Avoid These Common Landscape Design Blunders

The Bradford pear tree offers something beautiful for every season. In the spring, its thornless branches are tipped with white flowers. Then, in the fall its broad green leaves give way to vibrant shades of orange and red.

About 30 years ago, Jay Scott, ASLA, president of Scott Land Planning and Design Inc. in Atlanta, was among the mass of landscapers who eagerly incorporated the Bradford into their designs. “It was supposed to be a wonderful tree,” Scott says. But over time, Scott realized that the Bradford wasn’t what he had expected. “It gets to a certain age and then it splits apart,” Scott says. “It doesn’t just crack, it splits; it falls apart.”

Although there are plenty of landscapers who will sing the praises of the Bradford, Scott says he would have done things differently had he known about the tree’s tendency to become weak around year 15. Now, almost three decades later, Scott has learned how to temper his excitement when it comes to trendy plants. “[I] use plants that are more tried and true, [plants] that I know a little bit more about,” he says.

As Scott learned, landscaping has as many pitfalls as it does possibilities. There are many different ways that a landscaper can inadvertently cause problems in an area that he earnestly intended to improve. Here are some of the common mistakes that all landscapers can avoid with a little research and preparation.

Listen and Learn
In many instances, your clients don’t know exactly what they want, but that doesn’t diminish your responsibility to accommodate their tastes. Not listening to clients and not asking the right questions are common mistakes, says Richard Barrett, ASLA, landscape architect with Richard Clayton Barrett in Overland Park, Kan. If your clients don’t know what they want, it’s important to ask insightful questions that will help them to envision their ideal designs. In these cases, it’s also important to give your clients time to consider their feelings about the design, rather than moving swiftly to construct something that doesn’t meet their needs.

Tempered Variety
When too many plant species compete, the results can be disjointed and unappealing. “[In] too many instances, I see where people use too many species of plants, creating a design lacking in unity and harmony,” Barrett says. “There’s no emphasis or dominance. … It’s too frenetic; it’s too busy.”

W Scott McAdam, president of McAdam Landscape Professionals in Forest Park, Ill., agrees with this assertion. “Variety can be good but too much variety can cause some issues,” he says. “Repetition is really important.”

When it comes to achieving the perfect amount of variety, Scott says that he relies on experience rather than an across-the-board rule. “There’s really no rule of thumb, it’s just something you kind of learn,” he says. Observe other landscapers’ work to get a sense of what does and does not work.

Plant for the Future
It doesn’t take a botanist to know that young plants will grow, but time and again people seem to forget this rule. “There’s a temptation to use large plants because they look good right away, but they don’t look good long term” if you don’t space them to accommodate future growth, Scott says. Especially when you’re planting something close to a home or other large structure, it’s crucial to know what size it will become when it matures.

Balance, not Symmetry
“Except in very formal situations, symmetry is not good,” Scott says. Use asymmetry to create a balanced look, he adds. “Balance and symmetry are not one in the same,” McAdam says. Balance is not a matter of using even numbers of everything, it is achieved by taking into account factors such as the size of nearby structures and surrounding trees, he says. Over time, symmetry can work against itself in other ways. For example, Scott says, if you have a row of trees and one dies after several years, it will be difficult to find a replacement tree that matches the others.

Prune Like a Pro
It’s best to let the natural form of a plant dictate how you prune, Scott says. “Nature has a better idea of what they’re supposed to look like than we do,” he says. Use hand clippers to target branches that protrude from the general form of the tree or shrub. It’s also important to clip the branches at their bases: This promotes growth along the whole of the branch, which creates a more robust plant.

Think Native
The proliferation of invasive plant species has devastated vegetation in more than one region of the United States. “The Everglades have many environmental problems because of plants that were introduced to South Florida,” Scott says. One of the primary culprits in South Florida is the kudzu, which can grow at a rate of 1 foot per day. It’s important to keep these costly lessons in mind before introducing a new plant species into your area. The best way to avoid these problems altogether is to use native plants whenever possible, Scott says.