Hello, my name is Gary Schmidt.  I moved to Colorado Springs in 2019 after 35 years of design practice, mostly in Columbus, Ohio.  After four years of retirement, I have decided to get back into design, but this time I want to focus on gardens.  Why gardens?  Although I have always felt that gardens are where designers can be the most creative, I mostly avoided residential design due to low fees and too much competition.  As a retired Landscape Architect with no staff and/or overhead expenses, I realize that I can now provide these services on a more economical basis.

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I got my degree in Landscape Architecture at Ohio State University in 1983, and during the first five years of my career I worked with architects, mostly on local buildings and sites in Central Ohio.  In 1988, I decided to broaden my horizons, and studied real estate development at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and MIT.  After graduation in 1989, I moved to southern California and was the project manager for several large-scale land planning projects (New Towns).  I returned to Columbus in 1992 and started my own practice, where we specialized in land planning and re-zoning for large-scale commercial developments. 

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GARDEN DESIGN

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I grew up in Rocky River Ohio, a west side suburb of Cleveland.  I remember my dad and my grandmother had wonderful gardens that were major focuses in their lives.  We moved to Wooster, Ohio when I was about ten years old.  We often visited the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), which was affiliated with Ohio State University in Columbus. The arboretum had thousands of plants, many of which were identified- this is where I began studying horticulture.  I too am an avid gardener, and between my education, professional practice and the school of hard knocks I have come to develop a unique approach to gardening.  The photos shown to the left of my text are all from my garden.  Here are my opinions on what makes a great garden:

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Livability:  A garden is much more than creating “curb appeal” to maximize real estate value.  Gardens are outdoor spaces that should reflect the tastes and personalities of the owners, spaces that can provide entertainment and relaxation.

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Xeriscape:  Colorado Springs has a semi-arid climate, and a well-designed garden needs to reflect this. This means a limited use of lawns composed primarily of Kentucky bluegrass.  It also means a continual search for plants that thrive on the 15-16 inches of rainfall that occurs naturally each year.  Xeriscape is not “xero-scape”; removing lawns and replacing them with stone mulch is not what I’m talking about.  Xeriscape is a mind set that should influence the design from the beginning.

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Planting Density:  I like landscape beds that have lots of plants- not lots of mulch.  It takes awhile to achieve this, but a well planted garden can thrive with minimal mulching.  In addition to their abilities to retain moisture and retard weed growth, I like to think of mulches as a groundcover/color base in the garden.

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Trees:  they can provide an overhead canopy, shade and a large scale to the garden.  In Colorado, we have mostly evergreen trees, and these need to be carefully placed due to their opaqueness and their tendency to drop cones and sap.

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Shrubs:   these are the workhorses of the garden as they provide most of the cover in a plant bed.  I strive to get a good mix of deciduous and evergreen plants, with an awareness of water requirements, sunlight needs, shapes and mature sizes.  Shrubs are also a good way to introduce color into the landscape.

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Perennials:    I like to use perennials more than annuals because they are less maintenance in the long run.  As a smaller scale plant, perennials are used primarily for color and texture, and as a result are often grouped and massed to create a strong effect.  Patience is required as these will take 2-3 years to establish in the garden.

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Groundcovers:   plants like sedum or vinca also take a lot of patience to get established but are very rewarding and are a healthier alternative to lawns and mulches when you need to cover large areas in a garden.

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Annuals:  these provide the most color in a landscape and make great accents.  Since they are not permanent plants in my garden, I plant these in various sized containers, making it easy to plant in summer and then to discard in the fall. Container plants need more water as they tend to dry out faster than plants in the garden soil.

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Lawns:   a manicured, irrigated and fertilized lawn area makes a nice contrast with plant beds in a garden.  It’s also the perfect surface area for play areas on flat, level portions of a lot.  The problem is that most turf grasses are high maintenance and high-water consuming plants.  Therefore, it’s not appropriate for large areas (unless one chooses a low  maintenance type of turf such as Buffalo grass).

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Pavements:   materials such as concrete (pre-cast or poured in place), brick, stone or gravel are typically used for walkways and patios in a garden. Concrete can be poured in curvilinear shapes and lasts a long time; however, it is also an impervious surface and can affect drainage.  Pavements are an opportunity to extend architectural elements of the house into the site.

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Walls:  we can use free-standing walls to function as fences (to separate and screen), but in Colorado we are usually talking about retaining walls that allow us to create flat areas while holding back a slope.  Like pavements, walls are a great way to extend some of the architectural materials into the garden, giving it an instant complement.  I like to use stone or pre-cast engineered block walls and avoid timber (for longevity reasons).

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Fencing:  used primarily for containment purposes (i.e. dog runs), I like to use transparent fences such as black aluminum or split rail fencing (which can be modified with chicken wire to contain pets).  Opaque fencing can be used to create screens in a garden but must be used carefully because they blocks views and often have only one side that looks good.

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Decks:  composite decking materials (i.e. Timber Tech) are best for planking, however I like cedar posts anchored to concrete pylons for strength and durability.  Metal railings are preferred over wood for aesthetics and durability.  An upper deck can descend to a patio or lawn with drama using a well-designed staircase.

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Structures:  storage sheds can create space in the garden and can even become focal points if the materials are appropriate. Large boulders can also add interest to plant beds.  Ornaments such as gazing balls and sculptures add accents to a garden, however I like to keep these to a minimum because they can quickly overcome the plantings.