invasive
The weight of conventional wisdom opposes me here, but I love using bamboo around many of the ponds we install. In the right setting with a pond large enough that the vertical plants are appropriately scaled to the horizontal watershape, bamboo looks great, grows rapidly and brings a wonderful architectural look to the composition - not to mention great sound when
On just about any site, we run into hidden obstacles - everything from underground pipes or leftover debris from other construction to myriad other surprises - and many of them are easily dealt with either by removing the barriers or redirecting things around them. But what happens when the obstacle is alive and growing and you can't remove it or escape from it? In these situations, you have to do your research, get creative and, above all, take the matter seriously. Case in point is a garden I'm designing for a project with David Tisherman - the one discussed previously where I'm developing a white
On just about any site, we run into hidden obstacles - everything from underground pipes or leftover debris from other construction to myriad other surprises - and many of them are easily dealt with either by removing the barriers or redirecting things around them. But what happens when the obstacle is alive and growing and you can't remove it or escape from it? In these situations, you have to do your research, get creative and, above all, take the matter seriously. Case in point is a garden I'm designing for a project with David Tisherman - the one discussed previously where I'm developing a white
In all my years as a landscape designer, I've always told my clients that nobody can know ahead of time how a plant will adapt to or behave in any given situation. "Each place on this earth has its own microclimate," I tell them. "Trying to foresee how a plant will grow is like trying to predict when the earth will end." Most plants, of course, really are somewhat predictable when you place them in a client's yard. As long as you pay attention and use those that are typically considered to be noninvasive, for example, you're generally safe in planting them and needn't spend time worrying about their futures. By contrast, plants that are considered invasive - whether it's all the time or only some of the time - should, under any and every circumstance, be
