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A beautiful garden needs to do many things for the beholder. It has to be inviting, exciting, and relaxing. It should appeal to many senses as it lives and breathes life. The plants in a garden give it its character and mood. When used right, they will never stop providing for the awesome experience a landscape can be. They need to work with each other to balance the whole environment; otherwise, a space can seem chaotic, or mundane. They have to be the right height, width, colour, texture, form, bloom time, and they have to grow in the right climate zones. Many things need to be considered before placing a plant in a particular spot. Is the soil right? Will it have enough moisture? What plants will be around it? Is it invasive? Is it poisonous? What will its size be at maturity? There are so many questions. And if they all have the right answer, then you have found the right plant for that spot. Picking plants can take up a very large portion of time in the design process. In addition to all of these questions, a good designer also thinks about the particular preferences of each individual homeowner. After all, the designer is not the one who has to live with it!
Landscapes can offer great rewards to homeowners, but also be the source of many headaches. Landscapes will develop problems if not cared for the right way. A little extra thought can minimize unwanted maintenance and allow a garden to do some of the work for you. Fertilizers are not needed if there is healthy soil. Soil is an environment all its own. It needs food and water just like any other living thing on this planet. Soil is alive, and if it is not, then nothing will grow in it. Just like our own bodies, it needs a balanced diet to function at normal levels. One cannot simply give it a few synthetic nutrients and expect it to be healthy. If you feed it properly it will make all the nutrients required of it by its host of plants, eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers. Choosing the right plants for the area can also go a long way in minimizing maintenance. Natural weed blocks such as mulches, ground covers, stones, and leaf litter layers can be very effective if used properly in the right situations. Many of those will also add nutrients to the soil, as well as keeping the soil underneath moist and acting as an insulator to moderate temperature. Gardening is not about taming nature; it's about understanding the mechanics of nature and working with them for our benefit, and as a consequence nature's benefit.