Horticulture Plantings
How can your landscape design be implemented?
Basically there are two approaches: (1) all at once; and (2) in planned stages
All at Once
A fully implemented design usually means a lot of horticultural and inert materials have to be moved around, from and to your yard. Let's say your design requires you to bring in: 2 trees; 12 bushes; 6 evergreens; 15 rolls of sod; 16 containers of flowers; and, 3 pallets of brick.
Perhaps this does not sound like much but you have to understand that all plant material comes packed in dirt. Translation: this "little list" adds up to a few thousand pounds of material! Getting this material into the yard can also be tricky. Most yards are fenced in. Have you ever tried moving a few thousand pounds of plant material in and out of a fenced area? It is not easy. It takes experience, planning, machinery designed for the task and pure muscle.
Once all the material is in the yard - who is going to dig all the holes for the plants as specified by the design? In most yards digging is not so easy. Oh yes, the first 6 inches of earth may be easy to dig, but over years roots, concrete substructures of buildings or garages long gone, stone beds or just plain hard clay beds always seem to pop-up in the most unpredictable places.
Let's say your evergreens have an 8 inch root ball. This means that you will have to dig at least a 14 inch deep hole in the ground with about a 12 inch diameter. Why? For this evergreen to flourish and live for years to come you have to include drainage and root expansion material. This is just the first hole. Your list calls for a total of 20 holes. It really adds up quickly, doesn't it?
Planned Stages
Here the list does not get any smaller, it only gets implemented in stages. Maybe this season you install the sod, flowers and the trees. Next season you install the bushes and evergreens. Why would you choose this process? Either because of budget constraints or the time of year the installation is taking place.
No matter which way you choose to implement your landscape design, you can be sure that you will enjoy your functional landscape for years to come.
