Landscape Help Using Existing On-site Plants
8 years ago
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- 8 years ago
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my landscape design software - does it exist?
Comments (20)OK guys, I know. Just seems that sometimes a simple question sets off a firestorm. I enjoy trying to visualize projects before I bring out the shovels. I use Showoff, Photoshop, and even Paint to take a photo of the area I am fooling around with and trying different combinations of things until something clicks. It doesn't even have to be a true representation of the specific plants- sometimes just drawing out some bones and different shapes to balance things can be incredibly helpful to me. I choose my exterior colors this way, my roof color, bed placement, plants groupings, hardscapes, and so on. So while such novice timewasting might be useless to someone trained in the art of landscape design it can be incredibly useful to someone who is not. I know what I like but can't always call it right up- I need to finagle things on paper/screen before I commit. If we want to play with it what's the harm? Some of us enjoy the process of learning what works and what doesn't work and while of course not every eventual problem will show up on a simple program, some things do work this way. I don't want to hire someone to make decisions for me, and them bam do an installation and it's done. I want to continue to work the area and improve it in a way that pleases me and satisfies my own needs while at the same time providing me a fun hobby. I want it to look great, too, but I want it to be my creation. I'm way off course and apologize for butting in. But I still say it's fun to play around with the programs available even if they aren't 100% accurate or fluent in teaching design....See MoreUsing plants as a landscaping tool
Comments (25)Karinl, I find your photos of espalier to be inspiring. They're a testament to show possibilities! The idea that plants should only be used to do what they do "naturally" (in one person's opinion) I think is absurd. The reason that a given plant can appear so different from one instance to the next is that they--naturally--are masters at adaptation. In nature, plants are pruned all the time...by wind, freezing, lightning and even the efforts of some animals. In landscaping, adorning our square houses and yards (neither of which are 'natural'!) we ask plants to perform functions. There's no reason to think that plants, themselves, care...or that they have the capacity of doing so. Science has determined that unlike fish, they have neither nerves, brains or emotions. They are truly the life form that can suffer any "abuse" without pain or emotion...like a rock. While there's nothing to stop a person from thinking otherwise, logic will not support their conclusions. While plants are NOT like people in that they "think" or "care"...they are like us in that they have "personality," "behavior" and "abilities". These qualities have nothing whatsoever to do with their "emotions" or "intellect." They're simply the product of a given genetics and growth. Some think that these abilities are only worthwhile when allowed to develop unhindered by the hand of man. Others think that the it takes the hand of man to guide and develop the abilities into their most useful form. (It is this same argument that is prominently featured as the basis of the TV show "Wife Swap." One wife likes her children, husband and self to be natural and unguided. The other likes everything around her to be rigidly and exactingly organized. I think most of us expect to live a life somewhere in the grey area between these extremes.) When external forces try to re-shape the lives of people, they balk. Plants just go with it. There could be nothing better for people to be shaping into whatever form they conceive of....See MorePurchased home with existing landscaping
Comments (4)14 is Podocarpus, but 23 is Bottle brush: 17 and 18 are Dwarf Gardenia; 19 and 20 appear to be one of the japanese azaleas, perhaps a Satsuki (Wakebisu is my favorite); 8 and 9 are Cleyera japonica, and 15 and 16 look like Viburnum suspensum. I think you might have another species of viburnum in there, too. 24 and 25 are oleander, for sure. (Formerly from SC.)...See MoreNaturalized landscaping existing forest
Comments (11)zigzag/rhododendron get 70 inches plus of precipitation, i think yamhill county might get slightly more than half of that. you could naturalize rhodies but they will probably need more than a year or so of help with supplemental water. i would be inclined to not think of the contemporary native plant choices, but think ahead to the future- slightly drier and slightly warmer. i would try to get a oak savanna or klamath mountain type plants in there. to get the culture going i would selectively thin out the existing forest, secondary growth is usually a bit too crowded and it will make establishment easy. rent a chipper and keep all the material on site. cut the logs to manageable size and keep as much as you can there. some plant species off the top of my head big trees trees garry oak, madrone, incense cedar, brewer spruce, myrtle. small trees/large shrubs garrya, evergreen shrubby oaks, various ceanothus, big manzanitas shrubs/understory mahonia (native and exotic), huckleberries, various ferns, smaller manzanitas, salal...See More- 8 years ago
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