Clover blog

Up until about a hundred years ago, the average person didn't have a lawn to worry about. They were too busy going to work, putting food on the table, and trying to educate their children. It was only when people started leaving the farming life for the life of the cities and suburbs that single-family houses sprang up in droves, and people had the money to spend on such luxuries as landscaping.

Which is not to say that landscaping is a brand new profession. As early as the 1800s, the wealthy of practically any country were able to employ professional artisans to build gardens and landscape their homes. Of course, they weren't average people, but nevertheless it's fun to learn about the forerunners of today's landscape designer.

The most famous is the British landscape designer, "Capability" Brown. His real name was Lancelot Brown, but it was his habit to look at a piece of real estate and say, "It has capabilities," and t hat is how he got his nickname. Brown has been called England's "most famous gardener." He was born in 1716 and died in 1783, and yet over a hundred years later his legacy lives on. Over 44 of his gardens are still in existence today (he designed over 170). Of course that's because he designed these gardens for the "landed families", or nobility, who were not about to sell their mansion every ten years and move up to a bigger one.

Prior to Capability Brown, the landed families had huge "formal gardens." Brown changed all that, encouraging his clients to make use of a more naturalistic design, with compositions of grass, clumps of trees, and pools and lakes.

England has Capability Brown, the United States has Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted was born in 1822 and died in 1903. He went to Yale and studied agricultural science and engineering.

In 1853, the New York legislature decided that they'd have to create a park in the middle of the city, for their many inhabitants. They held a contest to decide who would design it, and Frederick Olmsted and his partner, English architect Calvert Vaux, were awarded the contract, to create a "greensward," as Olmsted termed it. " The park was not created on barren land, however - many poor people and free blacks were evicted from their homes under eminent domain so that the park could be placed there. (Not that that was Olmsted's fault - that's where the legislature wanted the park, and that's where they were going to put it regardless.)

Olmsted went on to make a career out of creating city parks - indeed he conceived the system of parks and interconnecting parkways. Two of the best examples are the park system he designed for Buffalo, New York, and the system for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Olmsted and his partners also designed over 355 school and college campuses.

So as you walk through your city and see all the greenspaces and landscaping, spare a thought for the landscape architects who brought all this beauty to you. Studying the history of landscape architecture is fun and informative.

Think of your house as a jewel. If the setting in which it stands isn't right, it spoils the effect of the house itself. The setting, in this case, is your front and back yards. Most people, of course, will only see your front yard - casual passers-by or the casual visitor. Your backyard, however, can be your own inner sanctum, the place where you go to retreat and reflect on life, the universe, and everything. So your landscaping can consist of an integrated design for both front and back yards, or two distinctively different designs, depending on what you want to accomplish.

It's important to remember that your yards - the trees, the grass, the plants and flowers - are living things - and that you can bend them to your will in many ways, but if they do not have the right kind of soil and are not properly cared for, they will die.

So before you actually dig your hands into the rich earth and start planting anything, make sure that you have a detailed plan of what you want to do - and that you follow that plan.

Before you decide which flowers, grasses and plants your going to use in your landscaping, you must pay attention to the ground in which you're going to put them. Spend a week or so tracking the sunlight and shade and how it plays across every square inch of your yard. The amount of sunlight an area receives will determine what types of flowers or plants you want to place there.

But don't forget to track the ground's reaction to rain, either. Are there any areas that remain soft for a long time after a rain? Are there any areas where the water has pooled? Again this will effect what you do with those areas of ground.

What about trees? Are there currently any trees in your yard and if so, do you plan to keep them all? After a couple of years spent raking leaves during the fall you might consider getting rid of those trees and replacing them with evergreens. Evergreens present their own challenges, of course, as its sometimes difficult for grass to grow right up amongst the roots of the tree.

Do some soil tests, as well. These are done easily with a kit you can buy from any local garden store, or even the bigger supermarkets. You need to check for the pH balance of your soil. If it is too alkaline or too acidic, plants won't grow properly, and you'll have to add fertilizer to help put the pH balance back to even.

Make a physical plan

Get yourself some graph paper, and some tracing paper to put over it. Draw a scale-model drawing of each yard on a piece of graph paper, blocking out all important areas such trees and other features that are to remain, and features that will be removed. Then use the tracing paper to sketch in various ideas for flower beds and ornamental design. If you want to get fancy, you can also buy software which will enable you to make these plans in three dimensions.

Where to get ideas

While you're tracking the private life of the ground, you can also be on the lookout for ideas you'd like to implement. There are dozens of magazines on landscaping and gardening, and innumerable books available from your local library or bookstore. The Home and Gardening Channel will be a fount of ideas as well.

The right equipment

Depending on the size of your yards, you might not want to buy all the equipment you'll need to do your landscaping, as you'll probably only need garden rollers and aerators once a year. This equipment can usually be rented from your local garden store.

The right crew

Depending on what you're going to be putting into your landscape - fountains, ponds, heavy statuary, make sure you have the right crew for the job. Don't try to move a heavy statue yourself, for example, and if you have absolutely no technical experience, it's always best to hire a professional to install a pond or fountain.

With all the right stuff, your home will shine like a jewel in its proper setting.