The #1 landscaping secret for a beautiful garden
Like everything in life there are secrets I’m going to share with you the #1 landscaping secret for a beautiful garden.
I get calls all the time people asking what products or services do we have that will make their garden look better, I mean something to liven it up, I feel it needs fertilizer or something. Most people can’t articulate what is missing in there garden but they feel it just never looks right.
The reality is that most gardens won’t look optimal all the time, seasons; weather, pests, diseases, and cultural practices such as trimming and watering will have an impact on your garden.
We can take care of pest problems like aphids, mealy bug, thrips, whiteflies, caterpillars, mites and others with insecticides and miticides whether natural or synthetic to cure insect pest problems but killing a pest is not the same as making a plant look good.
Other problems such as bacteria, funguses and viruses are much harder to control since they can be brought on by the slightest change in weather and climate and do not cure the disease forever most will only last a week the best up to a month. An improper trimming or pruning can trigger a decline in the plant.
Nutritional deficiencies are common in plants because of different soil conditions and Ph a plant in the wrong type of soil with wrong Ph will never look optimal and may require multiple fertilizer applications per year with higher amounts of micro nutrients.
So what is the secret to the most beautiful garden?
Plant selection is the #1 landscaping secret for a beautiful garden, the right plant in the right place is the secret. Most plant selections are made by the wrong people for the wrong reasons and placed in the wrong place.
If you have done this don’t feel bad even professionals like landscape architects, designers and contractors, and landscapers make this all too common mistake, only to have the homeowner scratching their heads.
A plant need three things to be optimal, soil, light, water, trimming and pruning. If you start with the right plant in the right soil or the soil it best prefers it will do better than putting a plant you like in your soil that it doesn’t like. If you place an acid loving plant like ixora into a high alkaline soil like in South Florida it will never look optimal and it will require large amounts of treatments with micro nutrient sprays 6 to 12 times per year.
So the to avoid this don’t plant ixoras in south Florida if you are not prepared to supplement what it needs on a regular basis as it will become a high maintenance plant and an eye sore if not maintained, I addition because of its nutrient deficiency it will be more susceptible to insect pests and diseases and die back do to environmental stress when weather conditions become severe.
If a plant prefers to be in full sun and you place it in partial shade it will never be optimal no matter how much fertilizer you apply, fertilizer cannot make sunlight.
If the plant prefers dry sandy soil and you put it in a place that floods and does not drain well it will continually suffer from root fungal diseases and root rotting, applying fungicides will only delay the inevitable death and cost a fortune in the process.
Products can never make up for bad choices or bad selection, before you plant make sure you are planning it in the right place and you will need very little supplements. Choosing wisely will allow you to have a most beautiful garden with less pesticides, fertilizers and maintenance.
