Placing Plants

Before getting into a discussion about placing plants, it’s important to look into the history of plants, what they are and where they come from. Plants are organic structures belonging to the domain plantae and they include familiar organisms such as trees, bushes, herbs, grasses, vines, mosses, ferns and green algae. Botany is the scientific study of plants and it has identified 350,000 existing species of seed plants, mosses, liverworts, ferns and fern allies. The atmosphere is the source of most solids found in plants. Most plants use energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide plus water into simple sugars for growth.

Plants need to be placed appropriately in the landscape, not only for achieving aesthetic and functional goals, but also to be sited in appropriate micro-climatic conditions to facilitate efficient maintenance. Care has to be taken to assure the coexistence of different types of plants without damage. As well, one needs to be careful so as not to have plants in streams of hot air. A plant was once intended to screen the condenser of an air conditioner system, but it was planted to grow in the flow of hot air from the equipment; the plant did not survive.

It can be costly to plant without considering the space that full-grown plants will occupy. A plant canopy over play areas and sandboxes may give shade from afternoon sun, but it creates a mess that birds will drop into the play areas. Keeping a pool clean is hard enough without a mess of leaves and branches. Placing plants without regard for development of roots and concrete footings and foundations, power lines, property lines and easements, underground utilities, sewers and septic tanks can take a heavy toll on an already labor intensive project.