AZ Plant Lady Drive By: What Is Wrong With This Landscape?

bad landscaping
bad landscaping

Often, after I finish with a landscape consult, I drive through the neighborhood and capture examples of good and often bad landscaping.

I do this so that I can use these photos to help you to avoid mistakes in your own landscape.

So, what do you think is wrong with the landscape above?

Please leave your comments and I’ll give you the answer tomorrow….

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."
5 replies
  1. A Daughter of the King
    A Daughter of the King says:

    Well, it looks a whole lot nicer than many of the yards in my neighborhood…so I wouldn't pick on it, but it looks like there are way too many plants clumped together. Probably because they did not consider the mature size of the plant when they were only 1 gallon nursery plants. I also think the contrast between the pine and the grasses looks odd. And the plant flanking the driveway is aching for some sunshine.

  2. Matthew
    Matthew says:

    The Pine tree. It was the incorrect choice of tree for an area this small. It has outgrown it's location and could cause issues with roots damaging the wall, sidewalk, or underground utilities. IMHO.

  3. Matthew
    Matthew says:

    The Pine tree. It was the incorrect choice for this small area. As the tree continues to get larger it could become stressed from such limited root zone. Roots could also damage the wall, sidewalk, or underground utilities.

  4. Aaron Dalton
    Aaron Dalton says:

    Two things jump out at me:

    1. That looming evergreen looks WAY too big for the yard and the house. In my (windy, stormy) neighborhood, I'd be very nervous of having that tree topple onto the house or the street. But even disregarding the threat of fallen limbs and trunks, the tree just looks out of scale compared to the one-story house.

    2. The plants outside the wall look a bit …grassy. Nothing wrong with grasses, I just like to see variation. (But I know that garden design experts suggest 'massing' plants for effect.)

  5. xericstyle
    xericstyle says:

    I think my initial comment got eaten? Sorry in advance if you get two from me.

    Perhaps instead of routing water with that dry creek bed directly into the street where it would be wasted, it could have been routed through the garden where it could stay on the property longer and benefit the plants???

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