Landscape design appears to revolve around the point of visual aesthetics.  However, as any good gardener, architect, stage designer, etc. can tell you function trumps beauty.  They can coexist, of course, as equals; but if it doesn’t work…you probably ought’nt build it.  

Well, ok, but what does that mean?  For landscape design around a house* it means several things: first, all sides of the house need to be accessible with a long-bed pickup truck: that means a path eight feet wide and at least eight (ideally ten) feet tall that is driveable.  No retaining walls, no low limbs, no shrubs.  The path can be meandering, but it needs to be there.  Why?  Because someday the roof will need to be redone and they will need to put scaffolding up.  You don’t need access to all of the side, but at least to a corner. 

Secondly, all garden beds need to be accessible with a small lawn tractor, they also need to be designed so that the radius of curves and the widths of the paths are at least the width of the lawn mower…not an inch less than the width.

Third, emergency vehicle access (also the same as UPS truck access).  Yes that may be a very pretty tree limb romantically stretched across the drive.  However, it will be a pain if UPS refuses to scratch up their paint job and drops the package on the roadside, it will be more than unfortunate if it blocks the fire engine.

There are other things of course…. 

But the above explains why I spent some time carefully trimming the River Birch, the climbing Euonymous, the Burning Bush, the Wayfaring tree, and the Cucumber Magnolia along the drive…in order that the UPS truck would cease its peregrinations upon the lawn…only to watch them stop by the road (at least they walked in with the package though).

* Please note, I am thinking a house of this size and complexity…a small bungalow or ranch may well be a different proposition.