Landscaping Basics for Beginners

Learn the tricks of the trade

Tony Bennett

Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or someone who just never really had the motivation to do anything much about the state of your yard, starting the process of landscaping your property can sometimes be a task akin to visiting the dentist or doing taxes – a necessary evil. Mindy Appold, however, sees it more as an opportunity for positive change and personal expression. Appold, a registered landscape architect, master gardener, and landscaping instructor, is just the kind of knowledgeable person you want to talk to when you’re finally ready to put shovel to dirt.

Appold’s landscaping advice isn’t one-shrub-fits-all. It varies depending on the type of situation you’re facing and trying to create. But there are a few constants, things that she surveys each time she takes on a new project.

Water
You need it for growing anything, but water may or may not naturally flow across your property.

“For obvious reasons, we want to keep the natural water flow away from any buildings or walkways,” Appold says. “If you don’t get water issues straight in the beginning of the project, it can be costly and you may end up redoing your landscape at a later time.”

 

Time
How much of this rare commodity do you have to spend on a landscaping project? If you’re like most working people, you don’t have unlimited hours to spend in the dirt wielding a trowel. The good news is, landscaping your yard can be a work in progress. In other words, you don’t have to do it all at once.

“I always tell my students to design the landscape the way they would like to see the final product, and it can always be installed now or phased over a number of years,” she says. “Once you have a plan established, that vision can go a long way to adding satisfaction to living with a landscape that’s a work-in-progress, because you know its potential.”

 

Money
Like time, money isn’t in unlimited supply for most people, especially in this economy. More good news: you don’t need to spend a bundle for your bushes.

“These days, we need to look for creative ways to spend our resources, including ways to get your landscape installed. One suggestion is to ask for plants as gifts. For example, you could ask for a tree for Mother’s Day, or I’ve heard of garden centers that have registries so you can register your plant desires like you would a bridal registry. How fun is that?”

For the novice landscaper, the idea that a project like this can be long-term is quite comforting. Instead of thinking you’ve got to fully realize your property’s potential in a matter of a few weeks and throwing a huge wad of cash at the problem, Appold’s suggestion of calmly, slowly putting the puzzle pieces together makes a lot of sense.

 

Particular plants
While Appold is quick to say that “good landscape design is not just about where you choose to place plants in your yard,” she’s also very much aware of how vitally important plants are. Or, sometimes, aren’t. “Just because someone planted it at one time doesn’t mean it’s the right plant in the right spot,” she advises. “You may be better off starting your design from scratch instead of basing your whole design around a plant that didn’t work in the first place or that is overgrown.”

 

Circulation?
At this point, you’ve defined your existing conditions and are ready to design. Appold suggests starting by considering something called “circulation.”

“Circulation is basically where you put the walkways,” she says. “Where you place hard surfaces instructs people how they are to move around your property, and the designer can frame pleasing views. This can be as simple as identifying good views and directing your eye towards pleasing objects and away from unsightly views.”

These good and bad views aren’t just limited to the limits of your own property, by the way.

“Imagine yourself walking into your back yard,” she says. “You come around the corner of your house, and your neighbor on the left-hand side is meticulous about their beautiful garden. In contrast, your neighbor to the right-hand side stores his bright-orange 1970’s “vintage” snowmobile behind his shed so he can’t see it, but it’s smack dab in the middle of your view.”

Using trees, bushes or plants to screen out your neighbor’s “treasure” goes a long way in terms of improving your own yard, because if you don’t, no matter how many pretty flowers you plant, you’re always going to see the trash heap next door.

 

Think of the whole yard
Finally, Appold advises novice landscape adventurers to think of their entire property as being made up of distinct sections: front yard, back yard, and side yards. “One of the first things I do is walk clients out to the street, and we visually locate the front door,” she says. “Making a clear and inviting connection to the front door is the most important thing to consider when landscaping your front yard. Visitors want to know where they are going. Once you have that connection to the front door, you can give the front yard a personality [with] pavement, plants, scale, and color.”

Appold’s back yard suggestions, on the other hand, are more personal in nature: “Back yards are more private and have more potential to show off your personality,” she says, adding “I think of the back yard as an outdoor room of your house. This is where I look at lifestyle and ask a lot of questions like ‘How do you see yourself using the space?’ Then, follow the basic design rule: form follows function.”

Tony Bennett is a Duluth-based writer.