Since I do a lot of new construction designs, the construction site look of a landscape in progress is pretty much par for the course. I'm not entirely sure about my clients but it doesn't bother me at all as I can see the 'finished' product very clearly in my mind's eye.

And what I do have of an inground landscape personally is always under some sort flux - usually due to the fact that it takes 3-4 times longer (if not more) to accomplish something in my own garden since I get to play in it so infrequently. And again, I project a more finished overview in my mind with my own garden as well so tend to ignore or overlook any 'in process' disruption.

I think you both see garden messes as part of a process with a foreseeable end (and with a payment!). For most of us, there really is no end. We are doing what we can whenas we can, making progress but probably never coming to a finish line. So the question still is, how to keep a work in progress beautiful?

An awful lot of this depends on what you have to start with. If you have issues with eyesores while waiting for new hedges to fill in, you may have made a mistake buying the property :-) I'm kidding, but there are a surprisingly large number of design books that would take that attitude. If that is what you are judging yourself by, you aren't going to succeed. The better tactic is to minimize the bad parts as much as possible, while understanding there are going to be bad parts.

BTW, how pros keep new landscapes from looking new is serious overplanting.

"BTW, how pros keep new landscapes from looking new is serious overplanting."

Not those that know their stuff! Or expect to get any referrals from previous clients :-)

I am philosophically against overplanting and don't do any of that for myself, except once in a while by accident. (I planted 3 Plumbago as a hedge under 8' spread of windows. Once it got going, the Plumbago decided it would rather be 12' wide. I ended up taking the 2 outside plants out and am now waiting for one shrub to take care of all 8'. It won't be long.)

When I worked in a commercial design office, overplanting was the rule.

I will add, Kitasei, that I prioritize, and where there is ugliness I deal with those areas as the highest priority. In the beginning of a makeover it seems that a whole property may be filled with priorities, but one just keeps doing the best that one can to deal with the worst and most important needs earliest. Many times during the early part of a transformation it is necessary to expend effort and resources on infrastructure instead of glamour. But that must be done because it is the order of work and one just bites the bullet and does it.

Get your plan - The Final Vision® - together. Look at it for natural breaks in the process.

• Do the really messy digging stuff first, for sprinkling systems, walls and patios. Get it buried and the dirt levelled.

• Get "dirt tracking barriers" up, such as paths, patios, maybe even a boot washing station so your landscaping stays outside.

• Get a place to store your tools. With a path to it.

• Plant the things that take the most time to grow FIRST. In other words, skip that cute bed of petunias and plant the trees and screening shrubs.

• If sparse plantings bother you, fill in with annuals and short-lived sacrificial perennials, or even privacy screens of wood.

There is the classic order to doing a landscaping project:

- utilities and regrading

- hardscape

- slow-growing plants

- faster-growing plants

For me, I just learned to live with the idea that the area immediately around our house, which had decades of deferred maintenance that needed to be done, was just going to look cr*ppy for however long it took to get the foundation and roof and insulation and so forth completed because I couldn't plant there. I knew that there were some areas I wanted gardens that were out of range of construction, and always invasives and for a season or two trash removal, so there was plenty to keep me busy. I like mixed borders and so I use bright pots, annuals, and quick-growing perennials to fill in gaps and distract from some of the mess while I wait for work to get done and larger plants to grow. As Yardvaark said, I try to address the ugliest parts first. Having the structure of any paths, walls, or other hardscape does help with tidying the look of things as does a consistent layer of mulch on areas waiting to be filled in. After 20 years I think I have pretty much stopped adding new gardens, but there is still plenty of maintenance that is waiting.