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Yes, you definitely should use non-organic mulch around agave. Decomposed granite, glass, rock, etc. It should be totally fine to use same materials around the shrubs. What kind of shrubs are you using exactly and what is the geographic location? A lot will depend on how much rain and heat the plants will be getting.

Great point Thomas. We have a terrible problem with winter kill already because of the warm winter days followed by bitter cold. I don’t know how conductive the pipe is to the surrounding ground – I wouldn’t imagine it would be very conductive or the heat would all be lost before it gets to the building. It must some amount of heat loss because…[Read more]

That’s because I’m cheap labor ; )

Don’t give up yet, our office seems to be picking up in the past couple weeks. I think things are s l o w l y starting to move again.

Good luck and thanks for the info!

Adam, you have your degree in Landscape Architecture, with 1-4 years experience and are currently employed!? The world is not fair, indeed…

You need to choose shrubs that require the same conditions as agave and use an appropriate mulch / ground cover. Hint: It’s not 3-4″ of cedar chips…

I think I’ll just go get my HVAC license now….

The mulch (any mulch) serves to retain water, keep down weeds, and visually tie the planting together. With some plants, an organic mulch can hasten stem or crown rots… so ill advised for agaves, etc.
Use the stone/marble/recylced glass/glass eyeball/ball bearing/whatever inorganic mulch of your choice on agave and shrubs alike. Keep in mind…[Read more]

So Rob, are you saying that the drought tolerant shrubs shouldn’t be planted along with agaves or just don’t use mulch? The agaves are going to be planted at the high point of the planter so drainage is moving away from them.

Both plants are low water use and the mulch will help prevent moisture loss for all the shrubs while also preventing weed…[Read more]

Apples and oranges.

Quality design is achieved from all sorts of directions. Any of the things that have been discussed can help achieve that, but none of them MUST be present.

In order to have “Quality Design” you must have ………..?

a black goose?
a sand lot in your past?
a slide rule and calculator?
a degree from a certain school?
a gift…[Read more]

Here’s another idea Tanya… I don’t know if your project is commercial or residential. If it’s commercial, instead of pushing the limits of how close / deep you can get a tree to the lateral lines, why not emphasis their existence? You could plant small trees / large shrubs in the setback area and then plant a line of low shrubs/ground cover…[Read more]

The only problem with the idea of understanding the goals and objectives and using design to realize those is that many times, in my experience, the goals and objectives aren’t always clear, or you and the client think they are one thing, but through the design process it emerges that they are something else. In other words this has never been a…[Read more]

Closed system. The geothermal well consultant thinks maybe small trees planted between lateral lines would probably be ok. The laterals are 5′ deep and 15′ apart. I was hoping for large shade trees, but I would imagine their roots could easily be 5′ deep at 7′ from the trunk.
As far as maintenance, I don’t think they have to access any of the…[Read more]

No – in fact our local well driller says that since he’s been using plastic pipe he has found no roots in and around any of his wells.

Thank you all for your great suggestions!

Well, you wouldn’t plan a plant combination in one planter where some plants required dry soils and dry crowns while their neighbors required moist soil.. so there is no horticultural reason to consider two mulches (aside from the design aspects). Shrubs do not require organic mulch as such. Depending on the shrubs, they may require a more organic…[Read more]

The reason tree roots work their way into sewer lines is because the sewer lines are leaking water. Especially the old style clay tiles. I would be intrested to know if anyone has had any of the same problems with the new style plastic sewer lines.

Before your plant selection, I would ask which type of Geothermal well is being installed. Is it a closed system or is it an open system.
Some of the open systems discharge water to the surface.

so good design must have gone through your logical process, Andrew?

don’t think so..

I just wanted to add that without self knowledge (which is different from ‘bringing your own life experiences’) you can end up doing the same thing over and over – I know two LA’s who do nothing but circles, curves..It always looks good, but you just want to…[Read more]

As I said, it is great for discussion.

Citing examples of specific tools used in certain circumstances is really a separate issue than “what is quality design” in my view (not the only view). If we were to look at the answers to this question as designed answers we would see very different design approaches by the individuals responding. I am…[Read more]

good design that YOU have to accomplish is definitely accomplished by knowing yourself and with the knowledge of history – our culture suffers tremendously from lack of knowledge of history..Every action has echoes from the past in it – if you can’t recognize where you are coming from, how can you know where to go?

Andrew, I will agree to…[Read more]

haha that is a great example of taking what I said and twisting it around to a way that I had not looked at it. Now that I’m thinking about it, part of my problem is that when I start the design process and I begin putting things on paper, an image of what an individual part of the project becomes visible in my head and because of that image I…[Read more]