Competencies 17.00-21.00

Landscaping Careers

What is Landscaping?
 Landscaping is a profession that includes designing, installing, and maintaining the outdoor human environment.
 There are 3 branches of the landscaping industry
 Landscape Architecture
 Landscape Contractors
 Landscape Maintenance

Landscape Architects
 Licensed professions
 Conceptualize and plan the outdoor environment or landscape for residential and commercial clients.
 Landscape designers usually do actual drawings for residential landscapes.

Landscape Contractors
 Carry out the installation or actual construction of the landscape plan
 Often use subcontractors to do special work such as pools, electrical work, stonework, etc.

Landscape Maintenance
 Extended care of existing landscapes
 The care and upkeep of the landscape after installation

Design-build Firms
 Landscape businesses that handle everything from the initial contact with the client through design and construction as well as long-term care and maintenance.

Landscape Nursery Worker
 Professional who sells and installs landscape plants and related materials.

Types of Landscape Plans

Types of Landscape Plans
 There are three types of plans used in landscaping
 Sequential
 Computer Assisted
 Graphics

Landscape Plans

Sequential Plans
 Each part of the plan is increasingly more specific and detailed.
 Includes
 Functional diagrams
 Preliminary designs
 Final Plans

Sequential Plans-Functional
Diagrams

Begin the arrangement of the client’s program on the site.

Called “bubble diagrams” because they use loosely drawn freeform shapes to represent areas or spaces
 Help the designer make decisions concerning layout and sizes and the use of each area.

Sequential Plans-Preliminary
Designs

Break the “bubbles” to show first draft vision of how each landscape area will be shaped.
 Landscape is given its form, type of materials to be used, and application of landscape design principles.
 Simple without real details, but the horizontal and vertical relationships between objects and areas are now included.
 A number of these may be shown before final plans are made.

Sequential Plans-Final Plans
 Use suggestions and reactions of the client to make a master drawing that is graphically detailed and specific in its intent for the landscape.
 Include identified plants, paving patterns, and other specific information.
 Can also include construction drawings for the landscape contractor or subcontractor
 Graphics are designed to impress

Computer Assisted
 Also called drawing board
 CAD (Computer
Aided Design) systems are accelerated drafting systems, designed to draw landscape plans using a personal computer.

Graphics
 Consists of letters and numbers
 Free-hand lettering
 Mechanical lettering
 Computer lettering

Landscape Principles and
Procedures

Principles of Design
 Balance
 Focalization of Interest
 Simplicity
 Rhythm and Line
 Proportion
 Unity

Balance
 Materials are distributed evenly on opposite sides of a central axis
 Three types of balance:
 Symmetric
 Asymmetric
 Proximal/distal
 Macro-range-the viewer sees the landscape from the most distant vantage point
 Closer range-the views from other locations not as distant

Symmetric Balance
 One side is a reflective mirror image of the opposite side
 Most formal type of balance

Asymmetric Balance
 Each side has as much interest as the other
 Not a duplicate of the other side

Proximal/Distal Balance
 Balances right and left as well as near and far

Focalization of Interest
 Selects and positions visually strong items in the landscape composition to create focal points
 Draws the eye of the viewer to one major feature in each use area
 Example: corner planting

Simplicity
 Seeks to make viewers comfortable within the landscape
 Excludes any unnecessary changes in shape, color, direction, etc.

Rhythm and Line
 Repeating something at a standard interval or pattern creates rhythm
 Lines establish the shape and form of the landscape
 Replicating strong existing lines such as the lines of a house or a pool
 Functions of line plantings include foundation plantings, block a view, frame a view, and provide privacy.

Proportion
 The size relationships between all the features of the landscape including vertical, horizontal, and spatial relationships

Proportion
 Will maintain proper proportional relationships in a landscape between
 Buildings and people
 Buildings and plants
 Plants and people
 Plants and plants
 Masses and soils

Unity
 All the separate parts contribute to the creation of the total design
 Ties together individual parts of each area by:
 Repeating prominent colors
 Repeating construction materials
 Continuing interior design themes to outdoor rooms
 Repeat plant species
 Raise patios, decks, and porches to door level

Landscape Processes
 Process is a sequence of steps to reach a goal
 There are three parts to the landscape process
 Project development
 Project maintenance
 Design

Project Development Process
 Includes determining need or objective
 Design process
 Accepting the design
 Contracting and subcontracting
 Landscaping
 Acceptance
 Billing and payment

Project Maintenance Process
 Determining need or desire
 Selecting landscape maintenance company which assesses the needs and presents a proposal
 If the proposal is accepted, the company schedules and does the work
 Customer is billed

Design Process
 Site analysis and program analysis

Interior Landscaping

Interior Landscaping
 Called interior plantscaping or interiorscaping

Purposes of Interior Landscaping
 Add color
 Add textures
 Add softness
 Add life
 Increase employee productivity
 Decrease employee absenteeism
 Add oxygen
 Provide herbs for cooking, medicine, or fragrance
 Add beauty and comfort by combining all of the previously mentioned purposes

Benefits of Interior Landscaping
 Adds color, texture, softness, life and oxygen to interior plantscape
 Increases employee productivity
 Decreases employee absences from work
 Provides herbs for cooking, fragrance, or medicine

Disadvantages of Interior
Landscaping
 Reduced light
 Reduced root system
 Dependant upon people for watering
 Build-up of soluble salts from fertilizer
 Plugging stomata from dust on leaves
 Damage from heating, air conditioning, and cleaning chemicals

Disadvantages of Interior
Landscaping
 Growing medium
 Only plants that will grow inside can be used
 Picking or breaking leaves by people using the interior building area

Benefits of Exterior Landscaping
 Adds color, texture, and life
 Adds aesthetic value (beauty)
 Adds economic value to property


Adds comfort (shade)
Adds privacy —borders, fences, etc.
 Helps prevent erosion
 Can use larger exterior plants
 Rain natural soil provide most of required water
 Gets natural light

Disadvantages of Exterior
Landscaping
 May get too much rain and drown
 Natural soils may have diseases, insects, improper pH, etc.
 Natural soils may be shallow or rocky
 Natural outdoor soils may be subject to erosion
 Weed and insect control is more difficult
 Large areas of landscaping costs more
 More labor is required to establish outdoor landscape

Methods of Planting Ornamental
Plants

Planting Ornamental Plants
 Tools vary depending upon type and size of plants from bulb planter, trowel, spade, shovel to power augers and front end loaders.

Planting Ornamental Plants
 Hole should be larger than plant roots and soil prepared so that new roots will grow in it.
 Methods of installation are determined by root form whether bare-rooted, balled-andburlapped or containerized

Balled and Burlapped Plants
 Balled and burlapped plants have a round soil ball of roots wrapped in burlap fabric.
 Planted in flat-bottomed, straight-sided hole that is deeper and wider than the ball.
 Backfill soil should fill the hole enough to raise the plant to the level at which it grew in the nursery.
 Loose burlap around top of plant.
 Mounded ring of soil around plant to catch water.

Balled and Burlapped Plants

Containerized Plants
 Use the same type hold, mounded ring, etc. as balled and burlapped.
 In addition, the plant must be removed from the container
 Roots should be unwound or cut at two inch intervals if pot-bound

Bare-rooted Plants
 Have to have a mound or dome in the bottom of the hole to spread roots and direct roots to grow downward.

Planting Ornamental Plants
 Tall plants, even small trees, need to be staked to prevent blowing over.
 Mulching should be done to help retain water, prevent weeds, improve appearance, and minimize temperature fluctuations.
 Water adequately and frequently enough for healthy plants.

Handling Ornamental Plants
 Balled and burlapped plants should be handled by the root ball
 Container grown plants should be handled by the container until removed and then by the root mass