Landscape Mistakes That Will Date Your Florida Home

ArtisTree Plantopinions
L to R: ArtisTree VP of Landscape Design Joe Mantkowski with landscape designers Clinton Lak, Chris Culp, Brian Clouser and Elisabeth Owen

Landscape mistakes don’t always happen by mistake. For instance, you might think red mulch and black rubber edging enhance your plant beds perfectly. But poor choices or landscaping features that are past their prime can make your home look tired and outmoded. Here are common landscape mistakes that make our ArtisTree landscape experts wince. Each designer has a different hot button, so welcome to our Plantopininons!

Landscape mistakes
Avoid excessive gravel in beds and around palms or trees, especially white gravel. Mulch would have integrated much better with this existing landscape & provided a more natural, modern look.

Joe Mantkowski, ArtisTree VP Landscape Design

  • Black plastic edging instead of something more modern like aluminum or other quality material
  • Sod abutting the house (imagine string-trimming it without damaging your home’s finish)
  • Aluminum extensions on downspouts that are above ground or in mulch/plant beds
  • No gutters and downspouts at all, with washouts in landscape beds
  • Solar landscape lighting instead of a modern (and more controllable) LED system

Clinton Lak, Landscape Designer

  • Excessive lawn ornamentation (statues, garden gnomes, plastic flamingos)
  • Boulders from out of state that don’t look like they belong here
  • Cheap, gimmicky or damaged mailboxes
  • Haphazardly placed string lights, or worse yet, heavy lighting that blinds your neighbors like a theater marquee
  • Not having a landscape plan
Landscape mistakes
Yikes. Sod running right up to the house and not having a landscape plan date this Sarasota home in the worst way.

Chris Culp, Landscape Designer

  • A yard that’s all stone or shell
  • Concrete bed edging that screams artificial
  • Leaf litter on roof
  • Mildew on driveways and sidewalks
  • Standpipe irrigation heads under roof eaves and in beds
  • Non-maintained plants, trees and palms

Brian Clouser, Landscape Designer

  • Excessive gravel in beds, especially white gravel
  • Big spreading plants against a foundation, such as cardboard plants, travelers palms, white birds of paradise and philodendron selloum
  • Concrete curbing around beds
  • Improper pruning
  • Artificial turf that’s poor quality and not professionally installed
Landscape mistakes
Red mulch. White gravel. Black plastic edging. Ugh — especially when they’re all on the same property!

Elisabeth Owen, Landscape Designer

  • Stepping pads that aren’t properly installed and have shifted due to rain washout
  • Multiple types of gravel (shell, lime rock and river rock) in different beds on the same property
  • No mulch in beds, just dirt (and undoubtedly weeds)
  • Palms and trees planted under eaves
  • Palms and trees (such as oaks) that have re-seeded in hedges
  • Hodgepodge color palette without a well-thought-out plan
Plastic yard art and ceramic ornaments such as this plastic flamingo make a home look old and outmoded.
ArtisTree Landscape

Contact ArtisTree

Avoid landscape mistakes that date your home! Get your renovation started now by contacting Jenni Lassen at 941.488.8897 to meet with one of our award-winning designers. We proudly serve Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. ArtisTree also provides complete landscape maintenance services for HOA communities . Contact Michael Casper at 941.488.8897 for your custom proposal.  

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