Landscape Architectural Design and Maintenance

Sue Anne Donaldson was Assistant Professor, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary.

Landscape Architectural Design and Maintenance aims to “improve the quality of the Canadian housing environment by making it more cost effective.” It is therefore directed at developers, builders, designers, and consumers — in short, all those whose decisions can affect landscaping costs. In the course of six chapters, the authors give a general overview of landscape design processes and techniques and explain, with numerous illustrations, the situations which most often result in unnecessary costs, before, during, or after construction. The practice of landscaping a project after other major engineering and architectural decisions have been made, state the authors, “achieves nothing more than a cosmetic decoration of the site.” Certainly the most important message of this book is that the initial investment made in good design and construction will be less than the costs of the problems that will have been avoided. The information is laid out clearly and organized for easy reference. Its message is important and should be heeded.

But is a 141-page book of principles the way to improve poor landscape design and construction practices? Canadian government departments and agencies have produced educational literature of this nature for over 100 years, attempting to convince Canadians that “it’s not a home ‘til it’s planted.” Although the emphasis has shifted over the years from “beautification” to “beautification within budget,” all are based on a belief in the “great service that could be done Canadians by placing in their hands a booklet which would give them, in a concise form, the principles of landscape gardening.”

I believe that concise principles have now been reiterated in enough publications, Canadian or otherwise, and that some effort should be put into addressing the needs of more specialized audiences. Landscape designers, for example, will not find anything new in this book. It might be informative to builders or developers, but it certainly does not explain the complexity or range of problems they will encounter in different regions or at the microclimatic level. For the consumer intent on doing a little “home landscaping,” this book will be of limited use. The information is good, as far as it goes. In a publication designed for a very broad audience, it is not possible to provide enough details to satisfy everyone. The emphasis, then, could have been on encouraging people to seek out the best sources of help and information. An annotated and more extensive bibliography would have been useful, as would guidelines for when and where to seek professional advice and how to judge the services that are offered or have been rendered. It is in the application of principles that the difference between an amateur and a professional can be determined. This point could have been made much more forcefully, for the benefit of landscape architects and all those who should use their expertise. CMHC might also have considered the cost-effectiveness of continuing in this tradition of “advisory documents” to a very general Canadian audience.