GARDEN LANDSCAPE RESTORATION

Making the most of your old garden plants

Don't even think about trashing all of your overgrown landscaping! Yes it would be nice to know there's a house behind those shrubs, but let's not be too hasty about it.

Take a hard look at those plants you paid good money for and stretch those landscape dollars by re-using key existing plants in a new restored landscape. When the old landscape was installed, the plants were smaller; it looked great and was the right scale for the property or home. But now, years later, it has become over grown and the plants overpower the garden space or structure it once complimented. This is a common occurrence, but it doesn't mean you can't re-use some of the plants and shrubs. In fact, when transplanted properly to a more ideal spot for growth and planting aesthetics, you would be surprised at how well those old plants will look incorporated into the newer landscape. As an added benefit, having established plant materials in and among newer younger plantings adds visual weight to the landscape and can make the landscape look more established.

Other common plant performance issues are that some plants may be suffering through less than ideal growing conditions due to poor plant placement (too sunny or shady, too wet or too dry), others may have just either outlived their span or just withered.

Whatever the existing conditions or locations, you can save money in a landscape renovation by rejuvenating some of those plants that still have life, by planting them in more ideal growing conditions, where their size and form are complimentary to the surrounding plants and your home.
Understanding individual plant growth habits, as well as their sun / shade tolerances is one of the secrets to a truly successful landscape planting.

When care is taken to place plants where they best perform and where their growth habits are given ample space, the planting results can be spectacular. Furthermore, once the landscape matures there will not be a need to replace plants in the future, because the plants will already be in their ideal locations with plenty of room to grow! Here are a few online sources to better understand individual plant identification and ideal growing conditions for each. Source : Gardendesigner.com