Planning Your Landscaping Project From the Ground Up
Carol Todd bought a $245,000 fixer-upper in Laurel Canyon in 1987 and spent $150,000 to renovate it. In the remodel, most of the landscaping was devastated, and now she’s getting estimates ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand to revamp her yard.
Twice in the last four years, Walt and Marilyn Wabby have bought new homes in the Morrison Ranch area of Agoura Hills. Each time their new house was surrounded by nothing but barren ground. It was up to them to figure out what to do with their front and back yards.
Barbara and Joe Bloch’s back yard hillside had been covered in lantana, which over the years has a tendency to become woody. They decided to rip it out and replant their terraced slope using $200 worth of azaleas, candytuft and dianthus bought at local nurseries.
Similar landscaping challenges are faced by hundreds of thousands of Southland homeowners each year. How they solve their dilemmas depends on their budget, knowledge of landscaping and whether they’re interested in and capable of doing all or part of the work themselves.
In interviews with more than a dozen experts, we learned how to tackle a landscaping job, regardless of whether it involves a total makeover or just a few 5-gallon plants. Here’s a landscaping primer that can save you time and effort.
For those without a clue of where to begin a landscaping project, there are books such as “Western Home Landscaping” (HP Books: 1978, $12.95) by landscape architect Ken Smith that provide nuts and bolts information. When selecting any book, it’s important to choose one applicable to Southern California. Some are simply too general to be of value in this particular climate.
Smith’s book, a comprehensive manual covering every phase of landscaping, is intended as a guide for people going it alone, but can also supply helpful background for those opting to hire professionals to do the work. It provided one of the best overviews of the books we found at local nurseries and bookstores.
Naturally, doing your own landscaping is the least expensive alternative, but it also requires the most time and effort. The Blochs decided to take this route, and although it required lots of work, the new plants are growing well and they’re pleased with their decision.
The other end of the spectrum, using a landscape architect to plan and oversee the entire project, requires far less of the owner’s time and energy, but is considerably more costly.
Between these two extremes there are others who can assist you: gardeners, nurserymen, landscape designers, landscape architects and landscape contractors.
The Wabbys worked with the same landscape contractor on each of their homes and have a well-designed yard that fits their needs. For more details about each of the experts, see the story on Page 7.
Todd is still contemplating her estimates and options, but regardless of which of the landscape professionals she, or you, chooses to work with, it’s helpful to understand a little of the industry jargon.
Hardscape is the term used for structural portions or hard surfaces of landscaping--fences, walls, brickwork, patios, decks, walks, lighting and sprinkler systems.
Softscape refers to plantings--lawns, trees, shrubs, other plants and flowers.
Unless you already know exactly what type of landscaping you want, before you can decide who to call upon or whether to handle the project yourself, it’s necessary to do some thinking about how you plan to use the outdoor areas around your house.
Many landscape architects and designers use a questionnaire to help their clients think things through, but if this is a do-it-yourself project, see the checklist in the story on Page 7. Once you answer such questions, you can begin making a plan for how the space will be divided. The next step is to start gathering design ideas from gardening magazines, looking at what other people have done and visiting garden shows to see displays and talk with exhibitors.
At this point you’re ready to either start drawing the plan yourself or seek outside assistance. This is also the time such aspects as building codes, soil composition, sun exposure, wind direction, drainage and what size the plants will be when they reach maturity must be taken into consideration.
A lot of thinking must go into a plan, but in the long run it will save time and money. By providing an organized approach of preparing the land, constructing the hardscape and then adding the softscape, it will prevent work from having to be redone.
This is especially important if there isn’t budget to do the whole plan at once. If a pool or spa is to be added at a later date, the plumbing and electrical work should still be done during the construction stage to save costs in the long run.
Choosing the correct plants and getting them into the ground in the spring or fall when the weather is mild and they can establish good root systems will make the difference between whether they grow or need to be replaced.
Whether to handle the project yourself or who you contact for help depends a great deal on your expertise and the complexity of your plan.
If you have a flat lot and simply need some softscape, the answer might be a landscape designer who can draw up a plan you’ll execute alone or with the help of a gardener.
The more complex the plan, however, the more you’re likely to need the services of a landscape architect and contractor. And even if you decide to use an architect or designer, it’s still important to work closely with them and clearly communicate your preferences.
“Most people don’t know what they want,” according to landscape architect Richard Yanez of Edward Hume & Associates. “We help them make a list of objectives, then sit down and design with them. We go over different approaches and expose them to different solutions and materials. Then it all gets transplanted through combined tastes to hopefully design the best product for the property.”
One of the newer innovations in landscaping is the use of computerized imaging. Imagescaping, a company in Long Beach, is using the technique to overlay soft and hardscape images onto photographs using a catalogue of grasses, trees, ground coverings, pools and decks in the computer’s memory.
More sophisticated computer software programs are being utilized by some landscape architects, which are able to take into consideration such data as land slope, drainage, size of plants at maturity.
“It’s possible to take an elevation, draw a plan and do three-dimensional imagery using the programs,” explained Tom Lockett, UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture Department head. “We’ve just installed a state-of-the art instructional classroom/lab that shows students the things a computer can do. There’s no end to the possibilities.”
A well-landscaped yard provides additional living space usually at far less expense than adding the equivalent square footage to your house. Here in Southern California where that space is usable year round, it’s an important part of your real estate investment.
And good landscaping adds value to a house. When it comes to resale, “Landscaping can sell a house,” said Annie St. Claire, president of the UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture Student Assn. “We actually know of situations where people have torn down the house and saved the landscaping.”
