silver spring landscape design Archives

May 15, 2013May 12, 2013

Who cares for your landscape? That’s the last step in the design!

If I had a penny for every client who included “I want a low/no maintenance design” as part of their wish list, well… 170 pennies are in a pound, so I’d have a stack that weighs more than my biggest cat. I get it. We’re all busy, whether it’s work or kids or church or all of that, and we want something that will look as good in two years as it does today. But wait, landscapes don’t work that way.

If you have an interior designed for you, maintaining that space comes down to keeping it clean and tidy (and maybe the occasional fresh coat of paint). If your landscape was well designed, it doesn’t look its best the day we pull off. It looks its best a few years down the road when the plants have all started to fill in and mature and create that beautiful, layered, effortless look. However, the wrong person caring for that landscape can inadvertently keep it from ever reaching its potential. As landscape architect Michael Van Valenburgh stated,

If you leave plant management decisions entirely to horticulturists who remain on the site after you, you are surrendering too much of your design. On the other hand, your design will be ill fated if you don’t collaborate with people who know horticulture. Collaboration—this is the unheralded key to management.

I came up through maintenance, then construction, before coming into design. I feel pretty comfortable designing with the long term in mind and I personally handle the pruning for a few clients because it allows me to guide the landscape in the direction I want it to go. I can’t do it for everyone in the nation, though, which is why I think it’s important to talk about what you’re looking for when seeking someone to care for a designed landscape. It’s not complicated:

Knowledge – can they identify what you have?
Skill – Do they know proper pruning techniques?
Vision – can they tell (by looking at the plans, looking at the landscape, or talking with you) what the goal is and how to get you there?
Professionalism – proper plant care is going to take more time than a mow and blow approach. Do you feel confident that they’ll use your time wisely? Can they provide you with a synopsis of what they did after each visit?

Whoever you select will play a large role in shaping your garden now and in the future, so I recommend selecting someone with whom you’re comfortable and with whom you can communicate well. Do that and you should have an easy relationship and a beautiful landscape.

Is your landscape still a great design away from needing a guiding hand to maintain it? Contact me to set up a consultation! I’d love to learn more about your project.

March 21, 2012June 3, 2012

Travertine Paver Patio Installers in Virginia – What to Know

When I was designing landscapes in Arizona, one option we had available to us was travertine marble tile. These were actual tiles – typically 12″x12″ and less than a half inch think – so they had to be laid in a mortar bed on a concrete slab. Shortly after landing in Virginia in 2005, I started seeing travertine pavers make an appearance.

These are really cool because they’re an inch thick and are laid just like a concrete paver. You build up with a base layer of compacted gravel (21A or crusher run), then use a one inch layer of sand as your bedding layer. Once the pavers are in place they’re compacted and polymeric sand is swept into the joints. That’s it. It’s a beautiful finished product that has the ability to flex and move like a traditional concrete paver patio in Virginia. From the test data I’ve seen online, travertine pavers have a compressive strength similar to concrete pavers and can even be used for driveways!

The biggest challenge I’ve found with designing travertine paver patios in Virginia is making the materials make sense. Travertine in California or Arizona doesn’t look out of place. It can look a little foreign here, though. I recently designed a fireplace, seat wall, and travertine paver patio as part of a winery landscape design project. I used a plum-colored flagstone to tie in with the warm tones of the travertine and the rich reddish colors in the fireplace stone, and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. All those color theory classes have finally paid off.

I’m starting my next travertine paver patio project this week, and I may have one more in the pipeline as part of a swimming pool project. The travertine pavers are a great product that (unlike concrete pavers and flagstone) aren’t in every other backyard. Making it work requires someone who can integrate this new material in the landscape design while blending all the colors harmoniously. In other words, you need a landscape designer. Contact me to set up a consultation if you’re looking to build a travertine paver patio in Virginia, Maryland, or DC and I’ll be happy to talk with you about it!

April 6, 2011February 16, 2019

Simple Factoids About Landscape Drainage

Last night I signed contracts with some great folks, and they asked me to add some drainage work while the crews are out there. We walked out to look at what was going on, and as usual I was appalled. When their patio was installed, the contractor connected the downspouts on the rear of the house to 4″ corrugated drain pipe. These come together in a “Y”, and then a short piece goes out to a low spot in the yard. Here, the pipe turns straight up and is covered with a grate flush with the lawn.

Hmm. So when it rains, water burbles up out of this contraption and pools at the corner of the screen porch for a couple of days. Plus, all the rainwater at the back of the house is being brought together into a single 4″ pipe. Idiots. So in the interest of breathing some common sense into landscape and drainage design, here are some points to ponder:

Water flows downhill. Elementary, my dear Watson, but often overlooked. Don’t terminate a drainpipe in a flat area if five more feet lets you terminate on a slope. And remember to keep a constant pitch downhill!
Corrugated pipe is fine, but smooth-bore is better. We’re usually gently pitched when running drain lines away from the house, which means the water isn’t moving super fast. That means sediment and funk from the roof can get stuck in the ribs of corrugated pipe and eventually clog. An even bigger issue is that smooth PVC drainpipe is rigid, so it’s easier to keep it pointed downhill. Corrugated pipe will conform to the ground around it, so after settling and a few years of frost there are uphill sections. See point # 1.
4 + 4 + 4 +4 does not equal 4. All too often I see companies hook 4 or 5 downspouts together into one 4″ pipe. Guess what? That’s a lot of water, and may well be too much for the pipe. If you add water to a funnel faster than it can drain out, what happens? If you want to get an idea of how much water comes off your roof in one storm, there’s a cool rainfall harvest calculator on this page.
Pop-ups are ok, but daylight is better. Pop-up emitters serve a purpose. If you have to end a drain line in the grass, a pop-up emitter keeps you from destroying the line with your mower. It’s also a mechanical system that can fail. If the site allows it, you’re better off ending with the open end of the pipe pointed downhill – what we call “daylighting”.
Be a good neighbor. This one’s pretty huge. Think about where your water is going if you move it to a discharge point out in the yard. If you’re in a subdivision where water moves through the backyards, what does it do to your neighbors if you build raised beds and block that flow? Not only is it rude and crappy, it’s often illegal to alter the drainage in a way that adversely affects your neighbor. Just food for thought.

Drainage doesn’t have to be overly complicated, but it’s definitely worth planning properly. Most residential systems won’t fail this spectacularly, but why risk it?

River birch is a great choice for wet areas!

December 9, 2010

Nokesville Landscape Design & Driveway Case Study

A driveway? Really? I know, but bear with me – it’s totally worth it!

Two springs ago, I met with a couple (they’re referenced in my post “Do I Really Need a Landscape Designer“?) to do a complete landscape master plan. One of the issues we talked about was the driveway:

I mean, really. This is how guests enter the property? This is the first view of your house – your garage? We can do better.

And we did! There are several issues to consider when making a major change like relocating a driveway. You have to look at basics like drainage, and slope, and buried utilities, and staying off large tree roots when possible. There are specific vehicular concerns as well. How much space do you need to safely (and confidently) back out of the garage? Where do guests park? Ideally, you also want to consider the turning radius of fire engines or other emergency equipment. Designing for big vehicles has a payoff. If Tanker 12 can make it down the driveway, so can a Miata.

Anyhow, here’s the new approach to the house:

As you can see, guests get to actually take in more of the property and enjoy the view of what’s actually a pretty, brick house. The gentle curve leads around to a guest parking area immediately adjacent to the new front walk, which as the plants fill in will be partially screened from the garage parking area.

Ok, it’s not all puppies and rainbows. One thing the homeowner told me is now that she actually sees her front door every day, she’s realized she really wants to paint it a different color. Here I am, making more work for her…

What change would make your property better? If you’re not sure but you know something isn’t working… give me a call!

October 27, 2010February 16, 2019

6 Screening Plants That Aren’t Leyland Cypress

UPDATE! There’s a new post up on planting for privacy – be sure you check it out!

My name is Dave Marciniak and I hate Leyland Cypress. It’s unattractive before it fills out, it’s no prize once it does fill out, it gets way too big (30′ wide and 50-60’+ tall) for the suburban lots on which they’re planted, and bagworms consider them a tasty snack.

I’ll admit that Leylands are, in part, an easy target for my ire because they’re often used in a really boring manner. I get that you have an unattractive view you’re trying to screen, but lining up as many of a single plant as you can plop in the ground is just boring. Emerald Green Arborvitae is another plant used this way.

See? One more reason not to browse the web on your phone while driving – you might have just fallen asleep and wrecked your car, thanks to this photo.

It’s the same problem at any scale. Our friends over at a local winery wanted to put up an evergreen screen along an edge of their property that they may end up sharing with some new neighbors. Can’t say that I blame them. Who would want to give up a view like this?

Anyhow, a local nursery recommended throwing a row of White Pines across the property line. Yawn. You’re a nursery, do better! So I developed this plan for them:

Let’s look at each plant I used here:

1- Cryptomeria japonica ‘Yoshino’: I’ve talked about this one before, as it’s a favorite. With an eventual height of 30-40 feet and a spread of 12-20 feet, it’s a well-behaved tree that will hide a multitude of sins in the neighbor’s yard. It’s a quick grower, too.

Photo credit: Middlesex Conservation District

2- Black Pine: A tougher pine than the common builder’s favorite, white pine, the black pine will easily grow to 20-30 feet or more, with a similar spread.

3- Deodar Cedar: Bluish-green foliage and a height of around 50 feet make this tree an interesting specimen to mix into an evergreen screen.

4- American Arborvitae: this is a great choice for narrow locations too. Overall height ends up around 25-40 feet, with a spread of 10-15 feet.

5- Kwanzan Cherry: Now wait, you say, this isn’t an evergreen! And that’s true. Part of eliminating a problem view is blocking it; but another component is misdirection. When these trees get covered in their gorgeous pink blooms in springtime, no one’s going to be looking at what’s beyond.

6- Maple: We actually used a Commemoration Sugar Maple, which gets a great blaze orange color in the fall. At 50 feet tall and 40 feet wide, this will be another great foreground tree throughout most of the year. These and the cherries allowed us to create a layered planting, which makes it look more like a farm windbreak and less like a suburban “hide the neighbors” screen.

The bottom line is that just because you have something you want to hide from view doesn’t mean that the best way to do it is with a single, straight soldier row of the same boring plant. Play with texture, play with color, and use some tricks that not only block the view but give the eye a reason to look somewhere else.

Unsure of where to start? Give me a call or email to set up a consultation, and I’ll help you get started.

Tag: silver spring landscape design