I would like to welcome Susan Gallagher of Terra Firma Gardens as today's guest blogger.
Susan talks frankly and passionately about the lack of quality in many of the gardens being designed and built across the nation.
Who wants an ugly garden?
But people are having them built right now all over the country. We in the landscape gardening business have the responsibility of creating beautiful gardens that uplift people’s lives, bring the healing effects of nature to their doorstep and provide a refuge from life’s stresses.
For many the pause and respite that their garden affords, is one of the only spiritual experiences they have in their frantic lives. However, all too often the completed garden falls short of reaching these goals.
In my 15 years as a garden designer (and now also a contractor) I have seen many completed gardens that cost the client a lot of money and they look like a proper dog’s breakfast in terms of aesthetics and design.
For exactly the same price they could have had a garden that is both well designed and adds a lot more value to their property. These gardens are often built by landscapers (and their name is legion!) with no design aptitude whatsoever and no clue about aesthetics and geometry, though they may have a good plant vocabulary and often possess experience.
But the lines are all wrong, they are using cheap materials that don’t blend with the house, the garden does not ‘read’ as a cohesive picture, and it’s certainly a very far cry from beautiful.
These landscapers will then proudly display pictures of these gardens on their websites, and not only that but these awful pictures will win them further clients!
And this highlights a major part of the problem for those of us that want to promote design excellence in the landscape industry – the poor design work needs to be recognised in its awfulness, and we need to raise the public’s expectations to understand that better design is available.
If they could be a little more discerning in their choice of landscaper their garden would be, not just a little, but many times more beautiful.
There is such a huge range of quality out there even among the legitimate companies who have insurance and pay their taxes.
Membership of the various professional trade organisations means next to nothing, and even less than that when one is trying to find a company who can design a garden as well as build it proficiently.
Let’s face it, many if not most landscapers do not have a scooby about beauty and design, they don’t have the education or background and it’s a rare few who possess natural talent.
Almost all of them do not realise it either so they will argue vehemently otherwise. That is the norm out there, and applies perhaps to as many as 80% of landscape contractors.
It’s a nightmare for the public, whose projects are more often than not a missed opportunity.
I suggest that landscape companies should be held under closer scrutiny by their peers and other design professionals in the field in order to weed out and highlight to the public that they can avoid an ugly garden!
I would like to see a professional landscape association that offers membership by invitation only to design led companies, set up to promote design excellence.
This will make landscapers pay more attention to good design and it will also educate the public to raise their expectations!
129 Maxwell Drive |Pollokshields | Glasgow | G41 5AE.
Email: info@terrafirmagardens.com
Web: Terra Firma Gardens
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