LandscapExpert Tip of the Week, August 29

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, August 29

Landscape Renovation: Analyzing Aesthetic + Visual Problems

If your property’s landscape isn’t quite right, but you can’t put your finger on why, Crabapple LandscapExperts can quickly scope out aesthetic and visual problems.

The Clutter Factor may be the trouble. Extra plantings may have crept into the original landscape design, and a clean sweep of lawn, a flower bed with a monochromatic color scheme or a unified planting of evergreens may be the answer to several little beds placed willy nilly.


Ask Crabapple LandscapExperts for their expert input.

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, August 22

Landscape Renovation: Analyzing Aesthetic + Visual Problems

Design Inadequacies from the past may present a challenge to building managers and residential boards. For example, formal, symmetrical plantings (see Blog on Balance as a principle of design), or rigid, mirror-image groupings are hard to maintain over time due to individual plant differences as well as environmental microclimates.

Plants that must be pruned in an artificial shape ( See Facebook Group, Crimes Against Horticulture ) take a lot of effort with little yield.

Plants that have been planted in straight lines like soldiers at attention are not a comfortable fit and will need to be redesigned to soften the architecture. 

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, August 15

Landscape Renovation: Analyzing Aesthetic + Visual Problems

If your property’s landscape seems out of whack, but you can’t tell why, ask your Crabapple LandscapExperts for some insight.

Inappropriate plantings may be the culprit. Use of plants whose form or texture doesn’t complement the buildings’ architecture may cause a failure to fit. For example, desert plants would not be in harmony with typical Georgian residences.

Clashing Colors are another example of how plants may not fit in. Flowers, fall leaf color or even colorful fruit may look disagreeable with the building paint color or trim; for example, lavender azaleas with orange brick walls. Other times, plants that bloom at the same time may conflict visually with each other.

Plants can also fail to fit together if their Growth Rates are very different. A faster-growing plant may dominate the other plants in the landscape, or even out-compete for water and nutrients, causing them to decline.

Crabapple LandscapExperts have the solution for each of these landscaping challenges. 

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, August 8

Landscape Renovation: Analyzing Aesthetic + Visual Problems

If your property’s landscape isn’t quite right, but you can’t put your finger on why, Crabapple LandscapExperts can quickly evaluate aesthetic and visual problems.

Often times it is a question of Proportion (considered in May 16 Landscape Tips Blog).  Plants may be out of proportion – either too big or too small – with the buildings, with other plants in the immediate landscape, with the overall surrounding landscape or with hardscaping and street furniture. If fast-growing plants were initially chosen to cut construction costs, these may have overgrown the site for which they were intended. Specimen trees that originally looked good may now be too big and overpower the location.  

The LandscapExperts at Crabapple can point out proportional discrepancies and help property mangers get a handle on how to correct them. 

LandscapExperts Tip of the Week, August 1

Evaluating a Landscape

Before renovating a landscape, the exterior condition of your buildings, the available space surrounding them and the needs of the residents should be considered.

Take a systematic approach to a landscape renovation project and consider the four seasons, budgeting constraints, and project timing by evaluating the project in its entirety. Let Crabapple LandscapExperts advise you on a step-by-step approach that progresses from building and plant inventory and environmental evaluation to a renovation calendar that will suit your needs.