Introduction

Landscape design explores the use of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals to create pleasing and functional outdoor spaces. Design techniques are the result of good use of suitable plant material for the site, one’s own design experience, climate, and personal taste.

That sounds like one of the dusty old horticultural textbooks that sits on my bookshelf. It also sounds tremendously boring if you ask me, but the truth is that landscape design is anything but boring. There is an added dimension of risk and gamble if you live on the Canadian prairie, as I do.

It’s all very well and good to know what a peony requires to be happy, or the best way to grow roses, or that carnations make good cut flowers. Facts about plants and flowers can be learned by anyone who has the time and interest, but what do you put that rose next to is often the better question. No plant exists in a vacuum, and yet most of our prairie gardens are random and hodge-podge collections of either plants that happened to be on sale or plants we happen to like, and the resulting gardens are usually colourful but haphazard and incoherent.

In this book, we are going to start by examining some of the practical considerations you’ll have to think about to design your garden, and from there we’ll move on to inspiration, expectations, and risks. Are you excited yet?

I’ll teach you about the bones of the garden and creating a sense of permanence, we’ll look at ways to analyze your space (and thus use it wisely), and of course, we’ll also have to explore topics such as soil and sun, shade and weather, and all those pesky matters like death and disease and critters that will eat your plants and critters that will hopefully eat, well, the other critters.

By about the middle of the book we’ll be looking at trends and fashions in gardening; there will be much ado about trees and shrubs, and I’ll even take you through grass and groundcovers. Rocks, focal points, ponds . . . it’s all in here! Colour, texture, bark, and berries rounds out the back of the book, followed by some (hopefully very helpful) worksheets that can help you along the way.

A garden is always a journey—ever changing, ever evolving, and never “finished.” Ask any gardener about their yard and they will say, “You should have been here last week when the lilies were in full bloom” or “Come next week when the lilacs are in flower.” Real gardeners are never satisfied. There is always a hunger and a thirst for bigger and better things. I want to help you realize your vision for your garden, and my hope is that with this book, I’ll be able to do just that.