Be aware of the new construction landscaping process
The new construction landscaping process is often frustrating for a residential landscape architect. We care how the finished product looks as much as the owner does.
As a landscape architecture firm owner, the following is a breakdown of the 7 mistakes homeowners have to deal with. Some of it’s on the original builder, but most of it’s on the homeowner.
Poor landscape practices, more often than not, start at the beginning. If a home is part of a large tract construction project, typically, the homeowner is only involved until the developer sells the house to the future buyer.
Some developers will clear the unwanted vegetation on a tract home project and strip the topsoil. The topsoil is then sold to nursery supply companies and brokers, leaving a site with exposed subsoil. The subsoil is inorganic and not conducive to healthy plant growth.
The builder builds the homes, roads, and sidewalks, and the landscaping new construction process begins. The sites are rough-graded to smooth out the clods of dirt. The landscape contractor installs the trees and shrubs into the sterile subsoil. The contractor then rakes the area smooth and spreads a thin layer of topsoil, fine dusting enough to germinate the grass seed.
The seed germinates on a landscaping new construction miracle, and everything is green and lush for home tours. The builder has been paying a landscape maintenance company to apply lots of synthetic fertilizers and water on the new lawn to keep it green and lush.
Fast forward, the new homeowner takes over the maintenance—the watering frequency changes to too much or too little—the same deals with fertilizer, too much love, or not enough. The landscape goes from pleasant to brown and patchy.
Some owners will do nothing because they have yet to notice the decline. Others will take action and go to a big box garden center, purchase more fertilizer, and increase the watering. Things get worse.
After a while, whether the homeowner did nothing or dumped product on the landscape, nothing worked, weeds were taking over the lawn, and shrubs were dying.
The problem is the need for topsoil; the newly graded lawn and areas around the house have settled, and a professional must install better drainage in low spots must be installed. Often, the subsoil is heavy clay, and it holds water.
Most trees, shrubs, ground cover, and turf grasses will die in standing water. All kinds of diseases spread, roots rot, and plants suffer. One sign of poor drainage root rot is when you pull a dead plant out of the ground and smell the sulfur (rotten egg smell).
This condition of having a landscape that the homeowner or landscaper remedies can’t fix is a significant reason why people call a residential landscape architect to come up with some solutions.
A Northern Virginia landscape architect has to understand the signs of poor drainage to deal with the common problem. Most of our work is in metro Washington, DC, but most of my grading and drainage work is in Northern Virginia. Perhaps it’s because of poor practices and poorly draining soils. It could be because of the standard new construction landscaping process.
Our landscape architecture firm wants to share some everyday landscape goofs and how to avoid them.
OVERWATERING WOES: THERE IS SUCH A THING AS TOO MUCH
Overwatering is the number one killer for our clients, especially if they have an automatic irrigation system. The contractor set the landscaping new construction irrigation system when the lawn was freshly installed and needed lots of water to germinate and establish. Now, it is a rainy week in the fall, and the irrigation system is coming on nightly, and no one is paying attention.
So, as mentioned previously, poor soils combined with over-watering can be disastrous if caught sooner. Too many things can attack plants and lawns in a soaked condition. Usually, the plants will tell you if something is wrong, but you must look for signs of poor drainage to solve the problem.
Until you understand your landscape, you should monitor your plantings weekly in the Summer and every other week in the Spring and Fall with a moisture meter or by moving away the mulch and checking if the soil is cool and moist to the touch. Ideally, you want the upper inch or so of mulch to dry out. The roots and the planting beds need to breathe.
The key is damp but not soppy or wet. The idea is to keep the earth like this while applying as little water as possible. You want your ornamental plantings to reach deeper with their roots to better handle temperature changes and droughty conditions. Water slow and deep to saturate the soil, but give it time to dry on the surface.
SOIL HEALTH IS TOO IMPORTANT TO FORGET ABOUT
Ideally, you want to plant trees and shrubs into six to eight inches of virgin topsoil, but you rarely get that on a landscaping new construction project. The landscape architecture firm can specify 4″ of screened topsoil and 1″ of compost on the landscape plans, but seldom does that occur.
You can check if you need to amend your planting beds by digging around and looking at the soil. If it’s hard as a rock and your plants look sad and yellow, this is a clue that the landscape contractor did no soil preparation at the installation time.
To amend the soil without disturbing the existing trees and shrub roots, spread an inch of compost, finished with a half-inch top dressing of fresh local worm castings. The compost and worm castings will help restore some microorganisms and composting earthworms removed when the original topsoil was scraped off and sold. If the homeowner does this, the soil will be alive again.
OVERLOOKING PLANT COMPATIBILITY: IS IT WELCOME
The value of a licensed Maryland or Virginia landscape architecture firm who understands local plants is immeasurable. Will a plant thrive in the local climate? We are fine specifying Rhododendrons in New York or Ohio but have issues with them in the DMV, which is only hours away. If a homeowner wants to research the proper plants for their region, they can have a thriving landscape renovation. If you have to replace plants, replace them with the right ones.
SUNLIGHT NEEDS BEING MET?
Different plants have different needs, but some are more adaptable than others. Improper light can hinder a plant’s development. If, in your research, you find that a plant in your yard that loves sun is in a shady location, and you have a sunny spot to transplant it to. Move it in the fall if it’s healthy enough. That’s gardening.
POOR PLANT PLACEMENT: THAT'S GOING TO GROW
The wrong plant in the wrong place is the biggest curse for millions of residential landscapes. How many homes do you drive by, and eight-foot-tall shrubs cover their windows? That’s not a desired look. Shutters are the only window covering for the exterior that I know of.
When a new home is up for sale, the builder/developer wants the landscape to be full, lush, and complete for the potential buyer. This desire means the builders/developers are motivated to encourage landscape contractors to plant inexpensive, large plants. Plants are generally large and inexpensive because they are hard to kill, grow fast, and have other undesirable qualities.
Many large tract home projects are planted entirely of cheap nursery plants for instant curb appeal. We call them ‘builder’s special’ landscapes in our office. They look fine until the fourth or fifth year, and the cute short shrubs planted in front of other pretty shrubs are two feet taller than them now and starting to engulf them.
Nothing looks more unattractive in a landscape than multiple plants growing into a single mass. When a landscape is new, the plants should have space for future growth. It should look unfinished. The problem is the homeowner needs to know their characteristics before filling in the gaps with plants.
The worst is when they fill in the gaps with annuals (flowers) that need water daily in the heat of Summer. The shrubs can’t handle the additional water and drown. For a homeowner to have the best-looking landscape, it needs to be allowed to grow into a lush and healthy landscape. That’s something that takes time, not more plants.
In the South, it’s ‘Nellie R. Stevens’ Holly and ‘Red Tip’ Photinia planted along foundations and fence lines by landscapers and homeowners. Up North, it’s the standard evergreen row of ‘Emerald Green’ Arborvitae and Burning Bush, the dominant cheap nursery plants. Ask any Virginia Landscape Architect. They are fine-looking plants but overused and shouldn’t be planted in front of low first-floor windows by anyone.
Get a professionally prepared planting plan and have your landscape plantings increase the value of your property as it grows. Or do your homework and visit botanical gardens to see what the plants you like at the nursery look like in mature size.
IMPROPER PEST AND DISEASE MANAGEMENT
A healthy, balanced landscape doesn’t have pest and disease problems that homeowners can’t quickly solve. Once again, let’s start with the soil. If your plants are sitting in poorly draining subsoil, they won’t absorb the fertilizers applied to them. The additional nutrients don’t flush away in the waterlogged soil, and the planting beds become toxic to plants and microorganisms. So be sure to look for the signs of poor drainage. With the plants in a weakened state, the insects attack. Aphids, scales, leaf hoppers, and white flies are the most common.
Once you’ve improved the soil drainage, worked some organic material into the soil like compost, and applied the correct amount of fertilizers, the pest mentioned above won’t be a factor.
The primary diseases homeowners run into are fungal. Fungal disease thrive in wet conditions, whether it’s the ones that attack your lawn or your shrubs. Homeowners can control most fungi using household products like vinegar and hydrogen peroxide if conditions aren’t too poor.
POOR MAINTENANCE PRACTICES: A WARNING FROM A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE FIRM
The main thing homeowners are guilty of is not performing regular landscape maintenance. When they purchased the home, it was receiving routine care. More than likely, a maintenance crew member pulled the few weeds that may have sprouted every week.
Now, two months have passed, it’s July, and the planting beds have hundreds of established aggressive weeds thriving in the poor soils. Your desirable trees, shrubs, and perennials compete against well-established weeds. Weeds have mixed in with the small perennials and ground covers, so it’s less expensive to dig out the mixed mess, amend, prepare the soil, and replant.
Weeds are easy to pull when planting beds are well-prepared and maintained. If it’s done weekly during the growing season, it’s a minor task. Let it go beyond two weeks in the heat of Summer, and you are looking at a lot of work.
So you have a ‘builder’s special,’ and you are hacking at the shrubs in front of your windows. If you notice, every time you cut one branch, it forks into multiple ones. The top of the shrub gets denser and broader. It takes a long time, but most shrubs and hedges cut below their natural height eventually die from the bottom from lack of sunlight. Then you’re left with the classic ‘green pancake on sticks’ look. Yews, hollies, and other evergreen shrubs die out this way regularly.
The above case is where the shrubs must be removed or transplanted from in front of the window and replaced with one that won’t grow as large. A plant that has a mature height below four feet is ideal.
Fertilizers are a controversial subject. Synthetic fertilizers are known for their fast effects but can harm the environment. Usually, it’s the salt residuals and the nutrient-dense runoff from improper use. The runoff enters our waters, feeding algae blooms and causing unhealthy conditions.
We recommend using organic fertilizers because they are better for the environment when used correctly. They release nutrients slowly as microorganisms break them down for plant absorption. My favorite is bonemeal for calcium and phosphorous, bloodmeal for nitrogen, and kelp meal for potassium. If your soil is low on magnesium, add some Epsom salt. It’s not organic but not too harmful if used wisely.
The best way to know what your soil might need for ornamental plant health is to get a soil test done. It will tell you the amounts of nutrients and trace minerals required. Typically, your state’s extension service can provide you with soil test information. I usually send my samples to the University of Massachusetts’ Amherst Soil Testing Lab.
CONCLUSION
One thing that kept coming up is that the most common problems started with the soil and water. As stated, poorly draining soils are saturated, and plant roots can’t breathe. Whether you’re a victim of the standard new construction landscaping process or starting from scratch, hopefully, after reading this article, you know where to start on your journey to a healthy landscape.
As a landscape architecture firm owner, I strongly advise my clients to use fewer chemicals and stick to a regular maintenance plan. The great thing is that it gets easier once you’ve started on the healthy landscape path. There will be less mowing, weeding, and watering. Toss a few handfuls of fertilizer once or twice a year, and you’ll have a beautiful landscape.
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