Here are the steps needed if you want to undertake a garden refresh but need to complete it quickly. Briefly, there are three initial steps: gather data, create a planting plan, pick up and install the plants. This is provided that the preliminaries are in place: a working irrigation system (or person) that will provide water to the new plants. Once the plants are in, you enter the establishment phase, followed by the ongoing maintenance phase where you guide your new landscape to maturity.
1: Look at plants
You can’t plan if you don’t know what’s available. Since we’re on a quick install time frame, we can’t order plants from far away. So we one or more local nurseries for an idea of available species. Since we’re in a fast track analyze + design + adjust + install project, pre-ordering plants was not an option.
A selection of plant photos taken at the nursery
2: Plan the garden
check the climate
It snows. Things freeze. According to Sunset’s Western Garden Book, this garden will be in the coldest climate zone west of the Rockies. That means we get to have some fun with old friends, plants we can’t grow in Sacramento: cold-loving herbaceous perennials and shrubs that don’t like heat. It also means we better check cold hardiness carefully because although many plants may thrive for several years, that extra cold spell could finish them off.
analyze the site
The next step was to do some site analysis. Lots of shade, working irrigation system, “crush zones” where snow falls from a high roof and damages plants. Soil fast draining, montane stuff with some organic matter. Probably a bit acidic in spots, since the nursery sold lime to reduce soil acidity.
When possible, talk to the locals. We talked to a neighbor with a nice garden, checking that our selections would work on this site, or at least near it. Luckily, we’d picked plants that were generally on her “successful” list, although in the end she had a number of species that we didn’t find, so we just narrowed down based on what we learned in the nursery.
draw a plan
You can do this by hand using an architect’s scale and/or gridded paper (8 to the inch is typical). A circle guide can help you draw uniformly sized plants, making sure to use the plant’s mature projected size instead of the diameter of the potted plants you’re going to buy.
In our case, we used a mobile version of AutoCAD to draw a base plan using a range finding laser.
design the garden
The next step: turn the base plan into a planting plan. For this we used Trace, a conceptual design program, over the scaled plan done in AutoCAD. The nice thing about Trace is it lets you build up a design with overlays, much like you’d use tracing paper, to go from a rough scribble to something that works as an initial planting plan.
We pulled the plan together by combining personal experience, available plants from local nurseries, the site itself (existing plants, sun/shade, snow patterns). The SunSeeker app gave us rough shade patterns in key areas. Just to check what’s working, we used our notes from the helpful neighbor along with a walk through the neighborhood. All this coalesced into an initial planting plan. We now had a starting point to guide our adventures at the nurseries!
Some things are more important, so there’s a top down planning hierarchy. First, of course, was climate: Sunset Zone 1A: cold winters. Then soil: good drainage, no boggy spots except a drainage swale running along the street. Then sun and shade patterns both from existing trees and structures. We checked the position of irrigation rotors and looked where the soil seemed moist, although since a thunderstorm just passed, checking heads was a safer method. We checked the roof, looking for places snow would release, crashing to the ground in “crush zones”.
Conclusion: the site is mostly shady, with a maximum of about 5 hours per day of sun in summer, the irrigation seemed to cover (or could be modified to cover) the intended planting areas, and most woody or semi-woody shrubs planted in the crush zones were indeed crushed to the ground.
The garden style will be natural, with a woodland theme. Most is understory to existing trees, and there is a small meadowy area that will make a colorful accent of blooming perennials and grasses. This fits with the patio and paths, paved with irregular flagstone – and the rustic wood siding of the buildings.
these images illustrate the evolution of the planting concept
Factors used for “right plant, in the right place”
- Snow “crush” zones, where built-up snow would plummet from high above onto the plants. We decided that, given the state of prior attempts to grow taller shrubs in these areas, we would concentrate on herbaceous perennials and shrubs that could resprout from the ground, allowing any damaged branches to be removed without losing the plant.
- Views, both vistas from the house and blocking views to neighbors and the street. For vistas, we used successively taller plants planted in masses to draw the eye into the landscape. At the client’s request, we added two vine maples as understory trees at the back of a woodsy area, where they’re fronted by a massing of thimbleberry, Jacob’s ladder and other shade tolerant plants.
- Snow plow zone, along the front of the property, where snow might be hurled by a snow plow against the plants. We chose flexible, deciduous plants, generally capable of regrowing from the ground, hopefully things that could resist better than solid evergreens.
- Seasonal color, a client request and general good design practice. This works with views, both from the entry path, patio and key windows – but the key here is trying for an extended season of interest. Because of the shade, we focused on foliage contrasts: purple ninebark contrasting with yellow green Cornus sericea ‘Hedgerows Gold’, spirea and thimbleberry. Darker sweet woodruff would spread on the ground under the Cornus, while biokovo geraniums and lady’s mantle would create more variety on the ground plane. A sunny spots became meadows and perennial borders planted with tufted hair grass, hardy cranesbills, columbines, polemonium, Japanese anemone, centaurea and aconite, going from front to back. The theme of columbine, hardy cranesbill and low ground cover continues through the gardens, with dead nettles (lamium) adding flowers and foliage contrasts at specific points. A number of cold-hardy ferns fill in areas of deep shade.
Get feedback
A fast track planting plan is a guiding document, not anything set in stone. We discussed plant species, locations and functions – along with constraints like crush zones and snow projected horizontally by plows and blowers.
Once we presented the concept, we walked the site. The client added an entire new area, a viewscape garden from the main window. New plants were quickly sketched in by and on a printout, guiding us when we arrived at the nurseries.
3: Get and install plants
We selected two nurseries. One focused more on perennials, the other on trees, although there was an overlap between the two. Sometimes we picked two varieties (cultivars) of the same plant for additional variety in height, flower color or both – the two nurseries did not always carry the same varieties of the same plant species!
We arrived at the first nursery, did a quick walk through, and the game was afoot! Conceptual planting plan in hand, we rushed about, filling cart after cart with plants, improvising where varieties differed or we found interesting plants that would bring more interest to the garden. This resulted in the addition of lily of the valley, brunnera and solomon’s seal, plants we did not see at the first nursery.
these photos and illustrations show conceptual plant growth over time
4: Wait for things to grow
The plants are in the ground, the irrigation system is working, summer is upon us. From here on, things will slow down, moving to long term, guiding the landscape to maturity, checking on the plants to ensure they’re watered, trimmed. The perennials will be cut down after frost when they’re brown, some species divided every few years. Spent flower stalks can removed or left for effect or for seeds for birds.
Landscapes typically need revision after things have been in the ground long enough to tell how they’ll do in their exact spot. Nobody can tell how a plant will grow in a given spot until it’s planted and tested. There are just too many factors influencing growth.
This site has automatic irrigation, but hands-on maintenance will be sporadic – so low maintenance will be tested. The garden was planned for intense maintenance periods at certain times of year: cutting down frozen stalks of perennials, heading back shrubs to make them fuller, eventually dividing and spreading out perennials, grasses and perhaps some ferns. Trimming back ground covers that encroach on the lawn…
Every new garden comes with its own questions. Most will be answered in time, some will remain mysteries, probably because each year is different. Will the irrigation continue to work efficiently as the plants grow? Will the native thimbleberry adapt to the site and grow in case there’s a problem with the irrigation? Will the perennials spread into the meadow, creating a tapestry effect with successive blooms during the growing season? How will the garden look in winter, where bright red Cornus sericea stems should contrast with white snow? Just how much snow will fall in the next few years, and when?
The growing season in Tahoe is relatively short, so we won’t really know for at least a year if everything came together to create wonderful effects.
Some plants – sweet woodruff, for example – can spread quickly. This was planned, so that if one plant failed others could take over and fill in any gaps.
Some plants – Lady’s Mantle, Polemonium, Tufted Hair Grass, Thimbleberry – may reseed.
Others should spread by rhizomes, as we hope the Lily of the Valley and Cornus will do.
Our hope is that the plants will coexist with minimal care, eventually growing together for color, screening and year-round interest. Once the garden reaches this stage, maintenance will move to selective dividing, pruning, heading back and other techniques to stabilize its appearance through the seasons.