The Complete Guide to Landscape Design, Renovation, and Maintenance
by Cass Turnbull

INTRODUCTION
This book was not written for gardeners, although I'm sure it contains many hints and tips useful to professional and amateur gardeners. This book was written for people with a problem. The problem is what to do with their shrubs, their trees, or their yards.

As a professional gardener I get many phone calls from troubled homeowners. I often hear, "It's all just gotten too big," or, "It's out of control!" They can't make any sense out of the pruning books they buy, the illustrations don't look anything like what's in their back yards. So, I've written this book to help people renovate overgrown and overplanted yards, not just to show them how to prune individual plants.

Frequently I work on yards that have been previously worked on, or should I say, worked over, by homeowners or the people they've hired to cut it all back. Unfortunately, this method of yard control backfires. The trees and shrubs regrow rapidly and wildly. This book includes information on rehabilitative pruning, that is, how to get them back into good shape if they have been previously badly pruned.

Most people have mastered the fundamentals of daily life by age thirty. They know how to buy a car, maintain a car, or where to go to have it fixed. They know how to choose their groceries, fix simple meals, and have located their favorite restaurants. But gardening fundamentals are not as readily or commonly understood. So, I have included general descriptions of how to successfully manage the average landscape. For example, the HOW TO MAINTAIN section explains what people need to know about weeding, watering, fertilizing, and pest control. It is not the complete and final word on these topics, but it should give the home gardener the basics upon which to build. And I have, I hope, included enough information to help you make intelligent choices when hiring work to be done.

Poor design is at the root of most yard owner unhappiness. Pruning and fertilizing are often used, unsuccessfully, in an attempt to compensate for poor design and bad plant choices. Also, many people have empty or dull or disagreeable yards and wish to make improvements themselves. They lack the money to hire a full service landscape company, and they need more information in order to choose a designer/gardener to assist with a do-it-yourself project. With some basic knowledge, a little courage, and a lot of physical work, they could transform their yards into true gardens. Remodeling the outdoor spaces can be as easy and rewarding as any home remodeling project. Perhaps "easy" isn't the word. Let's say "achievable."

So, this book is for people with overplanted, overgrown, malpruned, poorly planned, or deadly dull landscapes. If you are one of these people, this book is for you. It is divided into four sections: HOW TO PRUNE; HOW TO RENOVATE; HOW TO REDESIGN, and HOW TO MAINTAIN your yard.

You may discover an added bonus. After you eliminate the clutter and confusion of an overgrown yard or redesign and install a new one, your yard may become a source of pride and solace, as it protects you from the harsh urban world. Its greenness and aliveness may serve to refresh and amuse you, and you may come to feel toward your shrubs as you feel toward your pets--that they are alive and do things that give you pleasure.

Beyond controlling it, is relating to it and understanding it (it being Nature). It is truly the same Nature that exists in the forests and jungles, and it can and does exist in your own backyard.

The public is, I am convinced, unaware of the source of joy that exists in the 1000 square feet or so of land around their homes. Joy being a commodity in short supply these days, that land may be worth a second look. Your yard is action packed, in a slow motion sort of way. It is full of sex, violence and mystery. You just can't see it, yet.

Each section of this book includes mistakes to avoid. I feel that a lot can be learned from this approach. People persistently try to make plants do what they will not, thinking that shrubs and trees are infinitely malleable. Plants will not, can not, be made to do whatever we want. There are rules to the game of gardening. Once you know the rules, you will find that plants are very forgiving. If you merely stay away from the big mistakes in your yard, you are more than half way home. After reading this book, you must be bold and begin to make decisions on your own. There are no absolute right answers (a situation that drives neophytes crazy); there is only a series of choices. Prune this or that branch? Move this shrub? Get rid of that plant? Prune the lower limbs of a tree or shorten the shrub beneath it?

The principles of gardening are the same everywhere, only the names (species) of the plants change. So, don't be stymied by unfamiliar shrub or other names. If I make reference to a tree or shrub that you don't recognize, rest assured that you have their counterparts in your town which will respond in similar ways. Your local County Extension Agent or nursery person should be able to help sort out the particulars of your specific plant material. I have included lessons on speaking and understanding gardenese to help you communicate.

I've tried to keep the book brief enough to get you through it before setting you loose with loppers and chainsaw. After reading it you will have, I hope, enough fundamental knowledge to keep you out of trouble until practice and observation teach you the rest. For those who just want to know what to do, not why or how, I have added a summary for each chapter subject.

How to Begin: Things to Keep in Mind
When my former partner and I used to arrive at the scene of a tangled, overgrown yard we had contracted to restore, we would be totally overwhelmed and would invariably exclaim, "What a wretched mess!" Then, like the cavalry, we would head in to do battle. I've been doing this sort of work for years, and when I see some places I am still at a loss as where to begin, and I certainly can't visualize the end product in its final state of orderliness. I want to turn and run. My head is swimming and I'm confused. At this point I begin to pick out areas and jobs that I know must be done. This narrows my focus and gives me a starting point. Like so much in life, it's the getting started that's tough.

The Worst First Rule
You must make yourself begin. When you narrow your sights to a section, a shrub, or a tree, you then begin with what is obviously wrong or the worst. Forget the big picture for a while. Weeding and dead wooding are great warm-up exercises until what else needs to be done occurs to you.

I made up the "Head For the Worst First" rule, and I use it a lot. With gardening in general and pruning in particular, it's never all done. It's not like fixing a car or a house. Many times you must wait for nature to fix her or your mistakes. This built-in delay also drives homeowners crazy. If what needs to happen is a healthier plant, or if a plant needs to grow and fill in, it cannot be fixed with a pair of loppers. Still, if you follow the "Start With the Worst" rule and then step back, you will, more often than not, see dramatic improvement.

At other times you will be at a loss as to what to do and you may think of the old saying, "Wander, ponder, and prune." This refers to the time good gardeners spend walking around the yard staring at plants and their situations, trying to see what needs to be done next. When pruning and renovating the overgrown yard, you should make tentative decisions while viewing from outside the shrubs. You do the work from inside them. As you prune your way through the shrubbery, remember to step back out to the lawn every so often to check your progress.

Another adage used by pruners is, "The sign of a good job is one that you can't tell has been done." This is because a well-pruned, well-maintained yard looks as if it's naturally well ordered, not chopped. I know of a landscape supervisor who once told his crew, "You can do whatever you want to the plants as long as I can't tell you've been there." This included dramatic size reduction in some cases. Good pruning is invisible, which is one reason it's not done much: in other words, it's hard to copy.

I define good pruning as pruning which generally enhances the plant's health and promotes its natural form (and it indirectly makes the plant more beautiful). Bad pruning is defined as pruning that runs counter to the plant's natural habit or shape and is a drag on its health, as evidenced by increased deadwood, abnormal suckering, and decreased vigor. Such pruning eventually makes plants look unnatural and sickly. At the edges of the science and the art of pruning are those forms that are the exceptions to the rules--these are the tight shearing of topiary (plant sculpture), pleaching (weaving) of trees, pollarding (lollipop trees), bonsai, cloud pruning, espalier, and the like. I recommend that all novices stay away from these specialties until it becomes clear what they are doing, unless they've inherited or want to design a yard specifically for these purposes. These are generally high maintenance garden practices and look rather pretentious or silly in the middle of an average yard.

SUMMARY
1. You can't fix a yard all at once. Just go for the worst, follow the rules, and it will look better. Come back next year and do more.
2. A good pruning and renovating job is invisible.

Forward to Pruning: Gardening is a Virus