You're tackling a landscape architecture project. How do you balance creativity with functionality?

Start with "who is it for?" Base everything around that question. From a horticultural perspective, break the plant choice process down to two factors: Site parameters = restrictions. Soil type, sunlight, micro climate. This limits your palette. Plant functions = what can we get out of each plant? Do we need shade trees, biodiversity resources, colour, sensory elements, or grasses that dance in the wind.

A good design always comes from the desire of solving a problem (however small) or fulfilling a need, therefore functionality is inherent to a good design. Analysing the spatial surrounding or composition of a site, the stakeholder groups, the socio-economic circumstances, etc. will lead you to ideas and solutions that, contextualized in creative ways, will create an outstanding design.

i truly understand nature has it own tuning either its aesthetically or functionally which works perfectly but in our field we control the landscape thing to work functionally n to look good aesthetically.

Having a working knowledge and confidence of the materials, soil and local climate is vital. This takes most challenges away from a project.

Landscape architects assign mythical properties to endemic plants, and totally write off cultivars and exotics. That's not how ecology works in the real world. Strong plants with abundant ecological resources (flowers, fruits, seeds, etc) are often more beneficial than endemics in urban environments. This is because the urban context has changed drastically from the specific natural ecological conditions and plant communities.

Ecological gardens are inherently pest resistant to some degree. Attracting diverse insects and animals is a form of biological control within an integrated pest management plan. Forget the nonsense AI said about native plants above, it's always saying stuff like that.

Check plant labels or online info on plant sizes. Then know that they're probably a half truth, because plants with the same genetics grow differently depending on the condition. Understand a plant's growth rate and how often you need to prune (if at all). Slow growing hedges may only need pruning once every year or two. Coppicing plants every few years can reduce maintenance and encourage a natural wild shape to plants - particularly beautiful for many natives like callistemons, grevilleas, lilly pillies.

This is the true value of native plants in urban environments from my perspective. My observation is that most insects don't care if it's a native flower or an exotic one, but people do. I love a good native garden and I'm not alone - native gardens are a celebration of our shared culture as a nation and a reminder that the land's history goes back much further than colonisation.

I’ve become very interested in native plants and ecosystems as my career has developed. Many native insects are specialists rather than generalists and bloom time is part of their rhythm. A healthy supply of native predator insects reduces chemical application requirements and increases bird life. I am enjoying learning a new language to apply to old expectations of what a “landscape” should be.

ENSURE USER SAFETY WHILE OPTING FOR INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS The repeated use of a space can be ensured only when a user feels safe to be in a particular setting. Therefore while thinking outside the box and developing unique solutions, it is important to ensure safety of all users

Mattamy, in “Bringing Nature Home”, notes that native insects, as well as many other native animals, actually do ‘care’ about sourcing native plants, from a nutritional perspective. Non-native invasive, or naturalizing non-native, have relatively deficient nutrition for native animals. Sure, he persistently argued, native animals will eat non-native plants, but they suffer for doing so. Creativity, in my experience, has been sparked and fed by native plant and site constraints. Further, the more constraints, the richer the context, the more my creativity has been fed. ‘Earth up’ design, rather than a ‘concept down’ design imposed upon a non-existent childhood tabula rasa sandbox; integrating function with conserved unique place.