From Boring to Breathtaking…

Texture, color add magic to flat Valley landscapes

The yard — the word itself evokes the rectangular green canvas that surrounds your new Red River Valley house like an unwrinkled tablecloth.

It’s the least intriguing aspect of your new Fargo-Moorhead home — and the one thing no one can miss.

Outside this area of the world, natural ups and downs suggest a strategy for adding drama to the acreage that embraces your home. Here, though, with a geography dedicated to the absolute principle of “flat,” the naked yards of Fargo-Moorhead await compassionate intervention.

They beg for a living landscape that’s sculpted and designed … that captures the eye and intrigues the senses with all the texture that Nature overlooked.

Enter the texture.

Yesterday’s rigid foundation plantings of arborvitae give way to soft, undulating clusters of shrubs and perennials. Concrete sidewalks yield to flagstone paths and pavers. Flower beds of straight lines and tilled earth give way to clumps of colored mulch to stymie weeds and conserve moisture. Unbroken planes of grass best suited to mowing break down into subtle sections adapted for family use, from child’s play to entertaining.

The textured landscape of 2009 is a congenial blend of colors and sizes, soft and hard, native and imported, natural and artistic.

For the first immigrant farmer in the Red River Valley, the blessedly flat land was a gift. No trees, no hills, no boulders to interfere with the relationship between a man, his plow and the fertile black soil.

Those sodbusters would scratch their heads today if they could meet designers like Roger Klocke Jr., a pioneer among Fargo-Moorhead’s growing corps of landscape designers who bring character to Valley yards by — among other tactics — importing boulders.

Klocke, owner of Natural Environments Landscaping and Garden Elegance, uses a palette of natural materials to build height, dimension and texture from the basic foundation of a flat Fargo-Moorhead yard, adding accents with plant materials, lighting and water — fountains, waterfalls and ponds.

“Flat and boring — that’s where most of the yards we design start out,” he observes. “It’s a blank slate. Our goal is to create an environment you’ll enjoy for years to come … areas that both please you now and add real value to your property for the future.”

Klocke, who considers landscaping an art and his role an artist, likes to start by sketching gently rolling pathways that create a soft, welcoming entrance to the yard. “They’re inviting. They draw the eye inward,” he says. He recommends natural flagstones (layered sandstone) or fired clay pavers for their soft edges and the ease with which they fit into the landscape.

Undulating lines have largely replaced the unbending, right-angled outlines of paths and gardens past in today’s more informal yards. High-end landscaping may incorporate raised beds to separate plantings from lawn and prevent the spread of more invasive species, as well as weeds. Brick edging is a tidy flush alternative that adds a tailored, elegant touch. Other permanent options are available in concrete.

Introducing the timeless weight and presence of boulders to the rock-free Red River landscape has become something of a signature for Natural Environments landscapes. Well-chosen and artfully arranged, rocks anchor landscape designs, adding height and breadth and deep dimension.

Unlike the rock-strewn fields of central North Dakota, where stones are propelled to the surface by spring thaws, the boulders of the Valley are exotic imports. Most are selected at trade shows for professional designers and trucked to garden centers, then individually selected for clients’ yards by size, shape, color and surface texture. Moving them to where they’ll be planted in the landscape is no small undertaking, involving trucks, loaders and Bobcats.

A grouping of boulders can be a striking focal point in an otherwise sedate yardscape. “Rocks are like little pieces of art scattered across the garden or landscape,” Klocke says. “They change as the light shifts and take on new textures and colors in the rain. Plants and rocks enhance each other, like a good piece of art needs the right frame and matting.”

He chooses and arranges boulders in odd-numbered groupings, often spinning each four or five times to find its best face. “The objective is to group them so the eye thinks they belong there — that they occurred naturally in that spot,” he explains. The boulders need to be resting down at a natural looking depth.

Trees, shrubs and perennial plants and grasses offer an ever-growing palette of choices for adding texture as well as height and depth to the once-level yard. Greenscape options continue to expand, thanks to inventive plant breeding programs at northern universities and nurseries that have eased some of the restrictions enforced by the Red River Valley’s climate.

Landscape designer Ryan Hoss of Fargo’s Baker Nursery has been designing, planting and maintaining Red River Valley yards since he was 16 years old. He credits a new point of view for the growing interest in crafting yards that are works of art.

“For years, landscaping meant planting some evergreens around the foundation in front of the house — usually arborvitae to soften the corners,” he notes.

“Now people are spending a lot more time in their yards, and they’re looking at them in a whole different way. They spend more on them, too,” he says. “They’ve always had patios or decks, but now they’re almost looking at their yards as outdoor rooms. They’re adding entire living areas with pergolas, comfortable furniture, fire pits and heaters and entire outdoor kitchens. They want nice, nice yards … not just a tree in each corner and a few shrubs out three feet from the house.”

Nor is enjoying the yard strictly an outdoor pursuit. “When you’re sitting in your easy chair inside, looking out over your back yard, you can’t even see those plantings down along the foundation,” he points out. “The view from your windows is part of your living environment — year-round, too. When you look out over your yard, you want to see something.”

That’s where the entire living palette comes into play: Shrubs of varying heights play a jazzy summer tune of textured foliage in contrasting sizes and shapes in summer; in winter they change their tune, with bare forms outlined in distinctive bark.

Grasses — wispy or upright, swords or rounded, low clumps, willowy thickets, purple spears or twisted tails with golden overtones — add linear motion in the unceasing breeze. They’re one of the biggest hits of recent years, with their ironic return to the same sod where prairie grasses reigned once before. Unlike the hardy natives that gave way to settlers’ plows, few of today’s decorative grasses can survive our climate as perennials; instead, most must be planted and handled like annuals.

Homeowners’ tastes in landscape design continue to lean toward the informal in greenscapes, as well as the curving paths and lines of their gardens. Often that translates into asymmetrical designs rather than more formal, even, symmetrically balanced greenery in perfectly straight lines.

The choice is strictly personal preference, Hoss stresses. Another aspect, though, has evolved to the point that it’s nearly universal: The carefully weeded bare-soil ornamental garden is nearly a thing of the past.

“Of all the gardens we’ve designed in the last few years, I can think of only one homeowner who wanted that look. Everyone else wants mulch,” Hoss reports. Mulching the soil reduces weeding and maintenance to nearly zilch … a big step to the easy-care garden that every homeowner dreams of.

Klocke agrees. His mulch of choice is premium cypress mulch, whose tangled texture minimizes blowing. Water-permeable ground cloth beneath the mulch, whatever the kind that’s chosen, also zeros out the upkeep to the point where the biggest annual task is to rake and clean up the rocks or natural mulch to eliminate blown leaves and other detritus.

Tried-and-true perennials can add largely trouble-free traditional texture to the landscape: Day lilies, Siberian iris, sedum, salvia and coreopsis are among Hoss’s favorites. “They look nice with minimal care. You just can’t kill them,” he advises.

He likes to add newcomers to the yards and gardens he designs. “Trying some things that are a little on the edge makes it more interesting, and you never know what you’ll find,” he suggests. With hardier and improved new varieties regularly entering the market, the nursery holds plenty of surprises.

Sticking with plants rated for USDA growing zone 4 generally leads to a safe kind of adventure, he says — especially in more established areas of town, where homes are closer together and established trees offer some protection from wind. New yards in still-open developments require more caution: “I’d think a little harder in more exposed situations,” he admits. “It pays to be more cautious out there.” He points to problems with rabbits and voles, too, that offer greater challenges near open fields.

When the green portion of the landscape has put down roots, the masterpiece is ready for its final touches.

Long summer evenings give sunlight plenty of time to shape the landscape with highlight and shadow. But as days grow shorter, garden lighting has become a prized addition to the outdoor landscape.

“When it’s used with a light hand, lighting adds subtle interest and beauty to the landscape,” Klocke says. “The contrast between light and dark draws the eye to points of interest and adds a warm, soft texture. You can leave the drapes open in the house and enjoy your yard around the clock. It doesn’t look forbidding and creepy.

“Illumination gives your landscape a totally different look in the evening, when you have the time to enjoy it.” Lighting also increases both safety and your sense of security, extending the usability of your outdoor space.

Lighting fixtures can be decorative in themselves — copper, bronze and blown glass units. Their light can play on walls or walkways, trees and gardens, water features and outdoor living areas. Lighting can silhouette or shadow architectural features and plantings.

Brushing the landscape with light can turn an ordinary yard into a picture of beauty. But Klocke cautions against too much of a good thing: “It’s possible to go too far and end up looking like you’re in Hollywood.” The objective is to create a radiant glow around the home and yard … not step into the realm of a 24-hour tourist attraction.

While lights delight the eyes, water features — waterfalls, fountains and ponds — add not only visual interest but the soothing sound of moving water. Simplest to install and care for are the fountains, where the water’s constant movement keeps it fresh and generally reduces maintenance to spring set-up and fall cleaning and storage.

The jewel of the backyard landscape may be the lovely pond, with its blooming water lilies and drifting school of calico koi. Ponds require more commitment from the homeowner, though. They can be an engrossing hobby on par with maintaining an elaborate indoor aquarium, from careful attention to water quality and chemistry to fish health, equipment maintenance and plant culture.

Perhaps a garden sculpture of leaping fish might be a less challenging way to add the finishing touch to your Red River Valley sanctuary. Garden art can add the final touch to the masterpiece of color, form and texture you’ve created around your home. From distinctive handcrafted birdbaths to plump ceramic pots, from the grace notes of well-tuned wind chimes to a stone bench set into a fragrant shady bower, a carefully selected accent piece can add your signature to the deftly textured sanctuary you’ve created from the flattest, most boring Red River Valley yard.