Late Fall is a good time to evaluate the year’s landscaping. You put good money into plants, soil, containers, and or landscape services during the season. By this time, most plants have done their thing and in many parts of the country gardens are taking a rest. Did your landscape perform well? Were the plants healthy and vigorous? Were there problems, like disease, dieback, weeds, weak growth, messiness, etc?!
Pictures of the landscape will help you evaluate its performance!
After health and cleanliness are addressed, focus on purpose and secondary objectives. Think about why you are landscaping. The purpose is what you hope to gain or benefit from your horticultural efforts. For instance, the purpose can be simply altruistic, like beautification. Or the purpose can be to help the bottom line by inviting customers to you or calming clients or showcasing your products. Determining why you want to landscape will make all the other decisions easier.
Once you know your purpose you can choose some secondary objectives. Fortunately, landscapes (even a potted plant) are masters at multi-tasking. List some things that are important to you and things that make you smile. You can choose aesthetic, functional, ecological, or environmental reasons. For example your landscape can produce cutflowers for reception and welcoming areas, soften the store front, serve as a windbreak, provide shade and cooling, grow fruits and veggies, give monarch butterfly assistance, attract songbirds, absorb storm water, support solar panels, etc.
Begin assessing and planning now to get the best return on your landscape/interiorscape investment in 2018. If you need help with the process, you can contact Get Out & Grow with William Moss at info@getoutandgrow.org. We’ve landscaped from coast to great lakes to coast. From promenade store fronts to corporate parks to uptown window displays we help businesses determine what plants and hardscapes will best serve them. For DIY-ers we offer online training and video chats. We also will come out and personally help you meet your landscaping goals. For your investment and efforts the landscape should give a good return and hopefully some beauty and interest to brighten your days too.!
Get Out & Grow!