Christiane Holmquist Landscape Design

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How to make the best use of a landscape consultation

May 5, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist

To consult or not to consult  -  How an initial consultation can help you move your landscape project forward.

For many of our landscape improvements we have the self-confidence and the vision that directs our creative minds and our energy.  But then comes the moment where we’d like to embark on a project that is more complex than anything we’ve undertaken before.  If you are not certain about how to go about your project, or have ideas already (such as a diy landscape design ) but are unsure if they flow together well, or if budget is a big consideration, this would be the moment where you’d be best served with a consultation with a design professional.

A back yard waiting to be designed

The goals

You might have one or several goals for your landscape:  For example an outdoor space for relaxation and rejuvenation, or a sanctuary for your children, or an entertainment space for adults.  It’s your property into which you will invest a considerable amount of energy, time and money, and you want to see your investment pay off and add value to your home.  For some clients the prospect of hiring one of the landscaping companies San Diego also causes some anxiety:  “Will this be the right professional for me”?  Will she or he hear you? Does she have the expertise, the vision, the skill and talent to guide you in the process and express your desires in a delightful way? The first meeting with the professional landscape designer is therefore a very important one, and here’s what it aims to achieve:

Getting to know you

front yard renovation in Ramona landscape

Front yard installation under way.

A consultation is an important first step to getting to know you and your landscape desires, whether this is for a landscape re-do or re-hab, or a completely new landscape.  It is a meeting in which I visit your home or project site and, while walking your property, listen to your likes and dislikes, and learn how you would like to use your property.  I will ask a series of questions that will help me to get an idea of what you are looking for.  As I listen to your ideas, I will make suggestions to help you assess the landscape challenges and to address your concerns.  Listening to my clients is my number one priority, and helping them to articulate and document their desires, dreams, and wishes in a way that a landscape contractor can understand them is my job.

This consultation provides also valuable learning points for you:  I’ll address what seems to be going on with your soil (prior to taking a soil sample for analysis – this I will do if you hire me for the design.)  I’ll comment on what seems appropriate for your microclimate and architectural style, and I will advance some ideas for site use, surface materials, potential cost of project, possible phasing, planning for pets, children, and edibles, multi-use areas, etc.

Mediterranean garden with pergola and fountain and raised vegetable beds ‘Honesty’ and ‘partiality’

The consultation is also an opportunity for you to get to know the person you will be working with.  As most landscape designers are also horticulturists you can use this opportunity to ask all the questions you ever wanted to ask about how to plant, prune, and solve problems. The landscape designer will educate you about plants (the softscape) or hardscape materials (these are the ‘built’ elements, such as patios, walkways, arbors etc.), and will do this without any ulterior motive, product sales, kick-backs and mark-ups or profitability issues that could influence his or her recommendations.  It will be focused expertise from an experienced designer who listens to you and helps you express your own ideas, and you will actually be amazed at what you will know about your property after a comprehensive landscape consultation.

My clients have appreciated this consultation as helpful part of the landscape process, because it provides an abundance of valuable information; the practical and creative suggestions help them articulate their needs and develop a greater understanding of the potentials of their property. You just might be amazed at what you will know about your property after a comprehensive landscape consultation. You can make this meeting even more profitable if you prepare for it, by assembling for review with the landscape designer your landscape ideas, supported by cutsheets, photos, magazines and books, just anything that has attracted you in some way and expresses some of your likes and dislikes.  Lastly a copy of your plot plan and/or your house would also be useful –  it will be needed anyway in the design phase.

Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: beneficial part of the landscape process, experienced landscape designer, expert landscape designer, green space for rejuvenation, green space for relaxation, hardscape materials in the landscape, home landscape, horticulturist, initial landscape design consultation, investment in landscape to pay off, landscape consultation, landscape design consultation in southern California, landscape design consultations, landscape design for architectural style, landscape design in San Diego, landscape ideas, landscape investment, landscape process, professional landscape service, reconnect with nature, sanctuary for children

The lawn needs to go – but what then? Water Conservation Issues and Garden Re-do addressed at “The Garden”

March 24, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist

boulder scene in late afternoon with succulents and drought tolerant shrubsrelaxing chair under tree amongst grasses and perennials

Prompted by the rising water cost and irrigation restrictions, San Diego homeowners consult the many resources available the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon (at www.thegarden.org ).  Among these resources are landscape design and horticulture experts offering consultations on subjects like “California Friendly Plants”, watering, arboriculture (the science concerned with trees),  construction issues and landscape design. I enjoy being one of those professionals, and I thought you might be curious to learn how such a consultation might work for the people that come there. 

succulents and perennials adorn boulderIn my consultations I generally encounter the same objective:  Feeling the need to reduce their water bill or wanting a landscape that is more practical and ecological,  these homeowners are ready to retire their mostly lawn-centered landscape.  They come to the Water Conservation Garden with the common question,  “What do I plant now?”   Most of them believe that planting the right plants would make their gardens better and solve their problems; isn’t that what the beautiful low-water-use plants at “The Garden” are all about?

I understand this thinking but, as designer and horticulturist, I don’t think that suggesting different, albeit drought resistant, water-wise  or “xeric” plants, would address the underlying problem (although those plants are generally more sustainable).   I feel that planting random groups of plants into the former lawn area would not create attractive, comfortable spaces for outdoor living that “work”.  Since that is my focus, I explain to the visitors that it would serve them best if they considered first how to make enjoyable outdoor living possible, in separate spaces designed for different uses.

What needs to happen in a yard so it can become an “outdoor living room”?  How do you convert it into a play room, or entertainment space, a space to hang out, relax, dream, rejuvenate? 

A garden space needs to be organized spatially and hierarchically, and I start my design process, in which I involve my visitors, by asking them if they can think of an activity that they would like to do but never had room for or that was relegated to a back corner of their garden.  Perhaps there is some almost forgotten vision of a garden scene in the recesses of their memory that they never took seriously?  Take the example of my last visitors at the Garden:

This family, husband, wife and son, arrived well prepared for the consultation, with photos and a sketch of their garden drawn to scale. They had decided to take out most of the lawn, a large expanse right by the patio; they would only keep a small part of it for their son for whom lawn mowing is a therapeutic activity.  Opposite the patio, far across the lawn, was a planter bed, but since it was so far away and confined also by a low wall, the flowers in it were not recognizable from the patio. To my surprise, the lady told me that it held roses!  Her husband mentioned, almost in passing, that he would like to grow succulents.  Some trees were there, but they had been planted around the louter perimeter of the lawn so that they couldn’t throw any shade where it mattered most, which was on their hot south-west facing patio. 

“Hardscaping” elements such as patios, walk ways, fencing, arbors, boulders –  convey permanence and add structure.  Most of them don’t have to be maintained, except for some new coat of paint or occasional sweeping, depending on the material used. And they don’t demand watering, fertilization, pruning… So I suggest to incorporate them as much as possible into a design and let them “furnish” the garden, organize the space into areas of different use, provide separation as well as access, focal points, delineation and definition.

In the case of the before mentioned visitors, we found that a swing for adults, placed under a shade tree, would be lovely to have; I suggested to place it at the far end of the garden from where the family could see house and patio from a new perspective, and I drew its outlines on transparent paper taped over their sketch. And why not pull rose bed and succulents closer to the patio from where they could be seen?  Of course not into one flower bed, but in different areas that are perhaps even mounded up, separated by a walk way:  Gently curved mounds give movement to an otherwise flat plan, and the plants on them can be seen better, like on a painted canvas. And if your soil drains poorly, creating those mounds helps improve the drainage because you can mix the mounded soil to provide the drainage your plants need, such as many Mediterranean plants, California Natives and succulents, and even roses.

roses decorate arbor and frame a view

roses framing view

As for the lawn, we drew a much reduced kidney-shaped area that started at one end of the patio, wrapped around behind the rose bed and the succulent mound, and ended at the other end of the patio. This way it was still visible and easy to get to from the patio without dominating the foreground.  And to make all the different areas accessible, we discussed stepping stones and DG as possible material for the walkways, even coarse landscape mulch was considered.

Lastly we reviewed the possible locations of trees, and I pointed to my most favorite reference books on this subject:  Ornamental Trees for a Mediterranean Climate, the trees of San Diego, by Steve Brigham with book design and photographs by Don Walker, and the Sunset Western Garden Book. Here gardeners can research all their favorite choices before making the final selection; they can actually visit the trees shown in the tree book at their location!

Our time was up, and although we had not talked much about plants in detail, the family was happy (I suggested to look to the Water Conservation Garden’s displays for ideas).  Both husband and wife had information and tools in their hands that will make “playing” with their spaces, on paper first, a fun and exciting activity; selecting goals that are realistic and achievable with their budget and energy will now be a manageable task. And finally, armed with the proper reference books and resources that the Water Conservation Garden and other public gardens in San Diego County offer, they will be on their way to a garden that they can enjoy, and live in.

Filed Under: Drought Resistant Landscape, Landscape Design Tagged With: drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant plants, drought tolerant trees, dry climate design, garden design, garden renovation, gardening ideas, irrigation restrictions in Southern California, landscape design, landscape design consultations, landscape re-do advice, landscape rehab, landscape-redo, lawn removal, limited water resources, low-water-use, outdoor living room, redesign of landscape after lawn removal, sustainable garden design, Sustainable landscape design, Water Conservation, Water Conservation Garden, Water Conserving plants, water-wise landscape design, xeriscape, xeriscape plants

He wants the view – but she wants the privacy: How to marry different garden needs for the couple homeowners

January 24, 2010 By Christiane Holmquist

In my first landscape design consultation with Rob and Lisa, I found a familiar scenario:  Unable to agree on what the main focus in their garden design should be and concerned that a design would force them into sacrificing his or her desires, they hoped that I could find a solution that both of them could be happy with.

East facing back garden beforeTheir Mediterranean-style house was built on the edge of a slope; the long and narrow back garden was wide open to a magnificent 180 degree view of the valley and the hills beyond, unspoiled by housing developments. Their wish list for this part of their property was typical: A small patio, situated at one end of the house by the breakfast nook, to enjoy the morning sun; at the other end of the house, a spa pad surrounded by fragrant plants; and between these two areas, by their dining room, the main patio where they would entertain. On these things Rob and Lisa agreed; hoping to achieve them without sacrificing the complete view for the sake of creating more separate and private spaces, especially for the spa area, seemed unrealistic.

There was no doubt in my mind that Rob and Lisa’s back garden that presented itself like a long hallway between house and slope, needed to be divided into separate areas. Also, without any sort of screening the spa would have been visible from the “morning” patio at the other end of the house, and nobody taking a bath there would have felt privacy in such an exposed place.

Planters dividing spacesMy first step was to seek a way in which the break-up into separate spaces could be achieved while preserving as much as possible of the beautiful view. I devised imaginary transparent “walls” to do this but left large “windows” in them: Raised planters flanking the main patio would represent the lower part of the walls, plants in the planters would be the upper part, and looking over and through the plants would be like looking through windows so that the 180 degree view was not diminished. I placed arbors in the planters whose beams would be reaching across a passage through the planters, thus creating an overhead ceiling and framing the “doors” in the walls. Vines on the arbors would soon be adding a leafy décor. An added benefit of the low planters was their height: At 18 inch height their wall caps would provide added seating at the entertainment area

Spa roomWhile the planters were now framing the main patio, they also divided the long back garden into three distinct spaces, and by separating the main patio from the spa area, a good portion of the demands on this space were now met.  It still needed to be less exposed, and this was achieved by creating an 18 inch deep pit into which the spa was lowered. Both Lisa and Rob were now ready for a real compromise: We erected a wooden trellis behind the spa that soon would be supporting a fragrant Jasmine; a seedless “Little Ollie” Olive that can be easily pruned “lacey” and transparent would add protection from the wind as well as an additional screen. Both elements would intensify the sense of privacy for the spa user – and the view into the valley was still almost 180 degrees.

We planted  low-growing drought tolerant (“xeric”) Mediterranean-type plants such as Lavender Cotton, White Rockrose, Blue Fescue, Iris, Blue Queen’s Wreath, Sages, Wormwood, Lavender, and roses…. and signature trees such as Olives, Cypress, London Plane Tree, Pomegranate, Citrus and other fruit trees. For fragrance by the spa we used Hyssop, Catmint, Germander, Thyme, and Angelwing Jasmine on the trellis. The California Natives on the rocky slopes would provide a colorful transition from the local chaparral to the garden-space: Mountain Lilac, Flannel Bush, Toyon, Redbud, Coyote Mint, Evening Primrose etc. would also draw birds and other wildlife closer to the house.

Mediterranean Garden SceneWith mulch and DG for the garden paths, and local field stone used for the raised planters, the sustainable hardscape materials felt like they really belonged in this landscape. When the plants were beginning to grow in, softening the outlines of the structures and draping around statues, urns and fountain, the feeling of this garden was convincingly Mediterranean, and yet so Californian.

Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant shrubs, garden design, landscape design, landscape design consultations, Mediterranean-type plants, sustainable garden design, sustainable hardscapes, Sustainable landscape design, Water Conserving plants, xeriscape

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Christiane, your design is beautiful. Viewers love the design and color. Thank you so much for all your support while the project was being developed. It would have been more stressful for me had you not held my hand regularly.

Rachel Michel

CHRISTIANE HOLMQUIST LANDSCAPE DESIGN


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Phone: 406-246-6065

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