Landscaping

Planting for beauty and utility is the goal.  Perrenials, fruit trees, vines and bushes are a must.  

Buying from a local nursery is best because they have plants well suited for your climate area, they will also be able to offer specific advice and help you if you're running into problems.  Some local sources near Indiana, Pa include:

• Twolick Valley Nursery and Gift Shop
• WW Nursery
• Treasure Tree Nursery
• Musser Garden Center

Planning:

• Pictures

  Take pictures of the area you want to landscape. If possible, take the pictures from a second-floor window to achieve a "bird's eye" view. Enlarge the pictures on your computer for printing out. You can then draw or apply to the picture some scaled cut-outs of plants, trees or other landscape elements to determine what works best. At a minimum, pictures you take of your landscape will become your "before" view. Take two sets of pictures from the same angles, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon to see where sunlight hits the landscape. Use that information to select plants with sunlight requirements that meet the amount of sunlight available.

• Measuring and Layout

  Measure the area you want to landscape and write the figures down to use to determine volume of products needed like mulch, stone or cement for walkways and plants. Mark off where walkways or flower beds will be by using stakes and strings, spray paint or a garden hose.

• Soil Test

  Samples of soil taken from different areas of the landscape can be tested to determine if the soil needs additional nutrients to adequately support plants, helping you plan the proper vegetation for conditions in your yard.
  Read more: Landscape Planning Tools | Garden Guides http://www.gardenguides.com/74667-landscape-planning-tools.html#ixzz24siCJWUd

Basic Edible landscape design and tips:

• Combining Edibles and Ornamentals

  Edible plants can be combined in many creative ways-with other edibles, or with ornamentals. For instance: try a cool-season border of lettuces and spinach interplanted with dwarf nasturtiums. All types of pepper are striking when combined with dwarf marigolds or a background of tall red salvias. In shady areas, try a border of alpine strawberries and curly parsley under a hedge of currants. For your dwarf fruit trees try planting them in geometric beds surrounded with a border of culinary herbs; or plant them along the driveway instead of the usual privet or junipers.
  From: Rosalind Creasy Edible Landscape

Find local county extension office to discuss planning with a master gardener:

• Indiana, Pa Office (website) Information

  Address

  827 Water Street
  Indiana, PA 15701-1755

  Directions to our office

  Contact

  Phone: 724-465-3880
  Fax: 724-465-3888
  IndianaExt@psu.edu

  Office Hours

  Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. 

• Ask the Master Gardener 

  We would be happy to answer any gardening question that pertains to Indiana County..

  Please remember that the Master Gardeners are all volunteers. We will do our best to answer your question quickly; however, it may take time to thoroughly research your inquiry. Please call the Indiana Cooperative Extension office at 724-465-3880.  Be sure to include your name, phone number, and e-mail address so that we can contact you with a response. Also, if you are writing about a specific problem, please try to be as detailed as possible with your description. Include information about the plant species, growing conditions, exposure to light, and access to moisture. It will also help if you let us know how long it has been since you first noticed a problem with your plant, and any unusual circumstances that may have occurred at the same time. The more information you provide, the better our assessment and recommendations will be.
   email address:  rcp3@psu.edu
  
  

Planning should take into account hardiness zone and exposure.  Indiana, Pa is in hardiness zone 6:

• Edible plant recommendations zone 6-8
• Popular trees in this zone
• Fruiting landscape plants
• Cherry, nanking:  shrub border/hedge, needs cross pollination
• Greenwood nursery recommendations and picture
• Currant, clove: shrub border/hedge, better with cross pollination
• Currant, red/white/pink:  foundation planting, better with cross pollination
• Everything you want to know
• Growing red and white currants
• How to plant currants
• 
• Gooseberries:

• Good in the shade (6 hours of sun)
• Cornell info 

• Huckleberry:  foundation planting or shrubbery, better with cross pollination
• Rosa rugosa:
• Rosa rugosas are the easy to grow roses. Plant them in full to partial sun. The more sun they receive, the happier they will be. They are cold hardy, will survive on even the poorest of soils, including sandy soil and are disease resistant. Most all rosa rugosa 
  varieties grow in the 4-6 foot tall range with a spread of about equal amount. After the 
  first couple of years, a pruning in late winter/early spring will keep them looking neat. 
  Just cut back the oldest canes and any broken/damaged canes at ground level. Rosa 
  rugosa’s don’t typically like any chemical products. They prefer organic matter to 
  fertilizing. When watering them, it is safer to err on the less side. It is easy to over water 
  them. Let the soil dry out a couple of days between watering.

• Not quite a berry, but everyone loves roses in their yard--why not have ones that produce edible rose hips?  Unlike hybridized varieties, these roses smell splendid and produce rose hips high in vitamin C.  About the only bad thing about the Rugosa Rose is that it spreads quickly--of course if you like them that's not a bad thing at all!   
• USDA Cold Hardiness Zone: 2~7
  Sun: full sun
  Water: dry, moist
  Soil: acidic-neutral
  Height & Width: 4~6 ft tall, can spread more than 8 ft wide
  Uses: edible flowers & hips
  Functions: pollinator attractor, beneficial wildlife shelter, beauty
  Growth Pattern: fast, spreads by suckers

Shrub Planting:

• Many shrubs and roses can be planted 2-4 feet apart depending on the variety width at 
  maturity.
  Preparation: 
  If you have hard/clay soil you may want to add sand and/or organic matter to the soil that 
  you will be putting back in the hole. This will lessen the compacting of the dirt around 
  the root system after planting. Should your soil be loose/sandy soil, adding topsoil and/or 
  organic matter will help to build the quality of the soil going back into the hole. After 
  planting apply 2-3 inches of mulch forming a well around the base of each plant during 
  spring/summer to help minimize weeds and keep the plants cooler and moister. In fall, 
  apply more mulch to give the plants at least 3 inches deep to help blanket the root system 
  over winter.  
  Clip any broken or damaged tips/branches that may have occurred during transit or while 
  waiting for planting. 
  Fertilizing: 
  Don’t fertilize during the first year in the ground. Applying aged compost or other 
  organic matter will be more beneficial to the plants than any fertilizer. The second year, 
  wait for the shrubs to begin to leaf out before beginning any fertilizing program. Check 
  with your local hardware store for their recommendations on the plants that you are 
  growing. A time release formula is great.  Follow the directions on the fertilize package. 
  Many abuse easy mix and liquid fertilizers such as Miracle Gro. Studies have shown that 
  over use of these types of products will build up a high level of saline in the soil.  Plants 
  in the fertilized area will die as well as any future replants. It takes 3-5 years for the 
  ground to become plantable again. 

Fruit in the Northeast:

• These require full sun, and most like well-draining soils
• Most require cross-pollination with varieties that bloom at the same time
• Cornell fruit tree EVERYTHING guide
• PSU berries guide
• Espaliers of pears or apples (goldrush variety) on the sunnyside of house
•  A Liberty scion grafted to a MM109 rootstock could be just the ticket for a background plant, or an espaliered tree along a wall.  (Cornell edible planting guide)
• http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/3304/2/Minor%20Fruits%20in%20New%20York%20State.pdf

Non-edible perrenials:

• Lilacs:  smell so good, like full sun
• BHG - perrenials of northeast
• BHG - new perrenials

Something to remember:

Before you start, go a walk around your neighbourhood and look at what grows best there, in the parks, the community areas etc, as your not too sure what plants will look good together and the different textures that are an asset to the structure of a garden. I suggest you go to your local library or book store to search through all the gardening books suitable for beginners and landscaping designs as these will give you lots of ideas before you make any costly mistakes, they will also show pictures of fully mature beds and borders and this will give you the timescale needed for plants, shrubs and trees to reach some maturity before they look like they were growing well as the conditions are right for these plants, they also show colour schemes, textures, evergreen beds and borders that dont require a lot of attention if your busy at work all the time. You can use the Autumn time to get the beds and borders well prepared for your plantings as well as what you need to buy to make the kind of garden you require, Autumn or spring are the best times to plant anything as the hot sun has not really reached the stage where plants are struggling to cope, this time of year also gives you the time to dig out the shapes and sizes of the beds you like and then prepare the soil before winter sets in for real. The best way to find the right shape of beds and borders is to lay your garden hose along the ground, curve it or whatever shape you like, then step back to look at the shape from all angles, even from the windows of your house if you look onto this from the window, rearrange it till you are happy, then dig out the turf for the beds you want planted up. So as you can see, it all takes time to get the garden you want and some prep work too, so take your time, do the job right from the start to save you lots of expense and heartache from the start, starting off a garden ain't cheep, but patience cost you nothing, plants will flourish for you if you get the conditions right and you will be a much happier garden owner if you do it a bit at a time, that way you gain experience quicker rather than be disheartened when things go wrong as they do when you first start out, good luck.