As a professional landscaper and designer, “curb appeal” and “low maintenance” are the 2 directives I hear the most. While I am all in on low maintenance as a homeowner myself, something about landscaping for curb appeal rubs me the wrong way.
How could something so innocuous sounding as ‘curb appeal’ bother me you ask? It’s the focus on designing a landscape for someone else besides the homeowner to be viewed primarily from the street (implied by the ‘curb’ part) and as such, often ends up being a flat, 2 dimensional, bland experience. It looks ‘nice’ but could be ever so much more.
Curb appeal as an end in and of itself is the opposite of what good landscape design should focus on. Instead of trying to guess what will catch the eye of potential buyers, why not design for the people that actually live there?
Given the many, many benefits of nature on us humans, wouldn’t it make more sense to design with the actual user in mind?Landscapes–the commodified version of nature–should be considered and enjoyed in 3D, a fully immersive experience—not to be viewed from the street, but lived in. They should be about pure pleasure and relaxation for the person or persons for whom it is being designed for. It should fit their personality, lifestyle, and aesthetic like a glove. It should be their happy place, where come pandemic, staycation, or weekend at home, is their favorite place to be. By designing with the user in mind, whatever form that takes will inevitably be beautiful…and might make passersbys a little jealous.