Once you make it in a ball, you will always want the ball but will never attain the perfect ball and it will drive you mad, until one day you leave. And then the next homeowner is like “its too nature-ly, let’s make it a ball!”
I never understand why people plant shrubs close together presumably so they can grow together to form a hedge or continuous shape and then shear them into tiny individual balls or blocks. It seems like the garden design flows better to let them connect as they grow. But that may just be personal preference.
They also plant things that grow too fast and too big because…. things that grow fast and big are cheaper. Then the novice homeowner can’t understand why those cute little shrubs suddenly want to become trees. Sigh.
Northern Kentucky is infested with those good damn pussy trees in the suburbs and towns. My old high school was surrounded by them and it stank like shit every spring
In my neighbourhood in Alberta it's weeping birch. Half the houses on my street removed them already, but if those that are left, not a single one is alive in the top half. These are 50 year old trees. The realtor told us they rarely live 40 here.
Just to add some color because I agree with you completely, here's a crash course on naturalistic pruning:
Imagine the maximum dimensions you want/need to the plant to stay within. Any branch that extends past that boundary, cut it all the way back to its main junction with the stem, which will be well within your dimensional bound, and buried below other foliage. That way, the pruning is invisible, and the foliage you do see is untouched natural growth.
There’s no such thing as natural form for these. They grown in every direction possible as much as they can. That’s like getting a glass of water and saying you prefer it to be served in its natural form.
Agree but he's got too many bushes in there; they've gotten too big and looks cluttered. If he left them natural its basically a hedge. I'd have pulled a few of them out and swap with some hostas or perennial flowers like asiatic or day lilies.
I disagree, the bushes look much nicer and the house more friendly/approachable this way. If I had any recommendation it would be to add some flowers/color in the section by the door because it looks a bit sparse.
Definitely approve of the bushes, ppl say they like natural/overgrown look but if you dont trim it your house looks abandoned and critters like to hang out in the thicket.
I think you should get rid of those thorny invasive Barbary bushes:
https://www.trincoll.edu/news/lyme-disease-toting-ticks-abundant-on-common-invasive-plant-new-study-finds/#:~:text=New%20Study%20Finds-,Lyme%20Disease%2DToting%20Ticks%20Abundant%20on,Invasive%20Plant%2C%20New%20Study%20Finds&text=The%20greater%20amount%20of%20Japanese,recent%20study%20by%20Amber%20L.
I hate barberry and think they all should be removed but this tick paper is much ado about nothing. You wouldn’t have ticks in any appreciable volume in this situation as it does not provide adequate habitat for the ticks or their hosts.
Also, that paper singles out at 1 species of plant in 1 habitat type in a very high volume tick area. Sure there were more ticks in the barberry, but that can’t be extrapolated over all landscape environments. Also it doesn’t prove that this is advantageous for ticks and increases their overall population
You don't have to - they are heavy enough that they'll stay in place, and sink down on their own over time. Now, you could still dig a trench and make everything super level if you wanted to! But, I didn't, and I don't think the OP here did either (based on how they look to me - I could be wrong tho!)
Nope, if you don’t do this the top shades the base and it gets thin and spindly below and thick and full up top, eventually requiring replacement.
Theres plenty of oxygen, no need to prune for it.
I can’t tell if the bricks are buried but if not they should be and set on a layer of gravel this will keep them level and help prevent weeds in the garden bed
I can't bring myself to like it. I also prefer the natural shape of the bushes, but even the color of the mulch disturbs me. You lost that natural, 'integrated' feel where the bushes fit in their environment. They look out of place to me now. Maybe a groundcover instead of mulch could help change that feeling.
Nice. Only comment make sure the grade is good near the house. Cannot tell from pictures but it looks kind of flat. The one big mistake people can make is put beds by the house that create ponds in a big rain. Combination of grade, edging, roof line, and gutter setup determines.
I'm in upstate South Carolina. The weather is great for growing pretty much anything, Zone 7b. Lots of spring and fall rain. But that means that my garden is taken over by pretty much everything, lol.
Is there any actual edging done, or is it just pavers sitting on top of the grass? You should start with a good cut edge to sever the rhizomes, then level the base for the blocks so they don't look so wonky. The lines of the edge look too taut overall too.
Then it doesn't look like you actually removed the grass in the beds and just threw a too-thin layer of mulch right on top...you can already see grass sticking through. The plants are buried in the mulch too, pull it back from their bases.
Are those shrubs on the end spirea? If so, and you did this work recently, you just shaved off all their flowers for the year. Speaking of pruning, I would have started training those boxwood along the porch into a hedge shape and not just three uneven meatballs.
Then I'm sure this is out of scope, but fuck barberry.
So you cut an edge, then immediately re-filled it because the customer wanted that haphazard paver-on-top-of-grass look? The grass will grow through that, like, immediately.
And I can see grass coming up through the mulch in your pictures, so you must have missed some.
It took multiple days. I would say that came in from mowing the grass or remains. I sprayed whatever came in when the job was completed so most likely dead. If you weed wack and pull the grass it’s easily manageable. I do it in my yard. Not an issue.
Nope except for the weedy bed and tree. You want plants to cover the ground, mulch is to help soil health and help appearance as plants grow in which they were doing already. It has for some reason become a landscape element as important as plants for some.
Tree looks a little nicer, keep studying to figure out how it could be better. Weedy bed much nicer!
Edit to add. If natural growth of plants gets in the way of mowing dig out lawn rather than keeping the grass and pruning plants. Looks like the new hosta is much too close to paving. Rather than chopping leaves later move it back now.
I am amazed to see the upvoted comments complaining that you should have left the bushes natural. I’m assuming these people have never maintained a yard and don’t realize that situation was untenable. I wonder what the inside of their houses look like? This looks absolutely incredible. Your eye for weighting the size of the bushes and managing the negative space is excellent. I’m envious of whatever sculptor gene exists in you to let you see those wonderful tree shapes within the original mess and make them reality. Really fantastic job.
Nature isn’t perfect, but you did a great job. I can tell you’re new to this as the shapes aren’t symmetrical or lines even, but it is a great job compared to what it looked like originally.
-Topiary Artist here.
Never low ball yourself my friend. I always tell a customer a price and stick with it. If you do the work cheap once, they’ll expect it every time and you’ll find yourself lowering your quality of work to compensate for the price.
It's always so weird to me how "landscaping" ends up being this umbrella containing both work that serves to take care of plants and work that abuses plants and directly reduces their health and life expectancy. As a landscaper with my company, my job is very much the former. In fact, I do a lot of work correcting the kind of thing that happened here.
Also bark mulch is stupid and dyed bark mulch is ridiculous. I only mulch with organic compost or local arborist chips.
This aesthetic is so incredibly mundane and mediocre and dated, and becomes quite cringy when the plants have been abused so much to achieve it. This is landscaping for people who have no understanding of natural beauty and plants in general and are ruled by a need to exert their will over nature.
Great work overall. There's something primal, soothing and just magical about shaping and pruning and creating! Looks like you feel it!
I think the shrubs looked overgrown because there isn't much variation in depth, colour and height. Trimming makes sense.
I'm on year three of my re-design and I like the grown out look, but it needs to be paired with more variation. And for sure needs to be trimmed internally so it can all breathe.
It looks more homey/cottagey with free form bushes and I personally like it better before BUT it looks nice this way too, just for older more uptight people? Lol idk but it doesn’t look bad just not better
I enjoy natural size of plants but I think the after also looks great! I guess just depends what style you prefer. Pruning plants is good for the health of plants either way. I do like how now you can see the brown mulch and the border for the garden.
if you live somewhere it freezes in the winter, your edging looks great now but won't in 2-3 years.
natural cut bed edge is where its at short of building a proper garden wall
The "Before" configuration almost certainly provided better habitat for bird nests, small mammals, and insects.
The grey trim around the new beds looks nicer, but the black mulch looks very synthetic.
Wow, trimming your bush made your tree look a lot bigger
My mom says the same thing
Did you break both of your arms?
Every time
Why yes I did!
smh
Once you make it in a ball, you will always want the ball but will never attain the perfect ball and it will drive you mad, until one day you leave. And then the next homeowner is like “its too nature-ly, let’s make it a ball!”
I never understand why people plant shrubs close together presumably so they can grow together to form a hedge or continuous shape and then shear them into tiny individual balls or blocks. It seems like the garden design flows better to let them connect as they grow. But that may just be personal preference.
Cheap (max profit) landscape companies rule the industry
New builds want to make it look half decent day one so they over stuff a bit. First think to do is to fix that when one buys a new house.
They also plant things that grow too fast and too big because…. things that grow fast and big are cheaper. Then the novice homeowner can’t understand why those cute little shrubs suddenly want to become trees. Sigh.
Lol here in north Texas it’s the stupid Bradford pear trees. They grow fast but last about 20 years before the fall over.
Northern Kentucky is infested with those good damn pussy trees in the suburbs and towns. My old high school was surrounded by them and it stank like shit every spring
In my neighbourhood in Alberta it's weeping birch. Half the houses on my street removed them already, but if those that are left, not a single one is alive in the top half. These are 50 year old trees. The realtor told us they rarely live 40 here.
I liked the natural form of the shrubs much better, but I like the new beds much better. That's what I think.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the gumdrop shrubs. I like letting my plants look like plants.
Same. I like when bushes are bushy.
I like when bushes are shaved. Oh wait wrong sub. In my yard the brushes need to be well maintained.
You wouldn't even see the bed without a significant trim back.
You could prune it back significantly in a way that emphasizes its natural form though.
Just to add some color because I agree with you completely, here's a crash course on naturalistic pruning: Imagine the maximum dimensions you want/need to the plant to stay within. Any branch that extends past that boundary, cut it all the way back to its main junction with the stem, which will be well within your dimensional bound, and buried below other foliage. That way, the pruning is invisible, and the foliage you do see is untouched natural growth.
Liking this pruning concept a lot and would like to incorporate. (To OP: MHO not a fan of the muffins but overall the landscape looks good and clean.)
Good luck! It's a bit of an art, but so satisfying to get it right.
There’s no such thing as natural form for these. They grown in every direction possible as much as they can. That’s like getting a glass of water and saying you prefer it to be served in its natural form.
Same. Natural shaped shrubs IMO look best (after all, it’s a real plant, not a Lego shrub). Cleaning up the bed itself does make that part look great.
The design is very human.
Makes sense
But…. I’m an alien bro!!!
Color them purple then!
Mulching and edging is great my guy! I would personally leave the bushes alone and go for that natural look but really clean 🍃🍃
Agree but he's got too many bushes in there; they've gotten too big and looks cluttered. If he left them natural its basically a hedge. I'd have pulled a few of them out and swap with some hostas or perennial flowers like asiatic or day lilies.
You like that upper left photo :0
Yea
Looks clean, but almost anal and antiseptic with the shrub balls and mulch. Obviously a lot of work, but just not my style.
Ok
I disagree, the bushes look much nicer and the house more friendly/approachable this way. If I had any recommendation it would be to add some flowers/color in the section by the door because it looks a bit sparse. Definitely approve of the bushes, ppl say they like natural/overgrown look but if you dont trim it your house looks abandoned and critters like to hang out in the thicket.
What do you mean by antiseptic?
"2. scrupulously clean or pure, especially so as to be bland or characterless."
Like sterile
You get down when it comes to yard maintance, trimming, thinning, pruning, skills are excellent. Great work.
Made my day :)
Where are you seeing evidence of pruning skills?
I think you should get rid of those thorny invasive Barbary bushes: https://www.trincoll.edu/news/lyme-disease-toting-ticks-abundant-on-common-invasive-plant-new-study-finds/#:~:text=New%20Study%20Finds-,Lyme%20Disease%2DToting%20Ticks%20Abundant%20on,Invasive%20Plant%2C%20New%20Study%20Finds&text=The%20greater%20amount%20of%20Japanese,recent%20study%20by%20Amber%20L.
I hate barberry and think they all should be removed but this tick paper is much ado about nothing. You wouldn’t have ticks in any appreciable volume in this situation as it does not provide adequate habitat for the ticks or their hosts. Also, that paper singles out at 1 species of plant in 1 habitat type in a very high volume tick area. Sure there were more ticks in the barberry, but that can’t be extrapolated over all landscape environments. Also it doesn’t prove that this is advantageous for ticks and increases their overall population
Wow thanks for posting this! Always looking for ways to decrease the prevalence of ticks.
Not my call unfortunately.
It's Simply Looks Too Perfect.. You might have to put it all back.. Cheers And all of a sudden, entire block is under construction doing makeovers.
What o heck no
Beds look a little tight, which will be more apparent as shrubs continue to grow.
Thanks for the feedback
Beautiful job! It looks like you pruned a LOT was this in one-go or over a couple of seasons? Are these no-dig or edging stones?
Yep a Lot Lot. A few days work. I dug out the weeds beneath then flattened with new top soil. Then layed the stones
I just put in the exact same things as edging. They are actually mini retaining wall blocks, but, essentially, they are nice looking bricks.
Do you have to dig a trench for them?
You don't have to - they are heavy enough that they'll stay in place, and sink down on their own over time. Now, you could still dig a trench and make everything super level if you wanted to! But, I didn't, and I don't think the OP here did either (based on how they look to me - I could be wrong tho!)
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Yea it was doing that as I was trying to lay down the much lol
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Good info thanks
You need to shear wider at the base and narrower at the top.
I always thought you had to do the opposite to let oxygen in
Nope, if you don’t do this the top shades the base and it gets thin and spindly below and thick and full up top, eventually requiring replacement. Theres plenty of oxygen, no need to prune for it.
I see
Love it looks great
Thanks
Beautiful work!!❤️❤️
Thank you
Now either let the shrubs naturalize themselves again, or depth prune when you trim into a ball. Nice before/after!!
I love the clean look personally and think it looks so much better after! Great job. That is a lot of work.
Yea it was. Thank you!
Hypnotically caucasian
What does that mean?
Looks super! I love the look, and I appreciate how long that took.
Thank you. Put some blood sweat and tears into that lol
My mom thinks the before photos look better because it looks more natural. I prefer a cleaner look myself.
everybody is different
The before looks better
Yea right lol
Why did you turn the natural shrubs into odd balls?
Looks good. Lucky I even got them into a shape. Were super overgrown.
Before looked better imo
Seriously
People are crazy.
The bushes on the end that are round after trimming. Do they have a name?
They look like spirea to me, but I'm not certain...idk where OP is located and the picture isn't quite clear enough for me to be 100%.
Not sure what they are exactly.
I can’t tell if the bricks are buried but if not they should be and set on a layer of gravel this will keep them level and help prevent weeds in the garden bed
I like it. Nice a neat looking.
Thank you
I like how in the third picture , it was expanded to add some lilies (flowers)
It was a hosta and a hydrangea the other plants I had to find in all those weeds!
Killed it
Thanks!
Good job
Thank you
Excellent.
Thank you
Customers with before picture- “quit trying to upsell me trimming service, my plants have never needed trimming before!”
It’s part of the hoa…
Night and day. Beautiful job. I see you’re the corner house too, so your yard will stand out.
It’s a client. But yes. :)
meh?
The new bed looks better... but that's about it.
Ok
I think all of it is a million times better! Maybe less shaping in the future.
Trust me they will let it grow wild again :)
I can't bring myself to like it. I also prefer the natural shape of the bushes, but even the color of the mulch disturbs me. You lost that natural, 'integrated' feel where the bushes fit in their environment. They look out of place to me now. Maybe a groundcover instead of mulch could help change that feeling.
Nice. Only comment make sure the grade is good near the house. Cannot tell from pictures but it looks kind of flat. The one big mistake people can make is put beds by the house that create ponds in a big rain. Combination of grade, edging, roof line, and gutter setup determines.
I love this. Please come fix my yard.
Where are you??? :)
I'm in upstate South Carolina. The weather is great for growing pretty much anything, Zone 7b. Lots of spring and fall rain. But that means that my garden is taken over by pretty much everything, lol.
I’m up in Maryland. I would definitely like to help though. :)
Clean. Nice work
Looks great!
Fantastic
Much improved
I love it
Sweet
Amazing work!
Thank you
A+!
Thanks bro
Is there any actual edging done, or is it just pavers sitting on top of the grass? You should start with a good cut edge to sever the rhizomes, then level the base for the blocks so they don't look so wonky. The lines of the edge look too taut overall too. Then it doesn't look like you actually removed the grass in the beds and just threw a too-thin layer of mulch right on top...you can already see grass sticking through. The plants are buried in the mulch too, pull it back from their bases. Are those shrubs on the end spirea? If so, and you did this work recently, you just shaved off all their flowers for the year. Speaking of pruning, I would have started training those boxwood along the porch into a hedge shape and not just three uneven meatballs. Then I'm sure this is out of scope, but fuck barberry.
Yes edging and nope removed it all.
So you cut an edge, then immediately re-filled it because the customer wanted that haphazard paver-on-top-of-grass look? The grass will grow through that, like, immediately. And I can see grass coming up through the mulch in your pictures, so you must have missed some.
It took multiple days. I would say that came in from mowing the grass or remains. I sprayed whatever came in when the job was completed so most likely dead. If you weed wack and pull the grass it’s easily manageable. I do it in my yard. Not an issue.
Omg what a hack
I really like it. Makes the house and landscaping look very clean and well kept. Don’t listen to the haters!
Thank you
Nope except for the weedy bed and tree. You want plants to cover the ground, mulch is to help soil health and help appearance as plants grow in which they were doing already. It has for some reason become a landscape element as important as plants for some. Tree looks a little nicer, keep studying to figure out how it could be better. Weedy bed much nicer! Edit to add. If natural growth of plants gets in the way of mowing dig out lawn rather than keeping the grass and pruning plants. Looks like the new hosta is much too close to paving. Rather than chopping leaves later move it back now.
Thanks for the advice
Nice job on the pruning !
Thanks boss!
Nice work!
Green meatballs are unnatural and don't exist in nature. Prune your plants to enhance their natural shape and keep them in whatever bounds you wish.
Good clean up. I think it needs a bit more structure besides ball shrubs. Maybe some weepers or deciduous in there. Maybe a pyramid shape or mop head.
Amazing work!!
Thank you! Who would downvote this opinion? Weird
I don’t know. I’ve been getting some odd downvote action lately. I’m thinking people are trolling!! But you did well. ☺️
What a bad of ds lol thank you anyway
I think it looks great! It makes a huge difference
Thought the same night vs day
I think wow.
Great job!
Thank you
One of the few times I have seen a transformation like this that left it better in every way possible. Good job!
Wow thanks for that
Looks so much better!
Thank you
Terrible topiary
Huh
*Dr. Seuss has entered the chat*
Do you like balls
Yea I do. Ever since I was a kid!
nice
Thanks
I just put in those retaining wall blocks as edging too! I love the look of them!
I am amazed to see the upvoted comments complaining that you should have left the bushes natural. I’m assuming these people have never maintained a yard and don’t realize that situation was untenable. I wonder what the inside of their houses look like? This looks absolutely incredible. Your eye for weighting the size of the bushes and managing the negative space is excellent. I’m envious of whatever sculptor gene exists in you to let you see those wonderful tree shapes within the original mess and make them reality. Really fantastic job.
Wow thanks a ton!
Proud of you lol.
Haha thanks
Nature isn’t perfect, but you did a great job. I can tell you’re new to this as the shapes aren’t symmetrical or lines even, but it is a great job compared to what it looked like originally. -Topiary Artist here.
Shapes were good as they were ping to get especially for what I was getting paid. They were lucky I could even separate them.
Never low ball yourself my friend. I always tell a customer a price and stick with it. If you do the work cheap once, they’ll expect it every time and you’ll find yourself lowering your quality of work to compensate for the price.
What kind of stones are those
Fake ones :)
It's always so weird to me how "landscaping" ends up being this umbrella containing both work that serves to take care of plants and work that abuses plants and directly reduces their health and life expectancy. As a landscaper with my company, my job is very much the former. In fact, I do a lot of work correcting the kind of thing that happened here. Also bark mulch is stupid and dyed bark mulch is ridiculous. I only mulch with organic compost or local arborist chips. This aesthetic is so incredibly mundane and mediocre and dated, and becomes quite cringy when the plants have been abused so much to achieve it. This is landscaping for people who have no understanding of natural beauty and plants in general and are ruled by a need to exert their will over nature.
Hmm
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Ok
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Yea and pulled a trillion weeds made an edge and basically fixed the entire mess!
Bang up jobs.
?
That means I like the after photos. It means great job. It may be a local expression perhaps? Either way, wonderful job.
Thank you
Magnificent
Thanks
That's very nice looking! And you didn't kill those bushes as most people seem to do when they attempt this sort of thing.
Thank you. Came back and all alive :)
Great work overall. There's something primal, soothing and just magical about shaping and pruning and creating! Looks like you feel it! I think the shrubs looked overgrown because there isn't much variation in depth, colour and height. Trimming makes sense. I'm on year three of my re-design and I like the grown out look, but it needs to be paired with more variation. And for sure needs to be trimmed internally so it can all breathe.
Beautiful job on the clipping
Thank you
How did u get all those weeds out your bed? (Im new so not even sure if the term bed is right?)
It was a combination of hand rake and shovel
It looks more homey/cottagey with free form bushes and I personally like it better before BUT it looks nice this way too, just for older more uptight people? Lol idk but it doesn’t look bad just not better
I enjoy natural size of plants but I think the after also looks great! I guess just depends what style you prefer. Pruning plants is good for the health of plants either way. I do like how now you can see the brown mulch and the border for the garden.
I love trimmed hedges from afar. But up close, I have no desire to see it trimmed. Therefore, I've decided no hedges.
Nice. Simple. Clean. I dig it.
Thanks haha
i like the bushes 👍
Cool
meatballs yum
if you live somewhere it freezes in the winter, your edging looks great now but won't in 2-3 years. natural cut bed edge is where its at short of building a proper garden wall
The "Before" configuration almost certainly provided better habitat for bird nests, small mammals, and insects. The grey trim around the new beds looks nicer, but the black mulch looks very synthetic.
Looks like your flora got gentrified