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Podcast:  Colleen Edwards interviews Linda Gates, Gates + Associates

We start out the week with Linda Gates of Gates + Associates Landscape Architects, Land Planning and Urban Design.  If you have walked through a revitalized downtown and enjoyed the urban plantscape, taken a break from shopping and noticed the interplay of the retail element and green spaces, or had a visceral reaction to the drive into a college campus, you may well be seeing the kind of work that landscape architects and land planners provide to, as Linda puts it, “put man on the land”.

For Green Month, Linda is focusing her wide-range of interests on home landscaping and the common-sense ways that people can enjoy their yards more, while reducing water and minimizing yard work.  Sound good?  Read on:

According to Linda, one of the biggest mistakes a homeowner can make in selecting plants for landscaping is to mix up plants that are drought tolerant with even a single plant that needs a lot of water.  To keep the water-loving plant looking great, an enormous amount of water is wasted, since the surrounding plants don’t need it.  And when you are at a nursery looking at plants, don’t think that “drought tolerant” is synonymous with xeriscaping, the low-water movement that was popular in the 1990’s that delivered a low and crispy look to people’s yards.

Linda also mentions that people waste a lot of time and energy trimming back plants.  Her thought is that if people would only consider the size of plants at maturity when they are doing the original planting, that most six foot plants wouldn’t get put in front of three foot windows.  Considering that even green waste is not instantly biodegradable, giving more consideration to the size of the plant and its immediate environment makes a lot of sense for conservation.

It appears that plants, like people, react badly to stress.  In Linda’s estimation, planting the right plant in an environment that allows it to thrive (amount of water, sun exposure, companion planting nearby) cuts down on the plant’s need for fertilizer and other additives to encourage its growth in adverse conditions.  In addition, she reminds us that nurseries are great resources for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) ideas, like adding ladybugs to the kitchen garden. An advocate of soap and water in the place of pesticides, Linda suggests that homeowners spend some time with their nursery people asking about how to take care of their yards organically.  Many of their recommendations are simple, cheap and effective—and let you enjoy a thriving home garden.