LYNN THOMSON peered through the car window recently at a
dark green shrub, sheared into a five-foot-high spiral and planted on one
side of the stoop of a small wood-sided ranch in ''That's totally out of place,'' said Ms. Thomson, a landscape designer and master gardener who often cringes at unfortunate shrubbery. ''You have the rustic siding, you have a ranch house, and topiary is a formal thing. It would be nicer if they had a gentle pyramidal evergreen there maybe -- something softer than that very hard shape.'' More and greater varieties of plants, shrubs, trees and ornamental grasses are available at the local nurseries than ever before, spurring on many homeowners, perhaps lacking time or gardening experience, to create a jumble of plantings in Long Island yards that often ignore the biggest component of a property -- the house. Ms. Thomson gives talks at garden clubs and libraries in One small ranch featured a collection of objects placed, in no discernible pattern, in the front garden: two-foot-high gnomes, a pagoda-shaped stone lantern, a bird house with fake bluebirds on it, and at the end of the short blacktop driveway, two three-foot-high brick columns topped with stone urns. ''See, now that's real tchotchke-looking; that's totally overdone,'' Ms. Thomson said. ''If they had taken the same amount of money they spent on all this little stuff and bought one big centerpiece and put it right in the middle of that bed. '' Her voice trailed off. ''This is what people do: they go to the store; they see something they like; then when they bring it home, they've got to find a place for it.'' The timing of Ms. Thomson's tour was instructive. After autumn has
ended, when tree limbs are bare and foliage has fallen, homeowners have a
chance to view ''the bones of the garden,'' according to Barbara Wallace,
the head gardener of demonstration gardens at ''Wintertime is a good time to take a look at the garden structure and see what worked, what didn't work,'' Ms. Wallace said. House and Garden magazine started the demonstration gardens in 1968 at The four gardens occupy lots that approximate an average The demonstration ''shade garden'' features plants that do not need much light, including varieties of ground covers, hostas and spring blooming flowers. Across a swath of grass and past a giant blue atlas cedar, the gray garden is a small formal collection of plants with blue and gray hues, shaped shrubs and soft-leaved plants like silver sage and catnip. A green garden and a Japanese-style garden with a small pond provide ideas, not to mention a handy list of names of plants, trees and shrubs growing there. Many of the varieties on the grounds can be bought at the Gardens' plant sale in April. Not far away, at the 409-acre With these resources as well as local garden clubs and nurseries, it's
hard to believe that the landscape of any one ''People seem to want to keep up with the Joneses,'' Ms. Wallace said. ''Gardening is faddish, just like everything else.'' Ms. Thomson, the landscape designer, feels that people are too busy and pressed for time to thoughtfully landscape their homes. ''That's another trend, instant gratification,'' she said. ''You know they just want it done.'' In a higher-priced development of larger houses in nearby Dix Hills, most of the two-story box-shaped homes reach for a formal look. Two pillars frame nearly every doorway. Front yards have islands of shrubs and exotic trees, like the bluish weeping cedar that extends its droopy limbs across the lawn instead of up into the sky. ''Landscapers are fond of these weeping evergreen type things too,'' Ms. Thomson said. ''They like that a lot because they're more formal and they get big.'' For a home that's on the market, having exotic or interesting trees will
not necessarily increase the home's value. ''What's more impressive is
having the landscape designed properly,'' said Kathy Anastasio of Anastasio
Associates Inc. in Having complete information about a plant, shrub or tree before buying it can save homeowners from acquiring that cute azalea that years later obscures half the house. ''People have to know the size of their plant and how it's going to
grow,'' Ms. Wallace said. ''If you have a 50-by-100-foot lot in In ''People tend to do the classics: English boxwoods, Belgian block or
bluestone walkways, hedge fences,'' said Zachary Tunick, who owns Luxury
Living Inc. in As Mr. Tunick wound his S.U.V. through the hedged streets of Prospective home buyers in many Long Island neighborhoods seem attracted to the vinyl fencing, as much for its practicality as its appearance, according to real estate agents. ''I think it does enhance,'' said John Tufarelli, a manager at the
Century 21 American Homes real estate agency in Back in ''Now this has to be replaced maybe every 10 years, and if you don't do anything to it, it turns gray,'' Ms. Thomson said of the wooden fence. ''And if you stain it, you have to stain it maybe every three years.'' Perhaps the best way to design a garden is to look inward, rather than toward the neighbor's yard. For Ms. Thomson, arthritic knees and a penchant for varied textures, meandering paths and color helped lead to the design of her own home's landscape. Pachysandra, a ground cover, grows around the trees in her front yard, where there is little lawn to mow or fertilize. A winding trail of mulch (it limits weeds) is decorated with mid- and large-sized plants and shrubs, some with dark red woody limbs, or yellow leaves. Looking out at the backyard through a rear window inside her home, Ms. Thomson can see the trunk of a tall maple with a climbing hydrangea snaking around it. ''One of my main considerations was the views from my windows,'' she said. ''When I walk in my front door, I can see through this window and see my berries and my tree. When I'm sitting on my patio, I see my beautiful evergreen here. So that was one of my main goals: to have something to look at from my windows.'' Published: 01 - 02 - 2005 , Late Edition - Final , Section 11 , Column 1 , Page 11 |
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