trying to control and manipulate those around him, especially as he descended further into his dependency problems.  Your site, whether it be many acres or less than one, is very much like that too.  Attempt to manipulate and control it, and you will be in a constant battle over dominance.  Let it have its own nature and work within those directions and you will live in harmony with your site.
     I have seen people, especially with single family residences, work constantly to have their property look 'nice' in their definition of a pretty site.  They mow meticulously, edge along their curb, hedge and clip every shrub to within an inch of the 'perfect' shape (although I have yet to understand the reasoning behind creating great boxes, funny inverted cones or giant bowling balls out of their shrubs) and use ridiculous amounts of chemicals - both fertilizers and pesticides - in an all-out and on-going assault on their land.  The end result is indeed something very neat and tidy.  It is also something very unnatural and uninviting, and it is a harsh place for the owner who has to maintain it, anyone planning to spend any time there and for the environment in general.
     Does that  grass really look better with a perpetually severe low cut and a permanently blunt edge just back of the curb?  Have they really even looked at it, or is this simply ingrained into their psyche as the 'way to do things.  Does that roll of bowling balls culminating with an inverted ice cream cone really look better than a shrub that is allowed to maintain its shape?  Does an absolute monoculture really look better than something with multiple plant species?  These are questions that only you can answer.  Perhaps to you they really do look better.

The natural shape of the plants comes from and annual pruning.

     I would like to expand your horizons a bit though and ask you to look beyond this contrived and beaten site.  Every plant has its inherent mature size and shape.  Each has their own particular color, fragrance (even if it is simply the smell of the leaves), and blooming.  When thinking about your planting, why not consider the mature size and shape of each plant (shrub, tree and also herbaceous plant) that you intend to use.  If you want a conical shape, why not plant a shrub that will naturally grow that way and will reach a height that is close to the height that you need for that spot.  A choice like this does not mean no pruning; it simply means no hedging and minimal (most likely annual) pruning.  The same thing can be said for color.  If you want dark green, why not plant something that is naturally dark green rather than adding tons of fertilizer to your site to force your plant into that color.

     Do you want and need a lawn?  If so, does it really need to be a monoculture of a single grass?  What is  that lawn providing for you?  If your answer is a football field or a golf course, than that monoculture makes sense.  If you are using that lawn for occasionally walking across the grass and as a backdrop, then why not plant a mixture of grasses or better still a mixture of grasses and legumes for your lawn.  They will still function and be green when mowed plus they will not need to be mowed as meticulously or fertilized as often if ever.  Finally, have you ever noticed how pretty plants can be when they are allowed to tumble over hard features.  Grass and legumes can be just as pretty when allowed to tumble over a curb.  Edging is not a necessity; it is a style choice.
     Stop fight with your site and the plants that you use in it.  You do not need to dominate.  Try working within their inherent nature and you might find that you like the aesthetics you obtain.  You might also find that you like the reduction in work and stress.

Follow the Advice of the Expert You Hired. Don't Get Sold a Bill of Goods.

     I am often baffled at the amount of credence and trust that some people will give to various people around them.  How many times have you heard someone ask for advice concerning what to plant or how to amend their soil of the salesperson at the retail 'nursery' or worse still at the local home improvement store.  Why would that person be more likely to know anything more about those topics over the person asking?  They are most likely not involved in growing those plants that they sell.  Chances are that they are really nothing more than sales people.  Yes, occasionally you will come across a plant store that actually grows the plants that they sell and the people who work there would have a bit more background that would allow them to actually answer questions about the plants.  That situation is the exception though; not the norm.  Besides, there is a big difference between growing plants to sell in pots and raising plants on your site to maturity.
     I have a friend who engaged me to provide her with a bioretention pond design for her home site.  This pond was being built because her site was located in a watershed district and had a limit on the percent of the site that could be impervious.  She was hoping to enlarge her home which would have created a situation in which her impervious surface area was increased beyond her limit.  Bioretention is basically a place on the site that is designed in such a way as to capture surface water and give it time to soak, or infiltrate, into the ground.  To enhance this infiltration, the area is dug out and the original soil replaced with a soil mixture that enhances water infiltration because it contains a great deal of pore space.  The surface of this dug area, the 'bio' part, is covered with plants.  Thus my plan included a planting plan with a specific plant list.  Plants on this list were very carefully selected because they were capable of existing under the conditions that the bioretention would create.  They must be able to survive under both flooded conditions and extremely dry conditions.  After all, a bioretention area is designed to drain water into the surrounding soil, not hold it, and therefore when it is not filled with water it will become extremely dry.
     After my friend had planted her bioretention area she called to make sure that she had done the right thing.  She had gone to a retail nursery - in reality a local plant store - and found that they did not have the plants that were listed on my plan.  This is something that I had told her to expect when I gave her the plan and a listing of places where she could locate the plants on the list.  The sales lady that she asked told her that she should simply make substitutions; she did not need to use those plants.  She then proceeded to 'recommend' plants to buy and use instead.  As my friend began the litany of substitutions I was once again stunned.  One plant 'recommended' really does not grow this far south, although it would do quite well in Michigan.  One, if it survived which is highly unlikely, would grow great in extreme drought but die when water pooled around its base for the requisite 48 hours.  Another would die as soon as the basin dried up, which would be the majority of the year.  In other words, she had been sold a host of plants that would not survive and which she could not return.
     My question to her was this. Why did you bother to have me spend time on your plan if you were going to take the advise of a salesman instead?  That salesman was obviously out to make a sale period.  She did not know what you wanted or needed.  She simply wanted to make money off of your ignorance about that one subject and you readily fell into her trap.
     I see the same thing happen time and time again with salesmen and also with contractors who because they have built something have suddenly become the expert.  Are they really an expert?  What has their past performance really been like?  Did it hold up ten years down the road or did it need to be replaced or rebuilt?  If you are hiring an expert, follow their advice.  They do that for a living and most likely carry a good deal of training and experience to the table.  Don't get fooled into exchanging that expert advice for that of a good salesman (whether it be at the plant store or a pitch by the contractor).  That salesman is most likely to simply make a fool out of you and rob you of your hard earned cash.

Herbs Spice Your Garden and Your Pot

     Herbs in the garden can be very interesting and a wonderful addition.  They can provide color, scent and interesting texture as well as providing a wealth of useful seasoning to your table.  Everyone has their favorite 'go to' herbs that they use all the time in their cooking.  I always make a point of growing these herbs so that I have fresh spices at least during the summer and fall.  There is nothing better than going out to the garden just before starting a meal and picking what I need to throw into the pot.  Foods just taste better with fresh herbs.  There are other herbs though that I also add to my site and to site plans done, even for commercial and institutional locations, simply because they are a great choice of plant for the spot.
     I like to think of them in terms of permanent plantings, the shrub herbs, perennials, root herbs (including bulbs, corms and tubers) and finally annuals.  With these classifications in mind, I can then scatter herbs into a planting design or can create a more permanent year-round herb garden design.

    

Lavender in full bloom

The three major plants that I use for shrub herbs are lavender, rosemary and thyme.  Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, is also called English lavender, although it actually originally came from the western Mediterranean.  It is an evergreen shrub with narrow and fragrant leaves that reaches three to five feet in height.  It prefers sunny dry locations and has showy purple flower spikes.  The leaves are used for medicinal purposes, teas, and scents.  Rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, is also an evergreen shrub with needle like leaves.  These leaves are a gray-green in color and are also fragrant.  Rosemary likes full sun and will reach a height of two to four feet.  It is deer and drought resistant and also has showy blue to purple flowers that bloom along the stems.  As an herb, rosemary is used to season lamb, pork, veal and poultry.  Thyme,  Thymus sp., is a small evergreen, sun loving shrub that can be as short as six inches in height or as tall as eighteen inches depending on the variety.  It has narrow gray-green leaves and purple, pink, or white flowers on small spikes.  Blooming is showy because of the masses of color rather that because of individual showy flowers.  Thyme is great when used to season soups, poultry and fish.
     Perennial herbs tend to be a bit less permanent than shrub herbs, but they still will come back over a multiple of years.  In this category are sage, sorrel and the host of mints.  Sage, Salvia officinalis, is an evergreen woody herb with edible leaves several inches long.  It reaches one to two feet in height and has gray-green leaves and blue to white flowers. As an herb, it is used to season poultry, sausage and soft mild cheese, and as a planting it is lovely in rock gardens and along plant bed edges.  Sorrel, Rumex sp., is a perennial herb that reaches eighteen inches to three feet tall. I prefers full sun and makes an interesting bed edge plant.  Flowers are an insignificant green or brown, showing up in the summer, but the leaves provide a nice texture change to the bed.  They are a three to six inch shield, often with red stems or veins.  Sorrel is used in soup and with chicken and egg dishes. 

Mint

The mints  - including peppermint, spearmint, orange bergamont mint, pineapplemint, and Corsican mint - Mentha sp., are all perennial herbs.  They grow from six inches to three feet depending on the variety and prefer partial shade to full sun.  Mint makes a great ground cover, although it can take over if not contained, and it blooms with stalks of small lavender, purple, blue and white flowers in the summer.  Leaves are a deep green to a light yellow green, and are the primary reason to grow mint.  The fragrant leaves are edible and used in a number of ways including teas, jellies, deserts and salads.
     Root herbs are often simply lumped  into a category of bulb, because most people to realize that there are different types of roots.  In this category are the Allium sp.  They are perennial bulbs that have blue to green tubular grass-like leaves, reach heights of one to two feet, prefer full sun and have globe shaped flowers that are in the blue, purple, pink and white range.  This genus includes garlic - Allium sativum, chives - Allium tuberosum, and onions - Allium cepa. 

Saffron Crocus in bloom

Saffron, Crocus sativus, is also a root herb.  As an herbaceous corm, saffron is a  fall blooming crocus related to spring crocus.  It reaches four inches in height and prefers full sun.  Grass-like leaves are crowned by purple flowers in the fall.  Spice is produced from harvesting the red-orange stigmas and styles from the female flowers and is used in rice, breads and ethnic dishes.  Plant them as a fall accent on garden edges.  Finally, a great plant in this category is ginger - Zingiber officinal.  This is a herbaceous perennial that grows from tuberous rhizomes.  Plants reach three to four feet tall and prefer partial shade.  They have bright green strap-like leaves and yellow flowers in the spring.  The rhizome is edible.  It is used in oriental and Mediterranean food and crystallized in and as a desert.
     Annuals are good for a growing season and can be planted like annual flowers.  Parsley, Petroselinum crispum, is a biennial or annual herb that prefers partial shade to full sun.  It produces edible, dark green, curly leaves that provide interesting texture to the garden and the insignificant flowers attract swallowtail butterflies who like to use the plant to lay their eggs.  Parsley is used as a garnish and in soups, stews and salads.  Basil, Ocimum minimum, is an  annual herb,  It reaches eighteen inches to two feet in height and prefers full sun.  The plant produces bright green or purple fragrant leaves which are used in soups, salads, stews and tomato based sauces.  Basil has small white to pink flowers in summer.
     Herbs in the garden provide interest closer to the ground.  They give added texture to your beds and provide lovely scents as well as lovely flowers.  Their bonus is that they also provide interesting flavor and scent to your cooking.  Add them to your beds or create a specific garden just for your herbs to spice up your life.

Bedding Plants for Your Plate!

     Trees are the bones of a site.  They create the height and overall feel of the site.  They also work to alter the micro-climate by creating shade and altering the amount of wind within the general area around them.  Shrubs are the flesh of the site.  They bring the eye down closer to the ground and provide the visual screens and provide a greater sense of the scale of the site.  Shrubs also provide more color than trees for a good part of the year and bring green life closer to people on the site.  Both are still large and off the ground.  To complete the site you will need bedding and bedding plants.  They are the skin of the site.  They provide the opportunity for close-up interaction with the plants of the site and add  variety, color and texture.
     Most often bedding plants are composed of annual and perennial flowering plants and of bulbs and

Tomatoes can be colorful!

tubers.  You can also get color and texture by using food producing plants.  They also can be annuals, perennials and bulbs.  Even in a very formal site design with carefully hedged shrubs and closely clipped grass, vegetables and herbs can be used as bedding plants.
     In order to make your site work for you in this way, consider the mature size of the plants that you want to use.  Remember that many vegetable plants get fairly tall and that others spread out and take up a good deal of land area.  You might need to look into dwarf varieties of plants to get them to fit into your design.  Also remember that most food producing plants need full sun.  When choosing locations for your bedding plant vegetable plantings, check to ensure that the plants will receive adequate light to meet their individual requirements.  Finally, if you are using food crops for bedding plants, remember that you will probably need to provide them with more maintenance than in a less visible location.  This really translates to picking vegetables as they ripen, keeping them trimmed and keeping the areas under them mulched and weed free.  As bedding plants they will be much more visible than they would have been if placed in a more specific 'vegetable garden' location.

A pumpkin flower can be very pretty

   You can use plants that produce flowers and then fruit with the fruit being the ornamental aspect of the plant used.   For these plants, try peppers, tomatoes and eggplant.  All will fit in easily to the front or outer edge of a shrub planting and provide lovely color as well as produce.
     For colorful and showy flowers, try planting squash and their close cousins of cucumber, and any of the melons and pumpkins.  The flowers are lovely with five petals and bright colors in the yellow to orange range.  They are also usually large and, depending on the plant selected, often also edible.  With plants of this type, keep in mind that they are vines in nature and will spread out and take up large amounts of land area.  Provide for that need in advance.
     Bedding plants can provide interesting texture to your site.  For fine or ruffled texture, try using parsley,

Red leaf lettuce add color

thyme, rosemary and fennel.  The parsley will have the added advantage of providing habitat to swallowtail butterflies who will be attracted to your site.  Fennel provides a great deal of year-round color, and thyme has the added advantage of being unappealing to deer - in case deer browse is a problem.
     Finally, you can add color through leaves rather than through flowers and still have food production as well.  For possible leaf color plants, you could try Swiss chard with its flaming red stems, or cabbage and leaf lettuce with red and purple coloring.   
     Try finishing off your site with bedding plants that can also be eaten.  Make your site work for you to provide a beautiful garden and a fresh and appealing plate.