Help needed with landscaping advices for large areas

I need plan my future garden and we are talking about 14+ acres, but so far I found only lanscaping sites with advices and solutions for much smaller areas that I can not actualy use. I need something about old fashioned classical gardens, and about how to match up the trees and shrubs, not only some posh coniferous but advices for grouping LARGE trees.

This message was edited Sep 14, 2007 3:22 PM

Here is the part of the area now

14 acres! I envy you! :-) No matter what your budget, I would recomend keeping with the native plants of Latvia as much as possible. Native plants are the easiest to maintain, easiest on the environment, attract the most wildlife, (wild birds add a whole other dimension to a garden). In addition, native plants connect the natural heritage to the social heritage. You could combine the aesthetics of a classical garden using the native plants. Or you could have a smaller inner classic garden surrounded by a more native and natural landscape. Best of luck with your project.

Thank you. It is planned to have small regular garden near the house, about 25X15 metres, and the rest must be something that you call English garden, like Capability Brown' s creations. Our house is about 250 years old, so modern style garden would not fit to it.
I agree with native plants, but I do not need to attract more wildlife to it as I have much enough of it now - deers and haars are ruining a lot, birds are all ower the place (we even do have a pet stork), and the garden area on the West north side after the second pond borders with our forest, where, for example, are growing very tasty wild mushrooms... so it is another task - to build garden area to join the forest in the nice way.
Also by the stile instead of native plants there are a lot of old fashioned imports, imported let's say in 18th century... That is the main choice for me as you see these species in old parks here. Most of the plants and trees I'm growing by myself anyway - works out cheaper and they are directly into the area, less stess and grows better. And works out much, much cheaper - I'm not keen to pay 20$ for chestnut tree if I can grow them by myself for nothing so I do. Oaks, chestnuts, maples, a ot of shrubs - nursery is full of them, and all are doing well, but how to group them in the garden - that's my problem!

amazon.com is having its annual textbook sale. Micheal A. Dirr, Photographic Manual of woody Plants: Form and Function in Landscape. See the Indigenous Plants Forum for the link for the rest of M. Dirr's textbooks

I am in pretty much the same dilema in SE Georgia, US 32.1034° -82.442° If you have Google Earth, you can enter the coordinates into a Waypoint and see our area. I just finished constructing a 1.6 acre pond and had the house site on the hill cleared. Of course, we have time within which to prepare, but, we must have a basic plan first.

If anyone is interested, I can send the Google Earth file for you to play with.

We bought 70 acres, outlined in blue. 15 acre tract in NE sector, 5 acre tract in SE sector and 50 acres on West of road with new pond and house site.

I have posted a photo of the aerial image with the new driveway, pond and house site.

This message was edited Sep 21, 2007 9:44 PM

you are asking a lot from the forum as you have such a large scale of garden to work with, I garden on a 10 acre site which is woodland and formal, be aware that the more you actually cultivate, the more you have to care for, you would be far better working on the tree and shrub planting by doing just one area at a time unless you can afford to go out and purchase lots of trees at the one time, also you need to know that any trees and shrubs that you do plant, then you need to fence or find some other way to protect them from the deer till they are strong enough or tall enough to withstand the deer/rabbits etc feeding on the new tender growth,
I would suggest you get along to your local library and ask them for books on the large estate gardens from the ERA you are planning to design your garden on, I have taken over an old garden that was planted over a hundred years ago and believe me, after almost 20 years, it still is nowhere close to being back to it's former glory, at my age, dont ever see it being completed now, but I have to work alongside all the wildlife that you have, deer especially dont have any thoughts for all your hard work and yes I have tried everything that people say deer wont eat, to date, the only plants they dont eat are Rhododendrons, so that will give you an idea of what you are up against as far as hard work, expense and wildlife are concerned, you can only work a bit at a time unless you have a team of ready made gardeners who are as passionate about your project as you are (very hard to find I know this from experience) once you read books on your style of garden, you need to check out your soil type, the aspect of the garden like north, south, east, west, shelter for some plants till they can grow away on their own etc, remember, the larger the trees and shrubs you buy, the more cost is involved, the more care they take till established and the more worry about the wildlife eating them, then the weather conditions have changed a lot since my garden was first lay ed out, another thing to look at is if you have any Botanical pr national gardens that you can visit in your area, these usually have someone you can talk to, or try finding some horticultural collages close to you as the students sometimes require some gardening practical experience and may want to help you out as part of there courses, you have a lot to think about as far as planning, practicalities and cost are concerned and also how much actual work you will have time to spend caring for this large expanse of garden, as you clear bits, remember, the weeds/brambles and wildlife will just take over again if you dont have the time, the skills and the help to keep on top of the area you have worked hard to clear. a good reference book for me was the gardens of Gertrude Jekyll who worked along side Brown, he did the houses and she did the gardens. Good luck. hope all your dreams come true and you get the garden you want. WeeNel.