PROFESSIONAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Revamping Established Landscapes

A customer calls and wants you to create a design for the family’s front yard to match the sophisticated look of their newly remodeled home. Later, a new building owner calls and wants to freshen up the look of his property. As you plan for each project, you realize the different challenges associated with designing for an established landscape vs. working on a naked canvas.

ESTABLISHED VS. NEW.  “For me it is more challenging working on an established landscape because there are certain limitations you are going to have,” says Bob Donnan, owner of Donnan Landscape, McMurray, Pa.  These include specific plant removals,  as plants and shrubs become overgrown  over time,  and existing irrigation systems. Moving them can be costly, therefore designers and contractors often work around current irrigation systems instead, tweaking designs accordingly.
 
Concrete curbing and dog fences are becoming more popular, but these items can be a nuisance for designers who have to find a way to work around them. “In the end, designers only have control of the final design to a certain degree,” Donnan says. This is especially true when customers want to keep a certain part of their landscapes the same even through it doesn’t fit with the overall design. When this situation arises, designers suggest compromise as the best solution. For example, take a homeowner who doesn’t want to move his or her gazebo even through it’s obstructing the flow of the backyard. In this case, Tom Fochtman,  co-owner of CoCal Landscape in Denver, would ask the clients what their gazebo is used for, how often it’s used and whether it’s used for dining or entertaining. These answers can lead to a solution. For instance, the homeowner might not want to carry food 40 feet away from the kitchen to dine outdoors, so maybe the contractor could move the gazebo closer to the house to make it more functional for both the homeowner and the designer.
 
During residential renovations, Pat Lynch, landscape design/sales representative for Peabody Landscape Group, Columbus, Ohio, suggests helping homeowners assign value to existing features. “If they have a large expensive shade tree, you should design around it,” he says.  Each item holds a different value and it’s part of the designer’s job to help customers figure out what’s valuable and what’s not.
 
Working on a new site gives designers the freedom to create whatever they want without worrying about sprinklers, concrete curbing or already planted materials. But with this freedom comes a different set of concerns. The goal of working on a new site is to provide clients, whether they’re homeowners or commercial property managers, with landscapes that suit their needs. Designers must consider a number of on-site and off-site challenges. These may include the slope of the land on the property or off-site issues like blocking the view of a neighbor’s RV parked on the side of the house. “Picking plant material is the easy part,” Fochtman explains. “Creating the structure of the design, capturing the views and getting the scales right is the hard part.”
 
Budget also plays a part in designing for both types of spaces. In some cases, customers overestimate their budgets and in the end can’t do everything  the design entails. When this situation occurs, designers either have to plan to install the project in phases or make cutbacks.  “It’s frustrating to design the way you want to install it but due to budget you have to cut back,” Donnan says.
 
That’s part of the reason, Lynch uses a multi-step design process. He starts with a loose conceptual plan, gives clients time to look it over and reconsider their budget before he creates a master plan, which contains all the details including exact costs, sizes and materials.  And to ensure he’s suiting his clients’ needs, Lynch aids clients’ decision making by allowing them to look at an online design-element library, which contains categories such as hardscapes, patios, fences and decks. Under each category customers can view hundreds of pictures that he can then incorporate into the design.

RESIDENTIAL VS. COMMERCIAL. Revamping commercial spaces is easier than renovating residential spaces, Fochtman says. “Building managers want two things: image and function. They want the building to look nice and have the amenities tenants need.” Generally, building owners aren’t as quick to renovate commercial property landscapes because they don’t live there –  they’re not as personal, so they might go 20 years before receiving renovations. “On the other hand, homeowners want the image – nice grass, swimming pools, decks and curb appeal. More emotion goes into residential design,” Fochtman explains.
 
For this reason homeowners have their landscape redone more frequently than commercial spaces. If plants and flowers were correctly spaced in the beginning, Donnan gives homeowners 17 years before they should redo their landscape. Designers can help extend the longevity of a landscape by designing with proper spacing in mind when it comes to foundation planting. “If you plant shrubs too close together, in five to 10 years you are going to have a crowded situation,” Donnan says. “Plant spacing presents gaps so the plant has room to grow and fill in the gaps.” Plants growing up windows, over sidewalks and growing into one another are all signs to homeowners that renovations are in their future.
 
No matter what type of a site a designer is working on,  in the end a talented designer can reach a solution if he listens to the clients’ wants and needs. As Fochtman says, “I like the freedom of a new site, but renovating a site and turning it into something special for the customer is more rewarding for me.”