Landscaping tips for upstate SC and Charlotte, NC

Published at AssociatedContent.com on June 14, 2008

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Just as a lovely picture is enhanced with the appropriate frame, landscaping provides a border to embellish a beautiful home.

Even if you have a small budget, landscaping can add something for all the senses -- greenery for the eyes, blossoms for the nose and water fountains for the ears.

“You don’t have to do it all at once,” said local landscaper Ken Plyler. Your landscape design can be a work in progress. The most important thing, he said, is to have good anchor plants on the corners. He suggested Nelly Stevens or Foster hollies as focal plants. “You need something substantial on the corners,” said Plyler, owner of Ken Plyler Landscaping in Lancaster. After that you can lie out the beds and do even more if your budget allows.

When considering your landscaping plan, first determine whether the space gets morning or afternoon sun. This dictates the type of plants to use. With morning sun, there are more options, Plyler said, since only hardy plants can take hot afternoon sun. If your landscaping space gets that burning late-day sun, Plyler suggested using plants like hollies and juniper. If you are working with morning sun, try dwarf gardenias or spreading yew.

Even if your area is in the shade, you can use a shade-loving plant like hostas. “People like those,” said Plyler. “They come up in the spring with a delicate leaf,” he said, describing the plant. Linda Tominson of backyardgardener.com, points out that plants grow more slowly in the shade so you will want to get large plants. “Plants often grow differently in the shade and some experimentation with size and blooming times are in order,” she said on her Website.

One of the most popular blooms for shady areas in South Carolina are azaleas, according to Clemson University’s Home and Garden Information Center website. However, they don’t do well in heavy shade. Try planting them under pine trees since the filtered shade and acidic soil are ideal conditions for growth, according to the Website. Don’t plant them under trees like maple, ash and oaks with shallow roots since the trees and plants will both compete for moisture and nutrients.

Kip Beam of the Clemson Extension Service said the first thing to keep in mind when choosing plants is accessibility. “I could give you a list of 1,000 plants, but it will do no good if they are not available,” he said. He suggested looking at plants, choosing the ones you like and then cross-referencing them with a book. He recommends “Landscape Plants of the Southeast” by Gordon Halfacre. “I reference it all the time,” he said. The book divides plants by height, deciduous versus evergreen, acid-loving, water-loving, sun or shade plants and much more.

Another excellent reference is the Clemson extension Home and Garden Information Center Website (http://HGIC.Clemson.edu), which contains detailed information on how to plant flowers, vegetables, container gardens, and special gardens that will attract butterflies or birds.
Plyler agreed that many do-it-yourselfers choose the wrong type of foliage. “You can spend a lot of time and expense with plants that aren’t conducive to your particular lawn,” he said.

Another thing to keep in mind are the growth habits of the plants you’re using. For example, many people will force plants with unruly growth patterns into rigid shapes. “You can’t make one plant look like another,” said Plyler. “Each plant has its own beauty.” For example, yellow bells (Forsythia) have a rugged natural shape, but many homeowners round them off like shrubs, forcing them into an unnatural shape. “I don’t want to offend anyone who does that,” said Plyler, but he likes to maintain the natural shape. “The beauty of those plants is the way they grow,” he said. He suggested, instead, choosing a plant like Carissa holly, which is good for shaping.

Another plant that is often forced into an unnatural shape is the Magnolia, he said. Although many people like to cut them high so the trees have long trunks with no branches, Plyler prefers the natural beauty of the low-hanging branches. He pointed out that with such a variety of trees available, it is easy to simply choose a different type of tree with the natural shape you want.

Probably the most important thing to keep in mind when choosing plants is the type of soil they will be growing in. “I had a customer who planted shrubs two years in a row and two years in a row they died, so he called me,” said Plyler. The problem was the soil.

“People don’t consider the type of soil in their lawn,” he said. “You need to consider that before planting things,” he added, mentioning the red clay in this area. “You have to do something to it so plants will look good,” he said. “You can amend the soil.”

Although this may sound complicated, it simply involves adding mushroom compost, topsoil or fertilizer. And that’s what Plyler learned to do when he took a horticulture course at York Tec. “There’s so much to learn to do it the right way,” he said. “It’s been very valuable.”

Plyler’s dedication to his work shows in his customer service policy. Not only does he design and create a landscape, he shows clients how to maintain it as well. “They can pick up the phone and ask any time,” he said. “I could have done the landscaping job four years ago and I still support you.” Just like any artist, Plyler takes pride in what he does. “It’s my work and I would rather it continue to look its best,” he said.

You don’t have to be wealthy to take advantage of the expertise of a landscaper. Plyler works with clients who want a complete landscaping overhaul all at once, those who want the work done bit by bit on a budget and those who just want some advice on a small space.

“Small places are wonderful,” he said. “You can take a small amount of money and make a small place look wonderful.” He even designs balcony gardens for apartment dwellers. He suggests using ivy, which works well in planters, and pansies in the fall and winter. Beam said the Home and Garden Website has a leaflet on container gardening that can be downloaded free. It has general rules of thumb for growing vegetables, flowers or plants in containers outside or indoors.

Planters are not just for balconies, either, according to Plyler, who uses them in his designs. Not only do they allow creativity in choosing the planters themselves, they add variety since the plants can be changed seasonally. “You can stay hands-on even if you have limited time,” he said. Just be sure to add particles that absorb and hold moisture since potted plants dry out more quickly than those planted in your back yard.

Some other special situations that need individual attention are homeowners with pools or small children. For example, when landscaping around a pool, you don’t want anything that looses leaves. “They create a pool maintenance problem,” said Plyler, mentioning a client who had a pool and a crepe myrtle plant. Those with pools should use evergreens that don’t lose leaves in the fall. Another good design element is stones. “They’re wonderful around a pool because the wind won’t pick them up,” said Plyler.

Families with children want to avoid using plants that have sharp leaves or thorns such as barberries and certain kinds of hollies. “They have sharp thorns, “ said Plyler. “I get scratched up when I put them in.”

Although water features are trendy, many people are wary of them because they can attract mosquitoes, said Plyler. Beam pointed out that the water in a birdbath needs to be changed at least one a week so it won’t grow stagnant.
“People install them and don’t take care of them, then uninstall them because they look bad,” said Beam. BT pellets, which kill bacteria, should be used with any garden feature that incorporates water. Beam also pointed out that there are mosquito-eating fish that can be added to garden ponds.

He thinks people may be worried about standing water after last year’s flooding. “We had 50 inches of rain in the first six months,” he said. Small mud puddles turned into large ponds and the BT pellets didn’t work. Rather than using pesticides, which can run off into the soil, Beam said mosquito fish is the way to go. The Home and Garden Website has information on where to get these fish, he said.