After 47 years as a landscape professional, John shares the most important lessons he’s learned about designing healthier, more beautiful, and lower-maintenance gardens.
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30 Comments
Thank you for sharing all you knowledge! And thanks to your sidekick Chip who is a great cameraman! How would I find the right products to use in my soil in St. Louis, Missouri suburbs? Is there an expert like yourself in my area?
Just found your channel and LOVE Chip! Subbed!!!
Thank you for referencing Halprin, one of America’s great design treasures ❤
blooming all together is a good idea.
Bad photography…
Somebody loves their dog 🐾
What do you use as a weed barrier under rock landscaping? We used the usual fabric weed barrier 10 years ago and its already failing. Frost heaving causes shrinking and pulling away from edges. We bought 2 verticle evergreen shrubs to block view of our A/C unit and they said max height was 8', they are 13' and growing…….ugh
Privets are highly invasive, at least where I am on the Texas Gulf Coast.
lots of gardening advice – very little landscaping advice.
Great advice on so many topics.
A common mistake I see in many gardens in California is planting plants with different water needs in the same area or irrigation zone so some are thriving while the other is suffering .
Thanks John -John
Amen Brother!
Hate, hate, HAAAATTTTTEEEE constant butchering of shrubs throughout the US.
Boxwoods are meant to GROW. Yeux bushes are meant to GROW. Most people use them like ugly little cabbages aka hostas. People also buy too much and plant too many things too close.
Ex- Instead of buying 10 boxwoods to border a tiny space, buy 3 or 4. Spread them out. With patience and time they grow in beautifully to reveal their true shape. They will link together and can be shaped as an entire group, not separate little doorknobs.
Just say NO to privet!
do you use weedblock ?
You can do my garden any day!
And what works on his space may not work anywhere else. But thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your show! I know you like wood mulch, but what are your thoughts on pine needles/pine straw versus the mulch? I find i don’t have to reapply pine needles as much as I have to do w/ the wood mulch. I would love to know your professional opinion 🙂
Love this guy
I have so many pests where I live that I struggle to keep my plants alive. 😅
The Korean Ho- Mi is my go to for so much hand gardening work. I note another viewer also likes them.
I've been using thick mulch for 8 years now, and I really disagree with the simplified vision that's offered in the video. First, mulch only suppresses weeds that are weak annuals. Tough perennials will go through 10 cm of mulch, no problem. Stuff like quackgrass, buttercup, creeping cinquefoil, rumex, or thistle. Second, most flowering plants will NOT grow better with thick mulch applied every few years, it's something Roy Diblik talks about a lot. Only plants that love rich soils. But most of the plants we love prefer poor to average soil. Stuff like eryngium, echinops, agastache, rudbeckia, echinacea, etc… Ever heard of the "Chelsea chop" in the UK ? They do that because they keep adding manure and mulch to their beds, so their plants grow way too tall, fall over, so they have to prune them a month or two before they flower, so they don't topple over. They wouldn't need to do that in an average soil. People learn about how much water or sun plants need, how tall they grow, but they don't learn whether they prefer poor or rich soil, or can adapt to both…
So how do you do flower beds without mulch and weeds? You gotta use groundcovers in every nook and cranny, between bigger plants. It can be perennial geraniums, saponaria ocymoides, carex, aster "snow flurry", oregano, aubrieta… I don't recommend cerastium tomentosum or periwinkle, they're too invasive. But the issue is that to put groundcover in every naked spot, that requires a LOT of plants, and nurseries don't typically sell small groundcover plugs, they will sell you 7-9 cm pots for 3-5 €/$… So mulch is obviously the cheaper and easier way, but it just doesn't work well against perennial weeds… What I end up doing, is mulch first, and they I add the groundcovers over the years… Because I can't afford the groundcovers right away, and sadly only oregano and saponaria area easy to sow. Geranium seeds are VERY expensive, and carex seeds don't germinate very well…
I believe, keeping a small journal
Observation of sun and soil are key
Before purchasing a plant, I think of what it will look like in each season will it have flowers or berries
Mulch is extremely important
However, living in Virginia, you want to make sure that the mulch is away from your house due to termites !
Around my house I’ve placed rocks instead
The plantings I have near my house are in pots. I occasionally move them for a different look.
Any type of small water feature adds interest in a soothing sound
Thanks for your invaluable input
🐾
But the dog?
🎉
What does this cute dog want in a garden?
What plants can hand dog urine?
(It’s pH is between six and seven 😂)
Maaannnn leave that shit alone, say at start THIS IS ONLY FOR THE AREA WHERE I'M LIVING!!!!! Nothing applying to my zone in Romania! And Yea I know your language, and every Rumanian knows even though you don't know where Romania is. I appreciate your advices and work, but try to classify them, we search for specifical things.
All I hear in Florida is don’t put mulch near your foundation at all. Mulch promotes roaches and termites. Plus, we don’t have gutters all the way around the house. That would require French drains. The rain cascades down onto pebbles. I just don’t know what to do except put the beds out far from the house. But the Palmetto bugs again will love the mulch.
1. Think of your front and backyard as a series of spaces to be lived in.
2. Don't try to make your garden natural, try to make it a place where people feel natural.
3. The best garden tool is the one you use.
4. Plants well placed need the least care and are most attractive.
5. Simplicity is attractive. Massing is attractive.
6. Prune on purpose. During growth to suppress, during dormant to encourage.
7. Bare ground is not good. Think mulch.
8. Overwatering is generally dangerous.
9. Healthy plants defend themselves. This starts with life in the soil.
10. Pests are a symptom, not a problem. Focus on healthy soil. Use organics.
I'm always intrigued by these gardening videos that show perfection, but never the effects of voles, moles that ruin all your work, eat your bulbs, roots and Giersch/gallium and other weeds you can't get rid of, as well as grass always growing where you don't want it (paving joints), but not the lawn (large areas of clay). I'd also love to get rid of the oaks around the garden that bury everything in 20 inches of indestructable leaves every year that take two weeks to remove from under the hedge, between stones/rocks and in bushes. I'd get crucified (and prosecuted) if I tried. I find it hard to find the time to enjoy my garden, because the minute I sit in it with a coffee I see something that needs doing. I never get the time to relax.
I started planting more perennial native plants so that the upkeep and care is easier. I also avoid non native invasive plants no matter how much i love them. Our neighbor has a bunch that we have to battle and its a nightmare.
47 years and concrete is still in fashion