Yes, I just spent a small fortune on a landscape update. I loved the hardscape design but not the plant plans - they used pretty but common plants that I see in every commercial setting - shopping malls, etc. I really love gardening and could have nothing but specimen plants. So they did the hardscape and I'm doing the nursery tours hunting for things I love and planting what I want. I'm sure to a pro it's a hot mess!

This is the first time in the 30+ years of living in this home that I've had a blank canvas with decent soil, fenced against deer. There was a miscommunication about the fence and the result is a more Asian style than the cottage garden fence we planned...I like Asian gardens, but want a perennial garden. So I know it's breaking lots of rules, but I don't care. I love it. I'm making some mistakes that will have to be righted (the sun is more intense than I imagined and I planted some shade plants that are frying). Ideally I would have waited a year and tracked the sunshine as it moved N, but I'm old enough that I wanted to make sure I saw it planted.

So you are not alone!

Rules? We don't need no steenking rules!

What's the problem ... thew only ryules in landscaping are those imposed by climate. I can't grow azaleas in NM, nor saguaro in MN.

What is the problem?

Lazygardens, I feel so much better!

Lol! Well at least I am not alone! My challenges include a ninety foot long slate sidewalk - straight as an arrow - that I don't want to look like an airport runway! It stretches through shade, dappled shade, and part sun and I have - at this point - tried Hawthornes (BIG mistake), dwarf azaleas (all the info I read indicated they should have thrived there but they didn't), and now varigated pittasporum. The Pitts are doing pretty well although I have to make sure I keep them pruned down - not ideal but I was desperate! The shear volume of plants I go through is staggering! Thankfully I have a reasonably priced source!

After the walkway challenge comes that if the hummingbirds, birds, and butterflies! MUST serve their needs!!

I don't want the 'bank landscaping' but I don't want out of control and tacky either! I appreciate and understand the need for shrubs and structure to give some continuity and backdrop but I, too, am riveted by lovely and unsusal 'specimen' type plants!

I guess embracing the process and the challenge of it is the key - and dismissing perfectionism as the enemy it is!

Olychick - I bet you will come up with a tasteful 'Asian / cottage garden' theme! I am sure there are Asian folks that have cottage gardens, right? :)

Lazygardens - I very much agree! There are days, however, that the vastness of my project (I have a rather large yard!) tends to make me feel 'whelmed over' as I move a plant or shrub AGAIN lol!

I guess this is how we become proficient! Trial and error!

Thoughts:
1. One of the first mistakes a DIY designer makes is to look "at all that space" and try to figure out how to "fill it all up". Yet, space can be very important in a design if one takes the time to plan a few focal points that lead into and accentuate space.

2. Look on the 90' slate walkway as an opportunity. Any possibility that the slate could be lifted at a few measured paces, added to as a walkway that goes around a garden bed with a statue or small tree carrying an orchid display or a coquina creation of some sort?

3. Sounds as though you are not taking advantage of all the wonderful plants that grow in Florida. Just several Windmill palms planted in a landscape and allowed to remain branched to the ground can make quite a statement in a large area.

4. Are you visiting the numerous area botanical gardens for ideas and plant selections?

Lol! Well at least I am not alone! My challenges include a ninety foot long slate sidewalk - straight as an arrow - that I don't want to look like an airport runway! It stretches through shade, dappled shade, and part sun

Can you get more of the slate? If you selectively widened the path in a few places on both sides you would break up the runway effect. Use whatever plants will grow best in the conditions in that spot. If they lap onto the path a bit at the wider spots they will make it look curvier than it is by interrupting the edge.

Also, use a mix of tall and low growers.

Piet Oudolf writes about breaking some rules - I like his book "Designing With Plants"

of course there are rules. Er . . . things like . . .

--complement the color and style of the house
--design for the conditions of your site -- like where does the water come from? and go? how cold does it get? How hot? Is there wind?
--landscape the site for the way you will use it -- do you need kid space, dog space, dining space, etc.

If you break these rules, you will have a much less suitable and pleasant space. so . . . I'm not sure I understand your question.

as far as being "driven over the edge" --yep. It's not terribly easy. In reading these forums, I see a crying need for more information and resources for homeowners to learn about and implement good landscaping. As a newbie homeowner and gardener, I've explored a lot of the resources out there, and it's been educational and fun. But obviously, people need help!

It seems to be: DIY which can be fraught with problems; trust a local landscape company (which in my experience is a complete crapshoot because most of them in my area are merely glorified plumbers and concrete sellers); or hire a real pro landscape designer or architect, which most people don't have the money for.

Oh, and don't get me started on drainage issues, because that seems to be the number one problem everyone struggles with!

I don't know what the solution is, but maybe there's a niche there that ought to be exploited by someone clever. Has anybody tried ArcBazar?

This post was edited by Violet.West on Tue, Jun 17, 14 at 14:29

Good tips, advice and encouragement - thanks!

Can't do more slate without big effort and hiring help - so that's out.

High and low growers I have done and will continue doing as I add plants in.

I came up with a 'design' of sorts that breaks up the length of the walk by incorporating plantings that travel across it in one section and giving a 'break point' where new border plantings begin. I have some hedging areas using Anise - nice, lush dark green and very easy plant but grows big if not kept pruned - I can handle that. I also have lovely but randomly blooming hydrangea that are doing well, some nice gardenias, red impatiens, coleus, shrimp and plume plants, and a lugustrum tree at the walks end. I put up hanging baskets each year and add annuals as energy and time permit. It works okay. Well enough for me, anyhow.

Biggest frustration is often plant choice. I have one area that seems would be simple. High / dappled shade with good drainage (according to my 'dig a hold and fill with water' test) and no issues of sandy or clay soil. I always amend soils at planting and take time to 'Do it right'. At this point - in that area - I have had:

A) dwarf azaleas. Just didn't thrive there. In retrospect I may not have watered them in well enough. Moved them 30 feet away under the oaks and they are thriving.

B) Indian Hawthornes. We're lovely for a while. Then my entire yard was attacked by hairy moth caterpillars which exfoliated many shrubs. I was out of town and came home to what looked like a horror movie of bugs. Had to get a broom and knock the things off my door to get inside. The Hawthornes never really came back and it became evident there wasn't really enough sun for them there. Moved them to the other side of the yard and now they are healthy and happy.

C) varigated pittasporum. Made this choice after having three that were surviving and thriving in the area. Bought more - LOTS more - to use along the sides of that stretch of the walk . They were living there well and looking good till just this week. Noticed wilted area on one. Soon it was 12. Pulled up the bad looking ones as was advised on another forum that problem was likely a root rot.

Over it.

If I had to do it over again I would put pebble rock and landscape lights in that area. But I am in up to my neck now so leaving it unfinished is not an option.

Hence my desperate cry for consolation lol!

I am either stupid or stubborn but I am not giving up.

If ALL you do is add some smaller similar slate in a few areas (laid in sand, not concrete) it would break up the runway and not your budget.

As for the problem areas ... look into native plants for them. And check what's growing well in older neighborhoods under similar conditions.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:36937}}

Trial and error, break all the rules, and the mantra of thrive or become mulch. We are in the woods and I've been told not mix remnant concrete, gravel, bark, brick, stone, and that I cannot have a garden in compacted clay. The photo is the garden in front which is all that, in hard packed clay. I knocked the sidewalk out to put in paths that were more organic. I'm not a fan of uniformity. The back gardens have three levels separated by two aged remnant concrete retaining walls that went in with the first owner of the house in the fifties. I reused all the materials already around the property. Why waste it and haul it all away.

And this is the back. I'm okay with broken rules and my mistakes, I stopped tracking them. But I have photos of the whole sordid mess along the way. I just move stuff around that does not work in one area will generally get going in another. And I buy things that can freeze. I have learned that does happen in this yard.

How lovely and inspiring! I deeply appreciate the sharing from all here. I know this is a work in progress (my garden / landscape) and I am learning to be more forgiving of myself as I err along the way. If we didn't have to apply some work to it, where would be the reward? And as you have shown, elysianfields, challenges can birth great creative success. I have decided to look at the recent issue with the pittasporum as such - a stepping stone to a more creative design. Several if the ideas presented here have given me 'idea seeds' that I am sure will grow into something wonderful in due time!