Rethinking Your Landscaping: Developing a New Design

This week I completed the landscaping redesign for the front of our house. Sometimes the changes we make in a garden is a response to our impulsive nature: purchase some little gem because it looks so adorable. And sometimes our changes involve the transplanting flowers or shrubs because they have outgrown their space or would simply look better somewhere else. And sometimes it is time for an overhaul.

Since retiring from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden, I still have a yearning to get my fingernails dirty. Now they are.

Whether you are designing a new prayer garden or tackling a redesign of your landscape, the principles should be the same: develop a vision of the big things based on your overall objectives. Initially, do not be very concerned with the little plants, "Where will I plant my special peonies?" for the time will come where that will become more obvious. Instead, focus on what must go and what cannot change. And look for those features that will make the big impact on the new plot that complement your objectives.

Here is how our house looked in August of 2013.

Click photo to enlarge

What Must Go
I had been so consumed with my full time secular work, the responsibilities of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden and my writing/publishing assignments that I had largely neglected the look of our house. Kind of like the gobbler's shoes.

Our biggest problem was the seven steps that led to the front door: they were deteriorating and someone could get hurt. My wife could no longer negotiate these concrete stairs. I feared someone stumbling at night.

The house is over forty years old and the concrete walkway from the driveway to those steps had started to heave from the severe winters and was too narrow because of overgrown yews.

The third problem was the overgrown burning bushes that covered the front door and bay window. There were three beauties that turned luscious red in the fall but their size made the house seem uninviting. The visitor had difficulty feeling comfortable with what may be behind those shrubs.

What Cannot Change
There are four trees that had to remain – everything else was negotiable. The two birch trees were planted there to provide nighttime protection from our neighbor's spotlights. I was hoping for more visual protection from those birches when I planted them twelve years ago, but they certainly were not going away now. And my wife has made it very clear that the two maples, seen on the far left and far right of the photo, were to remain. End of discussion.

The Big Impact
I pondered how to treat the sidewalk and stairs for several weeks. I used rope to lay out the two sides of the walkway but each time I tried, the vision of the existing plants got in the way.

Click photo to enlarge

Finally I called a contractor. He removed the steps and stairs, and he transplanted the yews and burning bushes with his excavator. If the shrubs lived, great; if not, oh well.

Landscaping is not like carpentry. With landscaping, you can design part without having a complete vision of the final product. With carpentry, you don't want to relocate a downstairs wall because your plumbing just does not otherwise work – you must thoroughly plan ahead. I consider it an honor and privilege to own a shovel.

At that point, I received the vision of a raised walkway that is embedded in the ground. When given a choice between an obtuse wooden walkway that can rot away and one that is placed in the ground, I will always choose the later. Now my wife, who walks with short steps because of her limitations, can get to the front door without climbing any steps.

Next
In the next article, I will discuss design objectives when rethinking your landscaping.

Delaney Farms: Thank You for Your Effort

The Gethsemane Prayer Garden received a significant gift yesterday: our neighbors to the south removed a large pile of debris that was on their property. These neighbors are Dave and JoAnn Delaney, owners of Delaney Farms on Onondaga Hill. By going to this effort, the landscape around the garden was suddenly boosted in aesthetic beauty.

When Faith Chapel selected the site for the Gethsemane Prayer Garden in 2003, it had been a farmer's field with lots of plant debris along the south and west sides. Many people did not know that there was a stream along the west side because so much vegetation had grown there. Much of that area was filled with buckthorns, a highly invasive shrub or small tree that is a true challenge to remove. The farmer had also pushed many small and large rocks from the field into this area so that the land could be tilled. Large willow branches had fallen haphazardly throughout, wild grape vines followed their own path up the large trees, and wild roses rooted themselves throughout. It has taken ten years for our teams to methodically clean up this area, but now the beauty of the stream can be more readily enjoyed.

Fifteen years ago, our neighbors the Delaney's dealt with the debris problem in the same way as we do: create piles of willow and other scrub material at the far end of their property. When we chose the prayer garden site, we saw this seemingly endless pile of junk. While it was our choice to put the garden there, no matter how you looked at it, it simply did not fit with the beauty of a garden.


Photo from Google Earth, image date 6/3/2011

Earlier this spring, Dave Delaney graciously decided to correct this eyesore. By using a chain saw, chipper, and backhoe, he attacked this problem head-on – he started by cutting down many of the trees that had become overgrown near his home. Over three days, he used a chipper to shred these bush and tree branches, creating many large piles of fresh mulch.

Dave had a different plan for the area of the prayer garden, realizing that a more dramatic effort was needed. Some of the willow that had been placed there were two and three feet in diameter, and there was much other undergrowth that was easier to approach with a backhoe. Dave's solution was to dig a trench to bury it; his trench was 100' long by 8' wide by 6' deep. When he dug the trench yesterday, I thought he would never be able to get all this plant stuff in there, but he did. The ground is roughly 12" higher than it previously was – when leveled out, it will look like the rest of his lawn.

Last fall we placed a large wooden cross in this portion of the garden. Now when we now look south, majestic stands of deep-green spruce trees catch the eye; it is a serene picture that is far more suiting to a landscaped garden.

Over the coming years, these old tree trunks and other plant stuff will decompose. The water that is currently in the branches will slowly disappear and cause their lawn area to settle. Each spring he may need to drive his backhoe over the area causing the trench to collapse as it decays.

As I said to Dave, "You are doing the right thing as a neighbor, and we thank you for it."