Learn what I DON’T like about landscape design (And you shouldn’t either)
FREE MINI COURSE 🪴 What you need to start a successful landscaping project: https://www.gardenprojectacademy.com/ready/
I’m a professional landscape designer BUT there are a few things I greatly dislike about the industry in general. If you’re starting a landscaping or gardening project, consider how these are influencing your decisions and approach. YOU DESERVE A YARD you can authentically feel proud of.
🪴 DESIGN-YOUR-OWN LANDSCAPE LAYOUT: How to create your own design (for beginners and do-it-yourselfers)
DIY Landscape Design Online Course: Design-Your-Own Landscape Layout
🪴 RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE: How to find the right plant for a spot in your yard https://www.gardenprojectacademy.com/free-mini-course-choose-the-perfect-plant/
🪴 READY, SET, LANDSCAPE DESIGN: What you need to start a successful landscaping project
🪴GREEN THUMB IN AN HOUR: How to create a low-maintenance
garden bed + landscape
🌱 ALL VIDEOS- More DIY Landscape Design Resources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJUJccnWHM&list=PLT4LLM91GU1vCdjFTxJ_KorHiqKuEo3jr
🌱 PLANT SHOPPING TIPS: How to find plants for your DIY garden design project
If you’re new here, hello! Welcome to Garden Project Academy, where I offer online courses and resources to help you have a more successful garden project, and make the world a better place with the opportunity you have to do some landscaping. My name is Eve, I’m a certified horticulturist and landscape designer from the Pacific Northwest corner of the USA.
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19 Comments
I love you
Thank you for sharing your perspective and experience! I'm always learning and growing (pun) from your channel.
Do you take jobs on the east coast?
My sister and I occasionally help our parents with their yard, but we work at opposite spectrums of wildlife vs. beauty. The yard is almost 2 acres and relatively rural. My sister kills anything I plant, so my influence is basically killing buckthorn and garlic mustard. There's a shady area that they use to mow until I convinced them to stop, and it turned into a 500 sq ft field of violets. The monolith of purple flowers in spring was so pretty! Next time my sister cut the lawn, she cut the violets too. My parents were upset, so now when they mow, they go around daisies, and violets, and she's not to touch them. Baby steps I suppose, but I know it could be so much more since they're not bound by HOA or other statute. I moved to a city two years ago, and I only cut a path through my back yard, and around the edges so my neighbors don't complain. Last year it was mostly asters and sedges, and I had a comparable amount of bees and fireflies to them with 1/15th the space. I can only hope this year they'll leave 10% of the space alone.
It’s crazy to think of the amount of gasoline, fumes, labor spent and lawnmowers alone – that have been added to landfills just in North America during the last 50 years. All because of some stubborn notion that a pristine, manicured lawn is the only way to have a respectable front yard. I am heartened to see that the younger generation is a lot more interested in healthier diversity, embracing innovative ways of landscaping. And creating many more interesting spaces because of it! I think things are changing, just wish it would happen a bit more quickly. I appreciate you sharing your important views about the profession.
Wait — so not a front yard of perfectly green turf grass, manicured boxwoods, hydrangea macrophylla, and knockout roses?! I kid. I think one of the biggest challenges to landscape design these days is that our attitudes towards homeownership have changed. We (culturally) have pivoted towards seeing a home as an asset to held and re-sold. Unfortunately, this means that complex landscape design is seen as an impediment to selling. This really means the most sterile, both botanically and aesthetically, designs rise to the top. But helping people understand that there are tools to make incremental and meaningful differences is the key!
PREACH!!!!
I’m lucky to live in a place that values food production, native and heirloom plants and generally unconventional spaces.
We share a lot of the same sentiments. I’ve learned to appreciate the smaller wins with my clients.
The fascination with the plastic looking plants is really weird to me- Asian hydrangeas, invasive yellow daylily, and boxwood in particular just gross me out. They're plants for people who hate plants.
This is why I hate HOAs. I'm on a corner lot, my back yard is very shady so my side yard is practically a farm. Neighbors love it, passers-by slow down to look or stop to chat, I'll pick them some stuff & send them home with it. I've never seen a garden that wasn't beautiful, even if it was just a few herbs & plants on side of a doorstep planted in coffee cans.
The landscape industry reflects the real estate industry. Neat and tidy is what sells property. Believe me, I know, as I sold a house that had a 1/2 acre of garden much of it naturalized. People loved it. One day I woke to find that overnight someone had taken down the native plants along the street. And cleaned up the mess. Obviously, the naturalized aspect of it offended them. Neat and tidy will kill us is what I used to tell my design students. The other problem is municipal bylaws which often restrict the height of 'weeds' in a front yard. I've seen cases where the city came in and mowed a carefully nurtured yard of rare native wildflowers because of neighbor complaints. The landscape industry is focused on hardscape, pools and the walks around them, hot tub installations, patios, driveways and sidewalks. They know nothing about gardens or gardening and few know anything about more than a few standard plants, often also used for parking lots. However, good news. Energy shocks and climate change will increase the price of food. I suspect we will see a revival of food gardening going forward.
I like to observe high work areas in my garden. We have an area where a lot of weeds come up. I can either put in a lot of labor, buy lot of mulch or
and that is what I try to do for nowdecide to let the most agressivly growing weed become my new super cheap groud cover plant. And it blooms in spring wit thousands of tiny violet flowers.I still have a lot of expensive plants because I looked out for certain varieties. But at the same time local exchange oportunities would probably leave me with a similar result. This would gave the benefit that these plants are great adapted to my area.
The new " virtue signaling" in gardenning/landscaping, wich is also a show off, is all the "eco" trends going on. And a bunch of it is just pseudo eco…
I love your philosophy!!! I moved to the desert about 30 years ago and learned so much about myself as a gardener. The very first thing I did was to stop watering the lawn! What a waste for desert yards. I’ve found that no matter how much I plan things out, ultimately our very tricky weather is going to dictate what survives. Our spring is so beautiful and mild that basically anything will thrive, but when temps climb above 110°F nearly every day, the list of plants that can make it through until fall is greatly diminished. Native plants are a given, but there are also many non-natives that can take the heat and/or become acclimatized. So I let nature guide my landscaping plan and I have to say I now love my garden and my ability to appreciate all that it offers, simply by working with it instead of trying to dominate it to my will. I see my garden as an oasis for lots of creatures, especially hummingbirds, and thus I plant accordingly. Currently I have three nests with chick’s that I am monitoring and there is nothing as satisfying as seeing the babies leave the nest then return the following spring to build their own nest. And since most of the birds were born and raised here in my presence they aren’t scared of me, which is quite fun.
I look forward to watching many more of your videos
Good fences wmd hedges would sort everything out
My kind of person
My landscaping design is i ripped out every bit of crab grass in my yard and planted native flowers then some food garden plots i have
I am totally with you! Greetings from Vienna/Austria
Oh thank you algorithm for bringing this channel to me!
This year, we are giving up a food garden and our fancy pants landscaping, because the wildlife always eat it all! And it has only gotten worse since they cut down the woods by our house to install a race track (that nobody here even wants, but I digress). This severely cut the natural habitat for them.Â
So, we're rocking with it now, and ordered a boat load of native trees and shrubs, focusing on plants that will provide food through the winter. We overseeded our lawn with prairie grasses and small flowers. Once spring hits, we'll install the water feature for the bigger animals, and flowers for all of our pollinators. It's so nice being in an older, nonHOA neighborhood, and I honestly can't wait to watch this change. I'm hoping to get some neighbors on board too 🙂