A beautiful garden is one of the few significant investments that truly gives us lasting joy. As with any investment, it’s essential to avoid costly missteps, and avoid mistakes that can detract from the desired result: a beautiful garden. I recently interviewed Tom Altgelt, an award-winning landscape designer in the Denver/Boulder area, about the biggest errors he often sees, not only here in Denver, Colorado the Denver/Boulder area but also in Europe and New England where he has practiced. Altgelt lists several universal mistakes including “not designing for the whole cycle of the year, forgetting to master plan and look at the big picture and, perhaps most importantly, neglecting to assemble a great team.”
The first of these common pitfalls is to have too much of a focus on how the landscape will look in the spring and summer. These are the seasons people visualize when they conceptualize a garden, because when it’s warm all the plants are blooming and decked out with foliage. However, according to Altgelt, “a great garden works all year round, reflecting beautifully the cycle of the seasons. While a really skilled designer will pay equal attention to all four seasons, I have commonly seen even design professionals make the mistake of over-emphasizing spring and summer interest with not enough to keep the garden beautiful and inspiring through the fall and winter.” However, if anything, it’s the long cold seasons when we really need inspiration from our landscape the most! This is particularly the case in the Denver/Boulder area, because our harsh weather can start early and end late, interspersed with many nice days. A landscape that is beautiful in any weather will be much appreciated here.
Tom lists four elements for creating a beautiful four-season garden: sculpting the earth itself; creating rock formations as though they are growing naturally from that sculpted earth; utilizing evergreens; and also including deciduous plants which show interesting colors and shapes after they’ve lost their leaves. Altgelt says, “Combining these four elements artistically will create a beautiful fall and winter garden, while synergistically adding to the spring and summer interest!”
Secondly, it is very common for people to design only a portion of the landscape instead of starting with a master plan. Without having a well thought-out master plan, a homeowner may put in one element of landscaping this year that will conflict with another element they want to put in next year. “This mistake can end up being very costly to the homeowner in the long run.”
One example Tom relates is that really good lighting fixtures can be expensive, so people often delay that purchase while they make small improvements to their landscape. Then, once they have their deck in and trees planted, they think of lighting. Well, now it might be really costly and difficult to put in the wiring, whereas if they had thought it through in advance, the wires could have been laid down easily and inexpensively before other work was completed. Altgelt says, “There are many, many other really expensive consequences I’ve seen which resulted from fragmentary design rather than having a master plan.”
The third most common mistake Altgelt sees, for those who hire a team to assist them, is putting together the wrong team. “To assemble a good team, of course you need to see samples of each individuals’ work and get references, but it doesn’t end there. The key ingredient, which is often missing, is teamwork.” How they communicate and work together, how they inspire each other – their “chemistry” – is crucial.
How do you know whether your team has good teamwork? “One key to good teamwork is: do the professionals truly listen to their client?” The design professionals may need to help the client express his desires for his landscape, in a spirit of co-creation. “Without that co-creative relationship with the client, the landscape designer is more likely to fall back on standard solutions that he has done multiple times in the past, rather than designing a truly inspired work of art that is specific to the people and place the landscape is being created for.” For the best outcome, the landscape contractor and the architect (for new construction and major remodeling) also need to be involved with the landscape design process. Ideally, this team is put together at the very beginning – even before the house is designed.
When these three errors are avoided, the homeowner has the best chance of getting the landscape of his dreams and saving money at the same time. As Altgelt puts it, “Now that’s value that is well worth investing in!
Don’t make the same universal landscape design mistakes many homeowners make! Consult with Tom Altgelt for professional Denver/Boulder landscape design. Get more FREE Denver Colorado landscape design tips here! This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.