Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Landscape Design Techniques to Suit Your Home
Landscape Design allows you to carry your interior decorating scheme to the outdoors. Whether you are a fan of floral and whimsical motifs, or you prefer a more rustic and rugged appeal, you can customize your backyard landscaping to represent the needs of you and your family, as well as your personal style.
When planning your backyard Landscape Design, it is important to outline exactly what you want from your outdoor space. Mapping out areas in your yard to serve specific purposes will allow you to create a cohesive area for your family and friends to gather, while also creating a beautiful outdoor oasis Designed for rest and relaxation.
Inter locking stone can be used to serve many purposes in your Landscape Design, specifically creating dining or seating areas, walkways, partitions and many other unique Design concepts. Inter locking stone is available in hundreds of different colours, textures and Designs and can be customized to fit perfectly with your outdoor space. Stone can also be laid in a variety of patterns, to ensure your look is unique and seamless. Also choosing the best plants, flowers and outdoor vegetation to suit your space is an important step of the Design process, as they will add interest, colour and privacy to your backyard oasis. Cedar trees are a great alternative to installed fencing for those who enjoy a more open feel to their back yard, yet want added privacy from neighbourhood noise and excitement. Interesting tall grasses can also add privacy, while offering a unique and transparent look. Colourful flowering plants and succulents are a great way to tie in a colour scheme to your outdoor space. There are a wide variety of exotic and local plant options to choose from and you can incorporate as much or as little colour and vibrancy as you would like. Planting perennials, plants that reappear year after year, often larger and more bountiful, will offer your backyard landscaping a more rustic and natural feel and require far less work and upkeep that annual plants, those that last only one season. Incorporating stones, rocks, coloured mulch and shells are a great way to ground a garden and tie in a streamlined and clean look.
In addition to the added space and beauty your outdoor Landscape Design will add to your Home, it will also significantly increase the value of your Home by adding stunning curb appeal. When adding an outdoor dining or living area, fire pit, serenity garden or wet bar, you are offering potential buyers the chance to envision themselves relaxing in and enjoying the outdoor space you have created.
When planning your backyard Landscape Designs, it is important to ensure you have outlined the exact wants and needs you have for your future oasis. Identifying areas to perform specific purposes, such as dining or lounging areas, will allow you to create the perfect outdoor space for your family and friends to gather. With the multitude of plants and materials available, Landscape Design allows you to carry your interior decorating scheme to the outdoors.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Top 5 Trends in Landscape Design
According to HGTV the latest and greatest in landscape design come down to these Top 5 Trends:
Peaceful Backyards
Examples include circular seating around a fire pit with a water feature off to the side to provide contrast and balance with the fire pit.
Romantic outdoor dining can be accomplished by placing a small table and chairs underneath a pergola with a hanging chandelier accompanied by surrounding foliage and planters.
You can create an intimate, cozy and private atmosphere by building a natural fence with tall plants surrounding a seating area or hammocks.
Water features and custom fire pits always add a sense of serenity and a place to relax in peace with family and friends. Flames always draw attention to landscape design and are a conversation starter. Oh, and they provide warmth allowing you to enjoy the outdoors all year round.
Trees With Beautiful Bark
Exfoliating trees, like River Birch, provide texture, depth and multiple colors. This trees white bark peels away to reveal a reddish, almost salmon trunk that matures into a darker reddish brown color. Other interesting species of trees include the Crape Myrtle, Paperbark Maple, Kousa Dogwood, Japanese Flowering Cherry and the Dawn Redwood.
Winter Landscape Brighteners
The starkness of winter can make your backyard feel drab and unattractive. Bring some color to the cold months by bringing in ornamental woodies. Woody shrubs and trees add colorful stems, berries and/or bark. Also winter gems and
ornamental grasses can add a nice touch of color to the dark days of winter. Also consider adding some artificial color with warm colored planters or painting some patio furniture in the warm color range.
Providing Support for Climbing Plants
Climbing plants such as jasmine, honeysuckle, wisteria, clematis, sweet peas, passionflowers and vines cling add interesting texture and can fill otherwise empty space along fences, walls and pergolas. You can use several methods to help these plants reach new heights by adhering wires along brick walls, you can tie bits of string to lattice and wooden trellis as the plants first begin to climb to help secure them. Obelisks are also a good option to create depth and height in a garden for annual climbing plants. Ivy needs no support as it will attach itself to pretty much anything and everything. Be careful with certain areas you plant your ivy because it can climb up and inside any open spaces you may have in dormers, gutters, etc. and cause damage.
Simple + Elegant: Japanese Gardens
Curving pathways with stepping stones are a great way to lead people through a garden or backyard area to highlight landscape features. Planting moss rather than grass is another way to achieve an Asian feel in your back yard. Stone zen gardens
are a fantastic way to add texture and patterns to an outdoor space. Flat stones in varying shapes laid in gravel creates a natural pathway, patio or seating area. Plant a few trees and the vertical lines will compliment the horizontal lines of the stonework. Water features are a must when creating a Japanese garden providing reflection and serenity to the environment.
So there are the Top 5 Trends in landscaping according to HGTV.com. When you are in the market for a custom fire pit or burning system for your backyard upgrade, contact us at any time and well be happy to help you with your landscape plan.
Read More..
- Peaceful Backyards
- Trees With Beautiful Bark
- Winter Landscape Brighteners
- Providing Support for Climbing Plants
- Simple + Elegant: Japanese Gardens
Peaceful Backyards
Examples include circular seating around a fire pit with a water feature off to the side to provide contrast and balance with the fire pit.
Romantic outdoor dining can be accomplished by placing a small table and chairs underneath a pergola with a hanging chandelier accompanied by surrounding foliage and planters.
You can create an intimate, cozy and private atmosphere by building a natural fence with tall plants surrounding a seating area or hammocks.
Water features and custom fire pits always add a sense of serenity and a place to relax in peace with family and friends. Flames always draw attention to landscape design and are a conversation starter. Oh, and they provide warmth allowing you to enjoy the outdoors all year round.
Trees With Beautiful Bark
Exfoliating trees, like River Birch, provide texture, depth and multiple colors. This trees white bark peels away to reveal a reddish, almost salmon trunk that matures into a darker reddish brown color. Other interesting species of trees include the Crape Myrtle, Paperbark Maple, Kousa Dogwood, Japanese Flowering Cherry and the Dawn Redwood.
Winter Landscape Brighteners
The starkness of winter can make your backyard feel drab and unattractive. Bring some color to the cold months by bringing in ornamental woodies. Woody shrubs and trees add colorful stems, berries and/or bark. Also winter gems and
ornamental grasses can add a nice touch of color to the dark days of winter. Also consider adding some artificial color with warm colored planters or painting some patio furniture in the warm color range.
Providing Support for Climbing Plants
Climbing plants such as jasmine, honeysuckle, wisteria, clematis, sweet peas, passionflowers and vines cling add interesting texture and can fill otherwise empty space along fences, walls and pergolas. You can use several methods to help these plants reach new heights by adhering wires along brick walls, you can tie bits of string to lattice and wooden trellis as the plants first begin to climb to help secure them. Obelisks are also a good option to create depth and height in a garden for annual climbing plants. Ivy needs no support as it will attach itself to pretty much anything and everything. Be careful with certain areas you plant your ivy because it can climb up and inside any open spaces you may have in dormers, gutters, etc. and cause damage.
Simple + Elegant: Japanese Gardens
Curving pathways with stepping stones are a great way to lead people through a garden or backyard area to highlight landscape features. Planting moss rather than grass is another way to achieve an Asian feel in your back yard. Stone zen gardens
are a fantastic way to add texture and patterns to an outdoor space. Flat stones in varying shapes laid in gravel creates a natural pathway, patio or seating area. Plant a few trees and the vertical lines will compliment the horizontal lines of the stonework. Water features are a must when creating a Japanese garden providing reflection and serenity to the environment.
So there are the Top 5 Trends in landscaping according to HGTV.com. When you are in the market for a custom fire pit or burning system for your backyard upgrade, contact us at any time and well be happy to help you with your landscape plan.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Bad design kills a gnome for the gnomes
I think we have a serious problem on our hands. I predict unrest in monolithic proportions - if the garden gnomes around the world get wind of this.
I am sorry to say this but the garden gnome has been unceremoniously dethroned as the king of all redundant garden objects. I have just found an object that (as hard as it is to believe) is more redundant than the garden gnome!
I have been looking for a sundial to use as a focal point in a garden that we are finishing up, and found that I had 2 choices. The first being unsuitable because of its rustic look, but the second was closer to what I was looking for. Until I looked closer...
It didnt work. It was made for a Northern Hemisphere garden.
The only obvious answer to its source is that it was made here in South Africa. Surely it couldnt be cheaper or at all necessary to import a piece of concrete from somewhere above the equator?
So that means it was intentionally designed that way?
The person who designed this object is fully deserving of all Dwarvish Wrath that will surely come their way. But I really hope the Gnomes dont forget to scorn the people who sell, distribute and buy a piece of rubbish like this.
I surprised myself at the irrational irritation produced during this discovery. But after giving it some more thought, I realised that what really upset me has less to do with sundials and solidarity with gnomes and more to do with lazy, short-sighted, ill thought out or just plain bad design.
To my way of thinking - a man-made object with no function must have an allegorical, or an aesthetic reason for being. This had neither.
Good design has a lot of responsibility resting on its shoulders. I believe good design should make the world a better place to live in. It should make our lives better, easier, more pleasurable, and simpler. It should save us time, or money, or give us more energy. And truly good designs should be able to fulfill many or all of those descriptions at once.
Unfortunately there are too many bad designs out there, and too many people propagating them. To a certain extent nature evolves, we should take a leaf out of her book. We as intelligent beings should be looking to improve our design with every step, and in every aspect of our lives.
And we should shun bad design as if the lives of gnomes depend on it.
Read More..
I am sorry to say this but the garden gnome has been unceremoniously dethroned as the king of all redundant garden objects. I have just found an object that (as hard as it is to believe) is more redundant than the garden gnome!
I have been looking for a sundial to use as a focal point in a garden that we are finishing up, and found that I had 2 choices. The first being unsuitable because of its rustic look, but the second was closer to what I was looking for. Until I looked closer...
It didnt work. It was made for a Northern Hemisphere garden.
The only obvious answer to its source is that it was made here in South Africa. Surely it couldnt be cheaper or at all necessary to import a piece of concrete from somewhere above the equator?
So that means it was intentionally designed that way?
The person who designed this object is fully deserving of all Dwarvish Wrath that will surely come their way. But I really hope the Gnomes dont forget to scorn the people who sell, distribute and buy a piece of rubbish like this.
I surprised myself at the irrational irritation produced during this discovery. But after giving it some more thought, I realised that what really upset me has less to do with sundials and solidarity with gnomes and more to do with lazy, short-sighted, ill thought out or just plain bad design.
To my way of thinking - a man-made object with no function must have an allegorical, or an aesthetic reason for being. This had neither.
Good design has a lot of responsibility resting on its shoulders. I believe good design should make the world a better place to live in. It should make our lives better, easier, more pleasurable, and simpler. It should save us time, or money, or give us more energy. And truly good designs should be able to fulfill many or all of those descriptions at once.
Unfortunately there are too many bad designs out there, and too many people propagating them. To a certain extent nature evolves, we should take a leaf out of her book. We as intelligent beings should be looking to improve our design with every step, and in every aspect of our lives.
And we should shun bad design as if the lives of gnomes depend on it.
Monday, March 3, 2014
landscape design ideas
Landscape Design Ideas for Sprucing Your Garage
Do you visit your front yard only a small amount more than a room to corner in order to achieve your home? If thats the case, your yard could use a new makeover. Take a look at our entry redesign suggestions below.
Regarding boring entrance yards....
The solution is a bolt of creative imagination. Design/Landscape gurus get several ways in order to jazz up dismal front back yards:
1. Strive for Elemental Equal rights. Feng Shui teaches in which equal elements fire, metallic, earth and also water are mixed together in a successfully pleasing layout. Landscape pavers are often considered as planet. For steel, think about including a bronze sculpture or a refractive ball. Lively yellow along with red plants can add hearth, while drinking water can be symbolized with a water fall or lake.
2. Make use of a Variety of Resources. People are lollipops for selection. To spice up the front region, tell your landscape designer to include a wide variety of resources. As an example, as an alternative to using merely pavers, you could use pea gravel and floor covers also.
3. Think of How You will employ Your Style. Landscape designers who are worthy of their sea salt ask just how their clients foresee using their meters. Utility can be a sure-fire way to ruin boredom. The "edible" front yard is good for lovers associated with fresh develop, while the built-in sandpit is a fantasy come true for fogeys of small children. Or, if you need a private retire, add stucco surfaces to create a remote sanctuary. Any time partnering together with landscape design services, always begin with a yoga on how you need to use the place.
For metres that dont jive while using traditional National style...
Go with a more beneficial design. Panorama techniques through around the globe can easily highlight your own homes fashion. For example, should your house provides Asian specifics, you can continue this specific theme within your front yard with the help of an elaborate entrance gate and better walls. (This particular style is normal in locations like The japanese, where minimal land direct landscape designers to create front-yard personal privacy.) Check with the landscape designer to figure out which usually garden trends would very best accent your own houses layout. Landscape design services generally delight in the opportunity escape classic Americana.
For little front grass that dont make a case for storing significant mowing equipment...
Speak to your landscape designer about soil cover choices to turf. Several, like Whisky and Irish moss, dont require mowing. In fact, there are several advantages to taking away grass from a landscape design. Portland denizens, by way of example, are often thinking about reducing his or her carbon impact. For these ecologically enlightened property owners, a yard symbolizes needless energy costs - electricity spent advancing mowers, producing fertilizers, along with transporting pot killers, which is just a start off! Many non-tree-huggers have got eliminated his or her lawns too, simply because they hate the undue amount of preservation that a yard demands.
If you want more space with regard to entertaining...
Develop an inviting room with quick shrubbery, highlight fencing, along with trellises. These elements of design can create a backyard "room" that guests will sense drawn to. Landscape design solutions may also advise building a quick wall to generate the sensation of your smaller, cozier room. Or, you could possibly just choose to erect an outdoor cover as well as a front-yard deck for you to encourage outside socializing.
In the event that none of such ideas trigger you, your current landscape designer will no hesitation have a surfeit associated with ideas to are a wonderful front yard on your family.
Do you visit your front yard only a small amount more than a room to corner in order to achieve your home? If thats the case, your yard could use a new makeover. Take a look at our entry redesign suggestions below.
Regarding boring entrance yards....
The solution is a bolt of creative imagination. Design/Landscape gurus get several ways in order to jazz up dismal front back yards:
 |
| landscape design ideas |
2. Make use of a Variety of Resources. People are lollipops for selection. To spice up the front region, tell your landscape designer to include a wide variety of resources. As an example, as an alternative to using merely pavers, you could use pea gravel and floor covers also.
3. Think of How You will employ Your Style. Landscape designers who are worthy of their sea salt ask just how their clients foresee using their meters. Utility can be a sure-fire way to ruin boredom. The "edible" front yard is good for lovers associated with fresh develop, while the built-in sandpit is a fantasy come true for fogeys of small children. Or, if you need a private retire, add stucco surfaces to create a remote sanctuary. Any time partnering together with landscape design services, always begin with a yoga on how you need to use the place.
For metres that dont jive while using traditional National style...
Go with a more beneficial design. Panorama techniques through around the globe can easily highlight your own homes fashion. For example, should your house provides Asian specifics, you can continue this specific theme within your front yard with the help of an elaborate entrance gate and better walls. (This particular style is normal in locations like The japanese, where minimal land direct landscape designers to create front-yard personal privacy.) Check with the landscape designer to figure out which usually garden trends would very best accent your own houses layout. Landscape design services generally delight in the opportunity escape classic Americana.
For little front grass that dont make a case for storing significant mowing equipment...
Speak to your landscape designer about soil cover choices to turf. Several, like Whisky and Irish moss, dont require mowing. In fact, there are several advantages to taking away grass from a landscape design. Portland denizens, by way of example, are often thinking about reducing his or her carbon impact. For these ecologically enlightened property owners, a yard symbolizes needless energy costs - electricity spent advancing mowers, producing fertilizers, along with transporting pot killers, which is just a start off! Many non-tree-huggers have got eliminated his or her lawns too, simply because they hate the undue amount of preservation that a yard demands.
If you want more space with regard to entertaining...
Develop an inviting room with quick shrubbery, highlight fencing, along with trellises. These elements of design can create a backyard "room" that guests will sense drawn to. Landscape design solutions may also advise building a quick wall to generate the sensation of your smaller, cozier room. Or, you could possibly just choose to erect an outdoor cover as well as a front-yard deck for you to encourage outside socializing.
In the event that none of such ideas trigger you, your current landscape designer will no hesitation have a surfeit associated with ideas to are a wonderful front yard on your family.
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| front yard landscape design ideas |
Guide to Buying Landscape Design Software
Landscaping Software gives you visual images of Landscape and garden Designs. You will be able to create the perfect image for your yard or garden and professional site as well. The Software allows you to visualize images before you start to work on your yard. The Software programs are user friendly and a lot of homeowners and professional Landscape Designers use them. Landscape Design Software can save you time, money and unnecessary work in the long run.
This Software is Designed to work on a photo of the yard you will be landscaping. You will have to scan the photo and load it into the Software where you can edit it. When your photo is loaded, you can insert or overlay images from the Software like trees, flower beds, ponds, fountains and many other landscaping decorations. This gives you a chance to see how your yard will really look. You can print them for reference. You may be able to get a list of the materials and equipment needed to complete most of the landscaping jobs you will see or put together.
These programs are usually computer friendly with a Windows operating system. You will need to price compare the Software which can range anywhere from being free to costing hundreds of dollars depending on all of the features it offers. Landscaping Design Software is easy to purchase. You can order online or call to speak with a sales rep. There are two dimensional Software Designs and three dimensional Software Designs available. The two dimensional Software will cost less than a three dimensional version. The three dimensional version gives you various angles in which you can look at your Landscape. The Software is very easy to use. If it is possible, always try to get a preview or a demonstration of the Software before you purchase it. There are even free online versions of landscaping Software that you can look at just to get a feel for it. You are also able to use the Software through a landscaping Design company. They follow the same technique by scanning a photo of your yard and putting in your ideas.
When you have purchased your Software, study over the help section or the frequently asked questions so that you may use their information to your advantage. These sections help you to understand the full process of the Landscape Design Software. You can open up a simple plan to work with or let the wizard help you Design your plan. Your landscaping Design Software will let you compare different views. You can see what a blooming baby plant or tree looks like versus its fully bloomed or fully grown image.
Planning a landscaping idea requires your dedication and commitment. You will need to have the time and the gardening capability along with the budget. The landscaping Design Software is there to help you every step of the way with a wizard to guide you. With the proper care, you will have a successful outcome that can be pleasing for years to come!
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