In our last post, we explored how a landscape designer goes about selecting plants. Those selections ultimately get codified in the “planting plan,” and recently we delivered the planting plan (plus the rest of the landscape construction documents—site plan, hardscape layout, lighting plan) for a very nice project. This is always a bittersweet moment: while it's an exciting beginning of the “real” landscaping, it’s also the beginning of the end of our control over the landscape design. From here on, our client will be working more closely with their landscape contractor than with us to define the details of installation, finalize choices for materials and plants, and probably “value-engineer” some changes to the design to make the project more affordable.

Of all the elements of a landscape plan, the plant selections are the most likely to change after the final drawings have been submitted. Although we usually provide a preview of each specimen with the preliminary design, often this is the first time the home owner has seen all the plants in combination. And even when reviewed at length, the plans are after all a technical drawing and not a narrative. Once we’ve left them in someone else's hands, it doesn't take long for all the circles and dots to blur, and the rationale behind our excruciatingly considered choices becomes less apparent.

Usually, in the time between planning and planting, something inevitably has gone out of stock at the nursery. We try to ensure the contractor knows to consult with us before making any substitutions, but sometimes it’s not until we come over to check on the progress that we realize the drama of a backlit Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ has been lost to a common Pennisetum. Even if the garden does get installed precisely per plan, we know that Nature will have her way with it and in a few years we’ll all share our amazement at how that Miscanthus has grown so much bigger than any of us expected.

This is just how landscaping goes, and we’ve come to not only live with the unpredictability but sometimes rather enjoy it. The circles and dots may be drawn with a pen… but the ink is never permanent.