Books/Websites for Landscape Design

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Adam_M
Posts: 215
Joined: April 22nd, 2017, 12:29 pm
Location: Southwest PA
Grass Type: Midnight, Bewitched, Prosperity
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Some Experience

Books/Websites for Landscape Design

Post by Adam_M » May 4th, 2020, 12:06 pm

Hi!

After spending a few years getting the lawn and hardscape right, I'm looking to revamp all of my beds/planted areas to give them a more professional look. Web searches are all over the place and tough to discern what works well and what doesn't.

Does anyone have suggestions for resources to read how to best manage aesthetics? I don't have a great eye for it, and would like to start with some foundational knowledge, and then try to figure out what'll grow in my soil and in each particular location.

Thanks!

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andy10917
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Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 10:48 pm
Location: NY (Lower Hudson Valley)
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Re: Books/Websites for Landscape Design

Post by andy10917 » May 4th, 2020, 12:26 pm

I don't have any recommended books/sites, but I'd spend time figuring out what overall "Style" you favor before committing to reading/buying. Some people like vibrant color and straight lines, and others like flowing curves and more-muted color worked in to mass plantings. Pare your preferred style down or you'll get overwhelmed.

Adam_M
Posts: 215
Joined: April 22nd, 2017, 12:29 pm
Location: Southwest PA
Grass Type: Midnight, Bewitched, Prosperity
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Books/Websites for Landscape Design

Post by Adam_M » May 4th, 2020, 3:30 pm

Thanks for the insight. I've got 3 rather different areas that are quite separate that I'd like to work on, although I do like the rock garden aesthetic at a high level, so I see boulders as a unifying factor of the areas.

I'm not a formal, straight line person, and like year-round color an interest and have a particular like of the rather freeform shapes of Japanese white and black pines - particularly the fukuzumi and thunderhead, but pine trees don't love my heavy, alkaline soil.

Area 1: A semicircular bed (30 foot radius or so) that faces the road that is anchored by a tall but thin shagbark hickory. It's quite steep - there's +- 8 feet of elevation change from the bottom to the top. The driveway and road encircle 270 degrees of this bed, so it's highly visible from most angles. I'd like this one to be the showy bed - bright and flowery in the spring if possible. It faces southeast and despite the tree, gets plenty of sun because of the slope. I think something tall and showy near the center (and the hickory) would work, but I'm just not sure how to tie in the rest of the bed...

Area 2: A bed that's about 15 feet deep, and 70 feet long that follows an arc around the back of the house. It's fronted by a 2' wall with Rosetta block that bears a passing resemblance to boulders, and has Rosetta steps that more or less look like sandstone boulders. It's anchored at the moment by 4 cheap dwarf fruit trees, but there's nothing else in there, as the wall is only a year old. I'd love to get into the evergreen (particularly dwarf) and rock motif here, but just not sure that the soil is up to it.

Area 3: is an area where I pulled a fair amount of what looked like Japanese barberry out of this spring and is about 60 feet wide and 30 feet deep. Is under a 3 choke cherries and on a hill (noticing a pattern?), but only the left side and back are steep enough to not be pleasantly walk able. The front opens up to a fairly flat 6k section of KBG. I don't think the rock garden and confier aesthetic would work here, so I'd like something that looks woodlands-ish, but a bit more showy - for example I wouldn't mind mountain laurels or rhododendrons in here. It also is just screaming out for hostas, but I have a family of rats on stilts here and would rather not feed them hostas unless there's a good way to stop that. I think this area would look great if framed behind and on the sides by fairly tall plants (the rhododendron/mountain Laurel), with a bench or something in the middle (there's a spot that's just level enough for this), but I just don't know how to make that happen - other than I know just putting 20-30 shrubs in the ground isn't the answer. Given the size, I'd also like to figure out a way to not make it a total maintenance nightmare...

Typing this out helped gather my thoughts quite a bit, so I can start searching for resources that may fit. I'd welcome any suggestions though.

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