As a landscape designer, nothing drives me more crazy than homeowners and professionals who disregard the site analysis and history of a property. Follow this simple approach for a successful and unified landscape. If you have a lot of shade, install a shade garden. Don’t try to install a bunch of plants that thrive in full sun. It seems obvious but I’m amazed at how many times I see a style of garden that has been forced into a space it shouldn’t be. You are just setting yourself, and the landscape up for eventual failure. In the same token, it’s always a good idea to reduce your paving materials down to one or two. If your house has a brick and bluestone stoop that isn’t going to be replaced, then please create a new walkway leading up to the existing stoop in either a matching brick or bluestone. Don’t build the new walkway out of stone or worse a concrete paver that sort of looks like brick. Tacky! The overall goal is to marry house and landscape so it create a seamless, unified effect. Believe me, you can’t create a unified effect with a handful of different paving materials around every corner. The landscape will look disjointed and hodgepodge. Choose your hardscape materials wisely and remember……less is always better!
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