Have you ever taken a walk through a forest? Did you look down on the ground and see a carpet of leaves or pine needles? This is mother natures natural mulch. Mulch like this provides many health benefits for the plants and long term side affects for the soil. Mulch provides protection for the soil from erosion by rain and wind. It also retains moisture by acting as a blanket. As mulch deteriorates and decomposes it releases nutrients and soil building elements. Many properties I see,  the gardening maintenance service rakes and blows all the mulch off the soil which then creates a hard crust on top of the soil. Mulch will minimize weeds, retain the micro nutrients needed to have healthy soil and retain moisture there by saving you water.

In order to have healthy soil, mulch needs to be artificially applied each fall, if the natural mulch is removed by the gardeners.

Check out this video about proper mulching.

There are two types of balance you can use:

Symmetrical Balance aka Formal Balance and Asymmetrical Balance aka Informal Balance

 Symmetrical Balance

(Formal Garden)

This Design is good for English, French or Moorish style gardens. This is where all elements of the design are equally divided. Both sides could share all or part of the same shape, form, plant height, plant groupings, colors, bed shapes, theme, etc.

Perfect garden to relate house and garden since we use axial lines. These closely connect the architectural mass of the house, which is also composed of straight lines and right angles, to the garden. So it happens we usually end up with a formal pattern.

In Europe During the Renaissance period entire gardens were designed as mirror images from one  side to the other. Draw an imaginary line right down the middle of the garden, and each side will be a mirror image of the other.

Formal gardens are almost always symmetrical. Neat rows, mirrored images, geometric shapes. These things never appear that structured in nature. Some people like to   see things balanced, giving a feeling of stability and order. Balance may also be obtained with color ortexture as well as form.

Features about a symmetrical garden:

• Use mirror image shrubs or big containers to mark the beginning or end of a path
• Align hedges with property lines, walls of a house, or other prominent, important feature
• Typically high in maintenance. Formal landscapes can look terrible if they lose their symmetry

because of differences in plants’ growing heights, the loss of a plant, uneven pruning,

or a slight difference in a plant or element’s color. This means pruning is a regular chore.

Asymmetrical Balance 
(Informal Garden) 


This Design is good for Contemporary or modern gardens as well as Asian and Mediterranean  gardens Asymmetrical may be better understood as actually being unbalanced, abstract, or free form while still creating unity and balance through the repetition of some elements.

Asymmetry in a garden is a little more difficult to perceive, and that’s the point, it’s more natural and relaxed.

A good example is in a traditional Japanese garden: the stones and trees, paths and shrubs   all seem to be rather randomly arranged. That’s not true however, because they have been carefully placed to be balanced when seen from any position in the garden. 
Another good example of this would be where bed shapes or paths differ on both sides of the landscape dividing line while still sharing some of the same elements and plants. 

One side could be curved with a sense of flow while the other side is straight, direct, hard, and completely opposite.

This type of contrast can be very interesting because the flowing lines are pleasing to the eye but the bold contrast of a curve combined with a straight line can be very unusual and eye-catching.

Asymmetrical balance is really fun because it isn’t dependent on the shape of your garden which frees you up to do whatever you want.

This is very powerful, because an asymmetrically balanced landscape design has the feeling of stability. The random arrangement of the elements makes them look very natural, as though they have been there for years

Another good example might be where one side of the garden is mostly large shade trees while the other side is predominately a lower growing flower garden. With asymmetrical gardens, you will want to really make sure you maintain good unity through the use of other elements such as rocks, plants, and decor to ground your design and keep it from becoming too hodge-podge.

This type of balance, suitable to the informal or naturalistic situation, requires for success a clear perception of scale and of color. Unfortunately, more often than not it is a failure. It has to be bold yet simple, that is its strength. When it does come off, it is probably more interesting than the simple formal type.

Features about a Asymmetrical garden:

• Curve(s) combined with a straight line – Offset Elements
• Contrast while still sharing some of the same elements
• Elements in the design must be bold yet simple
• Things are not random they are carefully placed to be balanced

Saving water use less lawn

For all the years I have been designing and installing gardens I have felt too much water is wasted on lawns and I always wanted to help people reduce the consumption of water for their lawns. Having a blog allows me to share my ideas and what has worked for me. First off as much as we all love to see large areas of green lawn to let our kids play on or dogs run across the lawn in most areas require a lot of maintenance, watering and fertilizing. I do not think you have to do with out the lawn but I believe you can do with less. By reducing the amount of lawn area you will automatically use less water and spend less time and money on maintenance. The other key tricks to reducing water use on lawns are as follows, mow your lawn higher, it will shade the soil and causes less evaporation. Next buy a “smart” controller. The controller automatically senses how much water is really needed. Most lawns are over watered…which is biggest cause of water waste.

Check out this video to show you proper ways to maintain your lawn to save water.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ScottsMiracleGro?v=Zap1X-ZvSeY

Split up your watering times, take the amount needed to keep the lawn healthy and divide that amount over the course of the week and each day you water cut that amount into two watering times. This allows the water to percolate into the ground slowly and prevents runoff and it also lets the lawn dry out between waterings. Do not water everyday. Water early in the day, this allows the water to soak in before it gets hot and you do not lose water to evaporation. Another way to save water is to use a lawn substitute such as a low growing ground cover or artificial turf.

Save lots of water with Artificial lawn

Another novel way to water the lawn if you have to have lawn is by drip emitters. By placing a main line feeder rose around the perimeter of the lawn and creating a grid of emitters on 12″ centers (depends on soil types) you can water the lawn with out spray heads. You must use a type of grass that has deep roots, you must use sod and you can not install during the hot times of the year. Once your grid is down you lay the sod on top and pull the emitter up into the root zone and water the lawn heavily the first 2weeks. Use supplemental overhead water to allow the roots to get enough water, the goal is to get the roots deep into the soil ASAP.  Slowly the amount of water can be reduced each week until the roots gets deep enough that you will only need to water once a week. It takes a lot of monitoring in the beginning so be careful not to let things dry during this critical root developing stage. Any other question contact me on here.

Design |dəˈzīn|noun

1. A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is built or made • the art or action of conceiving of and producing such a plan or drawing: good design can help the reader understand complicated information • an arrangement of lines or shapes created to form a pattern or decoration:

2. Purpose, planning, or intention that exists or is thought to exist behind an action, fact, or material object: the appearance of design in the universe.verb [ with obj. ]decide upon the look and functioning of (a building, garment, or other object),typically by making a detailed drawing of it: a number of architectural students were designing a factory | [ as adj. with submodifier ] (designed) : specially designed buildings.• do or plan (something) with a specific purpose or intention in mind: [ withobj. and infinitive ]

First Principle of Design:

• Unity – One of the basics of landscape design is creating a central theme to build your outdoor plan upon. A unified look is important to a beautiful landscape design.

With out a plan your garden can become a mass of confusion or worst a hodgepodge  of meaningless green blobs. Unity can bring peace and tranquility or chaos. Unity will help tie together the story that your design can communicate to the user. Depending on your design you can communicate that your garden is a artistic place, or it is a direct reflection of the architecture it surrounds or it becomes an experience for the passer by on their way to their destination. Unity can help the designer in communicating their message to the user.

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http://www.watercache.com/education/rainwater-how/#.T25usFF9m-8

Your irrigation system will require occasional maintenance and updating. If you have an automatic irrigation system it is important to turn your system on so thatall valves go through a 1 min cycle. This allows you to check to see if any head or emitter is broken or out of place. Ways to save water, water early in the morning. break the watering time into two intervals, this allows the water to soak in. Turn off the clock during the rainy season. If you do not have a drip system consider switching over to it, it will save a lot of water. If you have a controller more than 10 years old consider buying one of the new “Smart Controllers” from Rainbird. The “Smart” controller is programable to your local climate soil and plant types. It is an amazing piece of technology. It can save a lot of water, most controllers just do what you set them to do, which usually ends up overwatering most plants. The “smart” controller only waters when the variables are right, so it may not water for a week due to temperature and needs, it decides when to water .

With winter upon us, it is a good time to do a little trimming in the garden. During the rainy and windy times of a storm, tree branches can break due to added weight of moisture and heavy winds. You can certainley  prevent this kind of damage by selectively pruning and removing some of the foliage. The added benefit of pruning can allow more light into the garden, enabling plants beneath trees to grow better. Perhaps you have a tree that is so large that it is impairing your garden’s growth and beauty or it is very messy. You may need to consider judicious pruning or just having it removed. A trained tree specialist will be able to give you professional advice.

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                      Water is the lifeblood of all plants, including turfgrass. But many homeowners  aren’t aware that watering their lawns too much can be as damaging as not watering enough. These ten plant friendly tips will help you save water in your landscape.

1. Choose the right plant for the right place

  All plants must get the right amount of sun, water, and nutrients to thrive—even natives.

• Select plants suited for your area
• Place plants in the landscape where site conditions match their needs
• Group plants with similar water needs together
• The right grouping will prevent overwatering some while under watering others – a recipe for disease
• Start with low water requiring plants, caution = even low water requiring plants and natives will need regular irrigation for the first two summers to get established, after that you can reduce the water up to 50% for low water use plants and 90% for Natives

Fire Pit with Built-in Seating

While you’re inside your warm house reading a book or surfing the web be aware that the winter is a great time to start thinking about your spring garden makeover.

During the winter months in Marin and the Bay Area, some Designers can be slow and it is a good time to contact them to start designing your new garden. It also gives you a chance to research some fun ideas and plants to be incorporated into the Landscape Architectural Design plan.

If you wait until warm spring days when everyone else will be calling to start their garden and the Designers will be swamped you will have your design finished and will be ahead of the pack and call a local Designer now.

AJ Shepard,                                                                                                                                                                       owner                                                                                                                                                                   Shepard Design Landscape Architecture