ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: hoein' & growin
SOURCE: DIANE RELF
When designing your landscape, draw it on paper first. It is much easier to move a few lines than to move a plant. You might also experiment with some of the kits on the market for home landscaping. If your paper plan is drawn to scale, you can more accurately determine how much to plant and where.
Some landscapes are designed for privacy. The public or front yard areas are screened and developed as living space or entrance gardens, rather than as a setting for the house. The amount of maintenance varies with the formality of the plan.
The style of landscape you use greatly influences the amount of maintenance required. The traditional method of framing the house with trees, trimmed hedges, and open, mowed lawns creates a high-maintenance landscape.
Natural landscapes that blend new plants into the environment, retaining existing vegetation and ground forms with smaller lawn areas, are generally lower in maintenance. In this landscape, a "messy" appearance created by fallen leaves or small twigs, is acceptable.
Considerations in styling a landscape for low maintenance include plant shape and rate of growth. If allowed to grow into its natural form, a plant has characteristics that are beautiful and useful in design.
To reduce the need for severe pruning to keep a plant in bounds, choose a plant with the same mature shape as the space you want to fill. There are many slow-growing or dwarf varieties of shrubs available today. They never grow taller than a few feet and may never need pruning. Trees are a dominant element of the landscape and should be thought of as permanent and selected to avoid pruning of mature plants.
Trees that grow at a rapid rate need constant attention to keep them looking neat. Eventually, they outgrow their location, with severe pruning necessary to keep them in bounds, resulting in a misshapen plant with no natural, characteristic shape. Generally trees that grow quickly, die more quickly and drop branches easier. You may need to replace them much sooner or more often than slower-growing varieties. Fast-growing trees may have brittle wood that is susceptible to breakage, may have more frequent disease and insect injury, and may be less hardy than longer-lived species.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB