Category: Gardening and Landscaping

When the edges of your lawn or landscaped area appear prettier or undefined, it may detract from the overall beauty of the area you’ve worked so hard to create. To give the place a more finished look, you have lots of options for landscape edging. Installing different kinds of edging is a simple task, and one you can definitely do yourself using just a shovel and a rake. While obstacles of rubber, plastic or another kind of tough material are conventional choices for landscape edging, you’ve got other choices based on available materials and your sense of style. Materials You have many choices when it comes to landscape edging stuff. If you have stones, bricks or long timbers on your garage, the choice will be fairly simple — just use what you have available. If you need to purchase some substances from a recycled construction materials shop or a hardware…

Small homes need proportionate and easy landscaping to prevent crowding the surrounding area and causing it to appear smaller than it actually is. Place appropriately sized structures and plants near your little home to accentuate details of the home and make the building appear bigger. Landscape your little home to make it appear quaint and inviting instead of overbearing and cluttered. Proportion Plant low-growing plants that are in proportion to the scale of your home. Low-growing plants comprise Pacific stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium), which rises in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant hardiness zones 5 or 6 through 9 and requires sunlight. Plant shrubs and flowering plants across the house’s foundation to mix the home and landscape. Shrub options include California poppy shrub (Romneya coulteri), which grows well in sunlight inside USDA zones 7 through 10. A flowering plant option is shooting star (Dodecatheon pulchellum), which does best in partial shade…

Outdoor fires may be used for warmth, cooking, roasting marshmallows and general fun when you have friends and family visiting. Installing a concrete fire pit provides convenience and safety and might be required by local ordinances regarding open fires. The pit will keep discharges from tilting, create a barrier between you and the fire and function as an accent into your home and property. Contact the local utility provider or dial 811 to reach the state one-call utility survey service to schedule the marking of any plumbing or utility lines in your property. Mark the outer border of your fire hole by putting a wooden kind designed for molding concrete in the region where you intend to install the pit and spraying around it with spray paint. Dig out the fire pit, which makes the hole a minimum of 8 inches deep and 2 to 3 inches bigger in diameter…

With the numerous styles and types of pavers available today, it’s easy to incorporate them in a variety of hardscapes around your home. No paver setup will last, however, without the appropriate subgrade preparation. Pavers put on a bed of sand and gravelthat gives them their equilibrium. Using the proper subgrade material helps produce a long lasting paver patio or driveway. Compaction Pavers remainder on a bed of gravel and sand that has to be firmly compacted. Compaction increases the load-bearing ability of the ground. It reduces changes in the ground caused by seasonal temperature changes. Compaction also keeps the surface level by preventing settlement of the ground. A plate compactor, which you are able to rent, helps to settle the subgrade material into place to provide a good base for your paver setup. Soil The soil at the base of the paver setup is the lowest degree of the…

Yearly flowers last for only one growing season, unlike perennials, which come back year after year. Because of this, annuals tend to be much cheaper than their perennial counterparts and also create an excellent selection for adding bursts of color throughout your landscape for a portion of the cost. When designing a bed of annuals, the very same rules apply as if you’re designing perennial beds. You will want to plan the beds based on height, texture and colour, in addition to choose the right plants for your land and the amount of sun the bed receives. Mark out your flower bed by means of a garden hose, string or spray paint. This will help you when you till the dirt and include amendments or fertilizers. Annual beds can be as small or big as you need because the blooms only last one season and also don’t develop especially big….

Sitting on a corner lot may mean a decline when relaxing or working outdoors because you have road views on either side of your home. You have to contend not just foot traffic along the sides of your home but also with automobile traffic if sidewalks are also held by those sections of road. It’s possible to produce a corner lot more private with no fence by simply planting offensively with two-way gardening, which forms a living fence and makes your corner lot seem good. Put a garden seat on an angle in the corner of the property so that it faces the street . Position this seat as close to the corner as you can, while still being comfortable for sitting with some yard in front to separate it from the sidewalk or curb for to. Plant trees of moderate height (roughly 10 to 15 feet tall when mature)…

Yep, it really was Created from the Adirondack Mountains in New York. In 1903, to be exact. Throughout its next 110 decades of life, the Adirondack chair has become an iconic image of summer. It’s interchangeable with front porches, lake home, fire pits, beach cottages and rear decks. Initially these chairs were made from hemlock and came in one color: natural. And while the fundamental elements of the classic stay, there have been some adjustments, alterations and upgrades. You can get modernist Adirondacks, colorful Adirondacks, Shabby Chic–fashion Adirondacks and vinyl Adirondacks. But no matter the details, they all translate as casual, yard-friendly summer laziness. Escapes – Landscape Architecture + Construction These classic Adirondacks in lovely, neutral beige and beige are fulfilling their goal in life: to gather around a fire pit in a forested holiday location. Siemasko + Verbridge Their beachfront cousins in white prefer an ocean view. You can…

Gardening is not for the faint of heart. Beyond the physical labor and hours of care a mature garden requires, there are many decisions that need to be made. Bring home 10 new plants from the nursery and you have 10 choices to make. Where should they proceed? Will they clash with that bush from the side garden? Will the plant’s shape match the irises about it? Will the plant die from a lack of sunlight? One easy article can’t negate the work involved with designing a garden from the bottom up, but now I will offer you a couple of actions to begin. Don’t be overwhelmed; proceed step by step, learn the”sedum secret,” and before you know it, you are going to be starting your garden from the bottom up. Amy Renea 1. Begin with a foundation plant. These aren’t your normal foundation plants as in”three green bushes planted…

Topiary gardens can take years to grow and perfect (they are not for the faint of heart). For people who are committed to keeping a formal topiary garden, however, the results can be magnificent. Join me as I take a peek at some inspirational topiary designs, from the tiniest sinkside rosemary to a grand showcase garden in Pennsylvania. Blasen Landscape Architecture Topiary is the art of shaping plants into recognizable forms by pruning. In outdoor gardens, spherical contours create a appearance. A collection of shaped evergreens gives a Dr. Seuss–like appeal to this space. Bosworth Hoedemaker The classic mini standards seen here seem like little trees, each with a singular trunk and around pom-pom top. Woody herbs like rosemary and lavender make perfect candidates for sinkside or countertop miniature standards. Interiors by Myriam, LLC Extend the normal topiary to create three balls of foliage, and you’ve got another traditional type….

This Tuscon, Ariz. residence belongs to some vivacious couple who wanted a location where they can make the most of their retirement. “The customers had a big wish list,” says landscape designer Kathryn Prideaux. They wanted to create an actual outdoor living experience: pool, dining room, outdoor kitchen, fire feature, rest seat, and sunning area on the terrace. Already an ambitious endeavor, the job was complicated by the terrace’s limited space. “They weren’t really worried about just how much space they have, but rather how that space could be utilized,” says Prideaux. By carefully dividing the space according to function, she managed to check off every item on her customers’ want list. Prideaux Design The rear patio faces a stunning sunset view of a beautiful golf program. The contemporary built-in fireplace — surrounded by outdoor furniture out of Brown Jordan — was created by running one line of petrol into…