By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Landscape architect Greg Boyer suggests small garden
"rooms" rather than a wide lawn for most backyards.
WIDE expanses of lawn make a great landscape for a public park, but unless you have ongoing soccer games, they don't create a very comfortable plan for your back yard. Greg Boyer, a landscape architect, says that instead, you should create a few small "rooms," breaking larger areas up with planting or rock walls. These "walls" need only be knee-high or lower, as long as they create an effect of separate spaces. Plan intimate
backyard spacesA sheltered area can be shaded with a big umbrella over a comfortable chair and used for reading, a more open space could be planted in herbs. "But before you plant anything, you need to be aware of areas of sun and shade, and where the run-off of water from your roof goes," Boyer said. "Run-off should be channeled into the garden, rather than puddling under a downspout."
Boyer, who landscaped a block-long, 15- foot wide passage between the Waikiki Shores and Outrigger hotels, from the beach to Kalia Road, says that nothing is impossible. "Although this was pretty close to it," he admitted. His advice would apply to the spaces on either side of a suburban home, between the neighboring lots. "With a long, narrow corridor that gets one hour of sun every day, don't line things up. Use planter boxes on wheels and cement pots."
He planted the boxes with variegated hau and pritchardia palms, and watered them with drip irrigation. "Variegated hau is less messy than the common kind, and it's salt resistant so it's good near the ocean," he said. Then he clustered pots of Manila and blue Latan palms together, and grew small philodendrons inside most of the pots.
He also used pots of one of his favorite landscaping plants, Pseuderanthemum Eldorado, that grows well in low light. The blade-shaped leaves are variegated green and a pale yellow with an irregular deep green pattern down the center.
In landscaping home gardens, Boyer often uses dwarf mondo for borders. "It's a good ground cover. If you notice that the blades are turning yellow, it's not from a lack of water. It's a fungus. Spray with Subdue and they'll be able to absorb fertilizer and green up," he said. This also applies to larger varieties of mondo grass. In his own garden in Kahaluu, he has planted dwarf mondo instead of a lawn. "I work in gardens all week," he said. "At home, I don't own a lawn mower."
The other product Boyer recommends to home gardeners is Superthrive for use when transplanting or heavily trimming. "If you read the label, it does everything in the world, but it does help plants in shock from trimming."
Boyer says his landscape clients want three things: color, low maintenance and "keep the price down." Croton seems to answer all three. "Croton has had a bad rap, but if you do it right, it looks good," he said. "Mass plant and use only one variety. It's the random planting of different varieties that doesn't work. It's the same with ti. The eye bounces around and it's confusing."
Bromeliads, on the other hand, should be mixed in a mass planting, he said. "I'd rather have them in the ground than in pots because the drainage is better. But be prepared for mosquitoes in the water that gathers in the cups." If you prefer not to use an insecticide to get rid of the mosquito larvae, you can flush the cups out regularly with a heavy stream of water from the hose.
Before you put either bromeliads or ti into the ground, Boyer recommends leaving them in pots to find out where they grow best. "If it's too wet, try a drier place. If they're getting too much sun, move them into a shadier place. It's like the real estate salesmen say: Location, location, location. Once you find where they're happy, then you can plant them."
Tillandsias, which are part of the bromeliad family but don't collect water, are often planted by Boyer in the lower branches of trees. "Planting isn't really the word," he said. "I hot glue them to the tree, then they form roots to hang there."
As an alternative for customers who really don't like croton, he recommends graptophyllum, related to the Eldorado bush. He planted lots of it at Restaurant Row where it has been easy to maintain. It will grow to 8 feet, but can be kept lower. Like croton, its foliage is green, red and yellow, but the leaves are softer.
He prefers Macarthur palms to arecas, both of which clump and grow to about 20 feet. "The Macarthur palm is easier to maintain. It has fewer leaf stalks to fall off and be picked up." His favorite landscaping palm is the sealing wax, which also clumps but is somewhat smaller than the Macarthur. It has gray-green leaves, about 4 feet long, with bright red leaf sheaths. It requires heavy watering.
Cycads, which botanists no longer call sago palms, are interesting plantings, but finally get old and covered with scale. When this happens, Boyer says "Cut everything off right down to the trunk, and three weeks later it will throw out a new set of leaves." Even if it doesn't, you're no worse off than you were with a plant laden with scale. And if you are planting a cycad, Boyer recommends the zamia or cardboard palm as one of the least poky of a spiky family.
And beware of plant sales. "People fall in love with a cute little plant in a 12-inch pot and take it home, and it turns out to be a traveler's palm," Boyer said. (The traveler's palm, part of the banana family, is a spectacular ornamental that grows to 30 feet with 9-foot leaf blades.)
Most important, Boyer says, is to create a small sense of mystery in your garden. "It adds to the dynamics. Block off parts with paths and break the view with small trees. Create visual triangles as great painters do, have light areas and dark areas. Don't let everything be seen at once. Keep things interesting."
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
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