DESIGNING a garden landscape is an art that is not hard to master. One does not have to have a big lawn, the skills of a master gardener, expensive tools, or abundance of plants. One really just has to select the right type of plants for the right location. So says landscaping expert and former Curator/Manager of the Botanical Gardens, Mr. Fitz Ogle.

But selecting the right plants for your garden’s landscape can be tricky. Garden landscaping is not merely about the variations of gardens and plants. You may want to design a garden landscape for shade, as visual divider, for noise control, or for sheer ornamental purposes.
You cannot just mix and match your favourite plants, and erect them together in your lawn or garden. You have to pick and choose plants that complement one another, and mix up well to make a uniform and a low-maintenance garden landscape.
Ogle, President of the Georgetown-based Evergreen Nature Study Club (ENSC), offers a garden landscaping service at very competitive prices.
The ENSC offers advice on what type of garden landscape is suitable. Its services range from soil testing to fertilizer, pest and disease control, to provision of a 4-to-6-bed garden or establishment of larger plots comprising plants and trees.
With respect to its garden landscaping service, staffers at the ENSC do the physical work, and also offer advice on maintenance. Staffers also make periodic checks four to six months after a garden has been established to ensure that the garden is developing according to plan.
Ogle says that every landscape type has unique requirements and features. For a low-maintenance garden landscape, he advises that one should go for native garden landscape.
ENSC landscapes range from rock garden landscapes to miniature landscapes, to native garden landscapes, to evergreen and tropical garden landscapes.
In the gardening landscape business, shades of same hues complement each other, and give a uniform look and feel.
The ENSC will help you think about colour, texture, and shape of plants, and will give you a long list of plants from which to select.  Colours with greater contrast make a showy and vibrant environment.
Grey, black, white and neutral colours can be used in a background to neutralize and break distracting colour schemes. Texture is another important factor. Some plants, for example ferns, are delicate; some are rough or rugged, and some have both characteristics.
The right combination of plants, Ogle says,  eliminates a number of problems, like insect and soil control, because some plants repel insects, some attract pollinating bugs, some provide shade for plants that do not like direct light, and some make vigorous roots to keep the soil intact.
Ogle says that the ENSC’s   garden landscaping service is attracting more and more customers, particularly in Georgetown. Quite a few are seniors who lived overseas for most of their lives, and have returned home as remigrants.
Further information on the ENSC and its garden landscaping service can be accessed at its website www.evergreenstudy.org.