{"id":5232,"date":"2022-06-03T08:00:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/?p=5232"},"modified":"2022-06-13T09:24:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T13:24:39","slug":"excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/excitement\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Is All The Excitement???"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rick Lazzell<\/span><\/p>\n

(This article of Sticks & Stones is best viewed on a desktop)<\/p>\n

I look around at all the landscaping out there (of course I do) and most of it seems repetitious, characterless, and unexciting. Have we gotten complacent in our creativity? Are we too concerned about being like the Joneses?<\/p>\n

A Special Edition STICKS & STONESin cooperation with:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Landsaulptor<\/p>\n

The “Little Green Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 1<\/p>\n

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Photo 3<\/p>\n

Here’s some excitement!<\/p>\n

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Photo 5<\/p>\n

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Photo 7<\/p>\n

The “Cattle Call Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 9<\/p>\n

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Photo 11<\/p>\n

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Photo 13<\/p>\n

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Photo 15<\/p>\n

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Photo 17<\/p>\n

\"Phono<\/p>\n

Photo 19<\/p>\n

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Photo 21<\/p>\n

The “I Can’t Breathe Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 23<\/p>\n

They Tried<\/p>\n

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Photo 25<\/p>\n

Defining Spaces<\/p>\n

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Photo 27<\/p>\n

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Photo 29<\/p>\n

Looks Like a Skinny Park<\/p>\n

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Photo 31<\/p>\n

The “Anaconda Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 33<\/p>\n

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Photo 35<\/p>\n

Hum this song while reading this article: \u201cWhere Have All The Flowers Gone\u201d By Pete Seeger.<\/p>\n

So, what is the deal with the proliferation of all these \u201clittle green hedges\u201d all over the front yard? (Photos 1-4)<\/p>\n

Especially up against the front of the house. I mean, what is attractive about a mass of green velcroed against the house? And it doesn\u2019t matter what color the house is, the hedge is always green.<\/p>\n

What are they trying to hide? There are no ugly foundations to hide anymore.<\/p>\n

Foundation plantings are supposed to help the house blend into the property. A green wall between the house and the additional landscaping and yard is doing exactly the opposite.<\/p>\n

How about adding some interest and excitement \u2013 color, textures and form changes?<\/p>\n

Now here are some examples of landscapes with some excitement! (Photos 5-8)<\/p>\n

This \u201clittle green hedgy thing\u201d does not end there. We have these \u201ccattle call hedges\u201d along front walks.<\/p>\n

(Photos 9-13)<\/p>\n

It’s like you are cattle being herded to the front door \u2013 not allowed to veer off the path and explore.<\/p>\n

Get your body straight to the front door \u2013 pronto.<\/p>\n

And then there is what I like to call the \u201cauthority hedge\u201d.\u00a0 A little green hedge put in place by \u201cthose in charge\u201d to make sure plants don\u2019t escape. (Photos 14-17)<\/p>\n

With an \u201cauthority hedge\u201d you really miss out on adding some plantings to the bed that will add some excitement. I guess if the plants are all leggy and stuff this hedge makes sense. Other than that???<\/p>\n

And there is this notion that if there is a wall in the landscape you must put a \u201clittle green hedge\u201d in front of it or on top of it. It doesn’t matter that they may be hiding an attractive and expensive feature. (Photos 18-22)<\/p>\n

Lastly is the \u201cI can’t breathe hedge\u201d. Those hedges that are planted in a narrow bed between the sidewalk and the garage. (Photos 23 & 24)<\/p>\n

They tried. (Photo 25)<\/p>\n

Those poor plants are hacked back sooo bad that there is no way for them to breathe and they end up dying a slow agonizing death. There are alternative ways to handle this situation and add a little more excitement. (Photo 26)<\/p>\n

Now don\u2019t get me wrong, \u201clittle green hedges\u201d have their place. I’m a big advocate of defining spaces. (Photos 27-30)<\/p>\n

Too often if you look along a street all the yards just blend right into the next yard, into the next and so on. Looks like a skinny park.\u00a0 (Photo 31)<\/p>\n

But we are not done yet! We have the mix of miscellaneous \u201clittle green hedges\u201d.<\/p>\n

Photo 32 is a larger version of the \u201ccattle call hedge\u201d. I’m surprised there are not gaps in the hedge from people falling into them when they get out of their car. What about snow?? Where does it go?<\/p>\n

Then there is the cousin of the anaconda walk, the anaconda hedge. Scary. (Photo 33)<\/p>\n

Also available in the \u201clittle green hedges\u201d category is the \u201cdis-jointed\u201d version. (Photos 34 & 35)<\/p>\n

And the ever so popular duo of hydrangea and boxwood. (Photo 36)<\/p>\n

I understand that a lot of homeowners DO want to look like the Joneses. But you can help bust up this \u201clittle green hedge\u201d calamity by giving clients options and letting them know, with pictures, that excitement is a good thing, not to be scared of.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo 2<\/p>\n

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Photo 4<\/p>\n

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Photo 6<\/p>\n

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Photo 8<\/p>\n

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Photo 10<\/p>\n

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Photo 12<\/p>\n

The “Authority Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 14<\/p>\n

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Photo 16<\/p>\n

The “Little Green Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 18<\/p>\n

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Photo 20<\/p>\n

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Photo 22<\/p>\n

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Photo 24<\/p>\n

… More excitement<\/p>\n

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Photo 26<\/p>\n

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Photo 28<\/p>\n

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Photo 30<\/p>\n

The Large “Cattle Call Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 32<\/p>\n

The “Dis-Jointed Hedge”<\/p>\n

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Photo 34<\/p>\n

The “Hydrangea-Boxwood Hedge”<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo 36<\/p>\n

\"Rick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rick Lazzell (This article of Sticks & Stones is best viewed on a desktop) I look around at all the landscaping out there (of course I do) and most of it seems repetitious, characterless, and unexciting. Have we gotten complacent in our creativity? Are we too concerned about being like the Joneses? A Special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,66,22],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-5232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2022-posts","category-about-you","category-landscaping","tag-rick-lazzell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5232"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5372,"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232\/revisions\/5372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christensensplantcenter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}