An important part of her job as horticulturalist and client liaison at Hill ‘n Dale Landscaping is education, according to Elizabeth Hitchens. The Terra Nova based firm has been enhancing the beauty outside for 30 years with custom hardscaping, garden design, irrigation and lighting. Hitchens, who was trained at the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, says people are gradually becoming more ecologically aware, but not everyone has yet embraced the movement away from massive lawns toward environments that are more accommodating to insects and wildlife.
Hitchens notes that the grass in your lawn is actually made up of exotic, invasive plants which were originally imported for animal fodder. Years ago, she says, a drive in the country would result in a bug splattered windshield. While fewer bugs on the windshield may be welcome, Hitchens says there has been a corresponding reduction in the population of songbirds.
“We need to plant less invasive, more beneficial landscapes,” she says. Hitchens points to the area around the Tower of London as a shining example of more sustainable design. “What was once all lawn has now been planted with wildflowers.”
Locally, Hitchens has seen an increase in people inquiring about food forests; sensory gardens which can include visual, auditory and tactile stimuli to help with mindfulness and stress relief; pollinator gardens and meadow lawns which benefit the environment; drought resistant gravel gardens; and rain gardens designed to allow heavy downpours to penetrate the soil.
When Hill ‘n Dale takes on a new landscape design client, Hitchens says, the first phase of the process is a long in-depth questionnaire that helps identify what the client wants down the road. She recommends this type of planning for anyone starting to design a landscape.
“It prompts you to think of things you might not have considered,” she says. “Lots of problems with drainage can be dealt with at the design stage.
You can run power or water lines to accommodate an eventual pool or cabana. It doesn’t cost much but then it’s there.”
A good landscape design, she says, can be executed in stages, but it’s important to have a vision of what it will be when it’s done.
For someone taking on an existing garden, she suggests living with it for the first year to look at what is growing now, what you like, and what you would prefer to edit.
“If you have a view, think about what part of that view you want to preserve,” says Hitchens, adding, if you currently look out on an open field but will eventually have neighbours, you can plant now for privacy down the road.
Good landscape lighting can be an important element of making your outdoor space feel like an extension of your living area. Hitchens encourages the use of warm lighting because it interferes less with the circadian rhythms of insects and amphibians and their mating habits.
She says people are becoming more aware of invasive plants, many of which used to be garden favourites. Gout weed, periwinkle and lily of the valley are all invasive, and burning bush may soon be added to that list.
“They have berries which birds eat and then spread into the woods where they crowd out native plants like trilliums,” says Hitchens, who advocates using at least 30 per cent native plants in any landscape, and supplementing with non-invasive ornamental plants for visual interest.
Hill ‘n Dale services clients from Collingwood and The Blue Mountains to Caledon. They help with everything from small gardens to multi-year installations which can cost millions. In addition to new design and build projects, they offer a landscape maintenance service. As a horticulturalist, Hitchens says it’s nice to be able to keep the shrubs trimmed and the plants healthy to keep the design on the same visual path.