In landscaping and gardening projects, unlike other disciplines related to design and construction processes, time is a factor of capital importance. A green space project is at the mercy of its evolution over time and this is a factor that is not always taken into account or properly managed.
The constant evolution of plant material gives rise to another important difference from places built with inert materials, in which the passage of time generates wear and consequent devaluation. While in the case of parks and gardens, the passage of time generates a slow but constant revaluation in them.
But for this last fact, so favorable for green spaces to be so, a very important factor cannot be left aside: maintenance.
A gardening project is not finished either at the end of the design phase or at the end of construction. When working with living elements, on which multiple factors intervene and which are never one hundred percent controllable or predictable, the result is not always as expected.
Thus, if after building a green space, it is visited a year or two after the completion of the work, it will be seen that some of the things that had been foreseen have not worked as expected, some plants have not adapted correctly, others need to be replaced, some have not grown enough to fulfill their role in the whole, etc. But other times, due to circumstances, it is not possible to visit the place after a certain time to check how it is evolving and to be able to make the necessary decisions to redirect the situation. For these reasons it is necessary that when carrying out a project, whether for a small private garden or for a large public park, to think from the beginning of the process about how it will be maintained, what resources can be counted on for this purpose and, if possible, to know who will be in charge of carrying out this task, in order to have their opinion and experience.
Therefore, the professional's work should not be limited to the prescription of the species to be planted and how to do it, but other criteria should also be taken into account, in the medium and long term, on how to manage the evolution over time of these species. Because otherwise the project remains incomplete and control of the project itself is lost, by omission, in the medium term, since in the end it will be the gardener who decides, without the necessary knowledge of the project criteria, who makes the decisions that will finally mark the evolution of the place. Decisions that he will make, in the best case, with professionalism, good judgment and based on the knowledge that his experience has provided him; but which are very likely to differ substantially from the original spirit of the project.
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